Reviews

No you're not mistaken, it has only been a couple of weeks since the last Lips disc, Party Classics, hit store shelves and yet here we are with another disc celebrating the "era that style forgot". Lips: I Love The 80s (the accompanied press release said Love, not Heart, so we're sticking with that) brings another 40 tracks to the plate, featuring several notable artists from the decade.

So, if you're expecting the likes of Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, Culture Club and Blondie, then you won't be disappointed. In addition, there are a few more "cool" tracks on offer from the likes of New Order, The Cure and Simple Minds. In addition, you'll still have full access to songs downloaded from the Lips store, regardless of what decade they come from, and the ability to import your own tracks from a music player via the Freestyle Mode.

At this time, we'd like to thank Microsoft for the Wham bar and Fizz Wizz

As a child of the 80s myself, someone who's pretty much outgrown Radio 1 but still feels too young to have Radio 2 on all the time, it's nice to have a track-listing of generally familiar songs, although it soon became apparent to myself that my childhood memory was seemingly only ever able to process choruses. The transition from booming rendition to slow-paced mumbling is quite clear, as you struggle to keep up with the words on screen. Following a few plays though, you'll be a regular Simon Le Bon. It's okay, the rest of us will wait here while you ask your Dad, but don't surprised if he starts talking about Yasmin.

With the exception of the tracks on offer, nothing has changed here since the first add-on disc, Number 1 Hits, and the game is still sharing an achievement list as its predecessors, though there are an additional 250 points worth of awards gained exclusively through playing songs on this disc, as well as further Avatar clothing awards too. Getting a high score and a performance medal for Devo's "Whip It" is surprisingly harder than you might think.

Lips distinguishes itself from Singstar through its motion sensitive mics (although USB mics are now compatible, but prevent you from getting the full experience), the aforementioned Freestyle section, and the different competitive and co-operative modes - Kiss, Bomb and Vocal Fighters. There's also the jukebox mode, which plays songs on shuffle and allows players to drop in and drop out as they please. However, as someone who has played a whole lot of Singstar in the past, Lips still lacks a decent, team based mode to rival its competitor's Pass The Mic mode. In addition, the download store still pales in comparison, despite updating more frequently.

Cue flashbacks to Chrissie Hynde doing karaoke (badly) with Russell Brand

Another mild frustration, and one that has been going on since N1H is the ridiculously long amount of time it takes to start the game up. Press Start, and you'll be left waiting for what seems like an age while it processes your player profile, leaving you unable to actually get to any songs until your Avatar finally pops up on screen. Don't get me started on the painful process that is syncing your microphones with the console (though admittedly the problems are partially my fault for losing the instructions from the first game).

Ultimately if you've played and enjoyed the previous games in the series, there are two factors to determine whether or not you'll like this one, the first is obviously whether or not you're into 80s music, and the second being how much you desperately want to get all the achievement points for the game (it's up to 1750 now, rivalling Halo 3). If either of these factors provoke a positive response from yourself, then you know you'll love it. If you've never experienced Lips before, however, you might be better served trying one of the other titles with a mixed set-list first.

Lips: I Love The 80s will be released on April 2nd for Xbox 360