Karaoke Revolution and its sequels are music video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games. The original concept for the game was created by Scott Hawkins and Sneaky Rabbit Studios. Technology and concepts from the game were subsequently incorporated into Harmonix's game Rock Band.
UltraStar is a clone of SingStar, a music video game by Polish developer Patryk "Covus5" Cebula. UltraStar lets one or several players score points by singing along to a song or music video and match the pitch of the original song. UltraStar displays lyrics as well as the correct notes similar to a piano roll. On top of the correct notes UltraStar displays the pitch recorded from the players. UltraStar allows several people to play simultaneously by connecting several microphones possibly to several sound cards. To add a song to UltraStar, a file with notes and lyrics is required, together with an audio file. Optionally a cover image, a backdrop image and a video may be added to each song. UltraStar comes preloaded with a short sample from Nine Inch Nails hit "Discipline" from The Slip album.
Guitar Hero is a series of rhythm games first released in 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Players match notes that scroll on-screen to colored fret buttons on the controller, strumming the controller in time to the music in order to score points, and keep the virtual audience excited. The games attempt to mimic many features of playing a real guitar, including the use of fast-fingering hammer-ons and pull-offs and the use of the whammy bar to alter the pitch of notes. Most games support single player modes, typically a Career mode to play through all the songs in the game, as well as competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008, the game includes support for a four-player band including vocals and drums. The series initially used mostly cover versions of songs created by WaveGroup Sound, but most recent titles feature soundtracks that are fully master recordings, and in some cases, special re-recordings, of the songs. Later titles in the series feature support for downloadable content in the form of new songs.
Rock Band is a 2007 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the first installment in the Rock Band series. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were released in North America on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was released on December 18, 2007 and the Wii version on June 22, 2008. Harmonix previously developed the first two games in the Guitar Hero series, which popularized gameplay of rock music with guitar-shaped controllers. After development of the series was shifted to Neversoft, Harmonix conceived Rock Band as a new title that would offer multi-instrument gameplay.
SingStar is a competitive music video game series developed by London Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Dozens of installments were released for the PlayStation 2, and several more for the PlayStation 3. It is also available on the PlayStation 4 as a free app download, with users paying for the songs as individual or bundle downloads. The games have also undergone a number of non-English releases in various European countries.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a 2007 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the third main installment and the fourth overall installment in the Guitar Hero series. It is the first game in the series to be developed by Neversoft after Activision's acquisition of RedOctane and MTV Games' purchase of Harmonix, the previous development studio for the series. The game was released worldwide for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii in October 2007. Aspyr published the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions of the game, releasing them later in 2007.
Guitar Hero World Tour is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero series. The game was launched in North America in October 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. A version of World Tour for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X was published by Aspyr in July 2009. A mobile version developed by Hands-On Mobile was released for BlackBerry, Android, Java, and the N-Gage platform.
Rock Revolution is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios and published by Konami. The game was released on 15 October 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. As with similar titles, the game uses various controllers to simulate the performance of rock music, primarily using guitar and drum controllers on its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.
Rock Band 2 is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to Rock Band (2007) and the second installment in the Rock Band series. The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments. Players can play the lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums parts to songs with "instrument controllers", as well as sing through a USB microphone. Players are scored on their ability to match scrolling musical "notes" while playing instruments, or by their ability to match the singer's pitch on vocals.
Lips is a 2008 karaoke video game for the Xbox 360. Lips was developed by iNiS and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game features the use of motion sensitive wireless microphones and supports the use of songs already owned through a Zune or iPod. Lips has spawned three sequels: Lips: Number One Hits, Lips: Party Classics, and Lips: I Love the 80's. Localized versions of the game and sequels have been released in several countries, including Lips: Canta en Español, and Deutsche Partyknaller.
Disney Sing It is a karaoke video game. It was released on October 21, 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.
Guitar Hero 5 is a 2009 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fifth main installment and the ninth overall installment in the Guitar Hero series. The game was released internationally in September 2009 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 consoles. Similar to the preceding title, Guitar Hero World Tour (2008), Guitar Hero 5 is geared towards playing in a four-person band experience, including lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. The game is available as a standalone title, allowing players to use existing compatible instrument controllers, and as a bundle that provides these controllers. Guitar Hero 5 adds several new features, such as drop-in/drop-out play, bands composed of any combination of available instruments, a Rockfest competitive mode consisting of several various scoring mechanisms, and both song-specific and general Challenges to unlock new avatars, clothing, and other extras in the game. Many of these changes were added to make the game a more social experience, allowing players across a range of skill levels to be able to play cooperatively and competitively against each other both locally and online. The PlayStation 2 version is based on Guitar Hero World Tour, using the same gameplay UI as Guitar Hero: Metallica (2009), Guitar Hero Smash Hits (2009), and Guitar Hero: Van Halen (2009), albeit with a different Rock Meter design.
Disney Sing It! – High School Musical 3: Senior Year is a karaoke video game released on November 28, 2008 across multiple platforms, within Europe and on February 17, 2009 in North America.
Lips: Number One Hits is a karaoke video game for the Xbox 360 console, and is the follow-up to the 2008 title Lips. Like its predecessor, the game was developed by iNiS and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released in 2009 and received generally average reviews. Spin-offs of the game have also been released, including Lips: Deutsche Partyknaller and Lips: Canta en Español.
Karaoke Revolution is a video game for the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. It is developed by Blitz Games and published by Konami. A different version of the game, Karaoke Revolution Glee was released exclusively for the Wii and is based on the popular musical TV sitcom by 20th Century Fox.
We Sing is a 2009 music video game for Wii, re-released in 2016 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. It was developed by French studio Le Cortex, produced by Wired Productions and published by Nordic Games.
Michael Jackson: The Experience is a music video game based on Michael Jackson's songs. It was developed and published by Ubisoft, and was released on 23 November 2010 in North America, 25 November 2010 in Australia and 26 November 2010 in Europe for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and Wii. It was also released on 12 April 2011 in North America, 14 April 2011 in Australia and 15 April 2011 in Europe for PlayStation 3's PlayStation Move and Xbox 360's Kinect. The Japanese release on 8 December 2011 only revised the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii consoles. The game features many of Michael Jackson's hits, such as "Bad", "Thriller", "Beat It", "Billie Jean", "Smooth Criminal", "Black or White", "The Way You Make Me Feel", etc. However, some songs like "Man in the Mirror" and "P.Y.T. " are excluded. Initial launches of the game included a limited edition replica of Jackson's sequined glove. It was later released for the Nintendo 3DS on 7 November 2011 in North America and 11 November 2011 in Europe, for iPhone and iPad on 7 December 2011 in North America and for PlayStation Vita on 15 February 2012 in North America, 22 February 2012 in Europe and 23 February 2012 in Australia. It was announced that the game would be released on Mac OS X, and iPad 2. The game sold 2 million units in two months, not including Japanese sales, making it one of the best-selling Wii title games.
Lips: I Love the 80s is a karaoke game for the Xbox 360 games console, and the third follow-up to Lips. Like the other entries in the series, the game uses motion-sensitive wireless microphones, but like Lips: Party Classics it is compatible with USB microphones. It was only released in Europe.
Rhythm game accessories are often required to play rhythm games available for various consoles, such as the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. These include dance pads, guitar controllers, drum controllers, microphones and turntable controllers. With the exception of microphones, these controllers can generally be used to control any game, but have limited inputs, making them impractical for most games.
