Nordic Games’ We Sing series is one of those solid franchises that you can always bank on for sheer entertainment value. With each new instalment they don’t really tinker too much with the actual gameplay, or even with the whole look of the thing, but they really don’t need to when it works so well as it is. The main difference with each new game in the series is of course the style of music that is featured, so by now if you’ve got the whole set, you should have most genres of modern popular music covered. The latest We Sing instalment, which has just been released exclusively for Wii, is We Sing 80s, which is perfect for the holiday season, invoking nostalgic memories and laughter aplenty as you (attempt to) sing along with 30 of the classic pop hits of the golden (or otherwise, depending on your point of view!) era, such as Cameo’s Word Up!, Tears for Fears’ Shout, Kylie Minogue’s I Should Be So Lucky, and Queen’s I Want to Break Free.
[video=youtube;aS6CeD8I93E]http://youtu.be/aS6CeD8I93E[/video]
What I always love about We Sing games is the way they manage to combine fun with technique. The fact that someone such as myself, who is as tuneful as a howling wildebeest in a thunderstorm, can still manage to enjoy the game and even get some decent scores here and there, really is huge testament to the deftly tilted difficulty level and scoring mechanics. The more notes you hit, the higher score you’ll get, with Star Notes points awarded for hitting hard notes, but you don’t have to be a pitch-perfect First Soprano to have a great time playing the game. While the Solo mode is lots of fun, especially when you’re practicing for a big party, it’s the Party mode itself where We Sing 80s really comes into its own, featuring as it does several different game types where everyone can get involved, including Pass The Mic, Versus, and Group Battle. There’s even a Karaoke mode for those who prefer the authentic Karaoke experience, where you only have the instrumental track to sing to, without any vocals or pitch bars to help you. And if all that singing tires you out, you can simply sit back and watch those classic videos in Jukebox mode, which proves to be a real trip down memory lane. As usual for We Sing, the game is compatible with up to four microphones in any multiplayer mode.
To sum up, We Sing 80s is very much business as usual for the We Sing franchise. If you’ve played one of the We Sing games before you won’t be disappointed with the newest offering, and if you’re looking for a singing game for your upcoming party, then you need look no further. And they even made a spoof NES video to promote the game (see above!), which is also pretty funny and well worth a look!