Singstar: Queen
PlayStation 3
Sony
Four stars (out of five)
Review by Hayden Meikle
It might be a stretch to say it is a kind of magic but there is certainly something about SingStar that keeps the vocally challenged coming back for more.
Take someone like me. I hate being in the water, so I don't go swimming.
I don't like the taste of spring onions, so any salad with little green circles in it gets pushed to the side.
And, under pressure, I lose any semblance of mental toughness on the sports field, so my golf game is a mess.
But nor can I sing, yet I willingly join my wife (who can actually play the game) regularly for SingStar evenings.
We are the champions of lounge karaoke.
I want it all: tone, harmony, rhythm.
Most of all, I want to break free of a singing voice that sounds like nails on a chalkboard.
That won't happen, but the great thing about SingStar is that it helps you live your one vision of being a popstar.
The series that wants to live forever has moved from collections (ballads, 90s music etc) to artist-specific titles.
Abba appeared last year - I wanted a hammer to fall on it and smash it into a thousand pieces after about three songs - and now a second supergroup, Queen, gets the SingStar treatment.
I used to go crazy when I heard Queen on the radio. Ga-ga.
Then along came Midnight Oil and I had somebody to love who seemed a bit fresher, with less innuendo.
But this game is just a killer.
Queen churned out some extraordinary hit songs and all the biggies are represented on the disc, from Another One Bites The Dust to These Are The Days Of Our Lives to Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Tie your mother down, persuade your brother that karaoke isn't just for drunk students, and let your best Queen voice out.
It's for fat-bottomed girls, your best friend or for anyone with a bohemian outlook who appreciates a nice rhapsody.
Don't stop me now. I want SingStar: Oasis, and I know my wife would see SingStar: Simon and Garfunkel as a breakthrough in the series.
For now, the show must go on. And the show is all about the genius of Freddy Mercury and his three bandmates.
Just go and buy Singstar: Queen. It will rock you.
(Note: References to all 25 Queen songs - with one exception - in the game appear in this review. Go and find them. Then go and compete in a bicycle race.)
