SingStar Motown / Take That

“SingStar? I don’t think so.”

Several years ago I had never experienced the joys of SingStar. Seemingly branded in my mind as a ‘casual’ game for teenyboppers. This was until I found a copy, with microphones, on offer for £20 (with scummy student discount) in my local HMV. So I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

Two years and 300-odd SingStore downloads later I’m more well-versed in SingStar than I’d like to admit. I’ve dabbled with the idea of importing the French and American versions to gain access to Daft Punk’s One More Time and Beck’s Loser respectively. I’ve ventured across to the German SingStore so I can have both versions of 99 Luftballons. I’m still wondering whether or not I should track down SingStar ’80s as it’s the only way I can load up Soft Cell’s Tainted Love at the moment!

What we have on offer here today are the two newest members of the SingStar troupe: SingStar Motown and SingStar Take That. Off the bat, these titles look like they are being aimed at particular demographics – namely those that grew up with the Motown sound and those that soundtracked their teenage dreams with the pop stylings of Take That.

SingStar Motown has a track list spanning decades of work from the label’s greatest hit artists. The Jackson 5, The Supremes, The Temptations… they’re all here. There is no denying that if you’ve ever even heard of Motown you will know many of the tracks this disc has to offer. There are a surprising number of music videos available for tracks despite some of the songs going way back to the ’60s, most of the videos being lifted from live performances which really take you back to classic-era Motown – Mary Wells’ My Guy, Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There, The Commodores’ Brick House and Smokey Robinson and The Miracles’ The Tracks Of My Tears proving case and point.

However, herein lies this disc’s only fault: half of the tracks on the disc don’t have live or promotional videos, and they are really shown up by the ones that do. A few have sections where live shows are mixed in, but for the most part we are left with hippie screensaver-like videos reminiscent of That ’70s Show cuts with the odd photo of the artist thrown in for good measure. While it is entirely understandable that in many cases no promotional videos were filmed for the songs as we’re pre-MTV here, I can’t help but think that if they had chosen a track list with this issue in mind this could have been the best SingStar offering to date.

SingStar Take That has an (almost) comprehensive list of their greatest hits. The disc is essentially a singles videography missing only I Found Heaven, How Deep Is Your Love and The Garden – the latter of which was never even released as a single in the UK. All the original videos are here, although (thankfully?) not completely uncut in the case of Do What U Like.

Unfortunately I wasn’t brought up with Take That, so I tended to perform best on songs that mainly consisted of being the chorus on repeat (good example: It Only Takes a Minute). As far as the rest went, I managed to perfect the odd chorus on their most famous songs (Never Forget) only to mumble the rest of my way through the song. The only exceptions to this rule being Could It Be Magic due to it being a Barry Manilow cover and Rule the World, the single of which I was strangely compelled to download last year.

I should also note that whichever version of SingStar you choose, you should download the holiday update (version 4.30) as it greatly improves the feel of SingStar thanks to the new cartoon interface option. Between that and the custom background add-on now available on SingStore, you can really optimise your SingStar for a jolly Yuletide. Remember to pick up total and utter king of rock ‘n’ roll, Cliff Richard’s Christmas hit, Mistletoe and Wine while you’re there!