''Karaoke Revolution'' and its sequels are

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

s for the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

, and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

, developed by

Harmonix Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...

and

Blitz Games Blitz Games Studios Limited was a British video game developer based in Leamington Spa. Founded in 1990 by the Oliver Twins, who ran the company until its closure in 2013, it is best known for producing games such as ''The Fairly OddParents'', ...

and published by

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

in its

Bemani , stylized as BEMANI, is Konami's music video game division. Originally named the Games & Music Division (G.M.D.), it changed its name in honor of its first and most successful game, ''Beatmania'', and expanded into other music-based games, mos ...

line of music games. The Original Concept for Karaoke Revolution was created by Scott Hawkins and Sneaky Rabbit Studios. Technology and concepts from the game were subsequently incorporated into Harmonix's game ''

Rock Band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

''. The Japanese versions of the game are developed by Konami themselves. The gameplay also differs significantly. Rather than a game per se, it is merely a karaoke system for the PlayStation 2, with no judgments. The game does not attempt to understand the singer's words, but instead detects their pitch. As such, singers can hum to a song or sing different lyrics without penalty. The game adapts to the player singing in a different

octave In music, an octave ( la, octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is the interval between one musical pitch and another with double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been refer ...

than the song, to accommodate players whose

vocal range Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of stud ...

s do not fit the song. The songs in the game are covers of pop hits frequently sung in karaoke bars. This contrasts with the '' SingStar'' series from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, which features only original artist recordings along with the music videos. However, the 2009 remake of the game (titled ''Karaoke Revolution'', just like the original) features all master tracks.

Gameplay

The player is depicted as a character on-screen performing at a public location. The words to the song scroll bottom to top at the bottom of the screen, above a piano roll representation of the relative pitches at which they are to be sung (the game calls these "note tubes"). At the left end of this area, a "pitch star" shows the pitch which the player is singing and provides feedback on whether they're hitting the notes. A "crowd meter" shows the mood of the crowd as the player sings; if they do a good job of hitting notes on-pitch then the crowd will cheer more loudly and clap in rhythm with the song, and the scene will become more vividly animated. If the crowd meter falls all the way to the lowest rating, the audience will boo the character off-stage and the game is over. Each song is divided into approximately 30 to 50 "phrases". A meter will fill up and turn from red to green for each phrase, based on how well the player sings the right notes; if the player can fill the meter to green, they will score more points, and getting several greens in a row will create a "combo" and award a 2x score multiplier until the player fails to make green on another phrase. This blue meter resembles how long you should hold the note for and at what pitch. The game can be set at higher

difficulties Difficulty or Difficult may refer to: *A problem *Degree of difficulty, in sport and gaming *Counter-majoritarian difficulty, in legal theory *Difficult, Tennessee, a community in the United States * "Difficult" (song), by Uffie *Hill Difficulty, ...

which make this meter larger and require the player to hit the right notes more precisely to fill it to green. Since maximum scores for each song are normalized 50,000 regardless of difficulty, overall scores on songs can be compared. To achieve the ''gold record'' for a song, 12,500 points must be achieved. To achieve the ''platinum record'' for a song, 20,000 points must be achieved. Winning records will unlock additional characters, outfits, and songs. In ''Karaoke Revolution Party'', ''Karaoke Revolution Country'', ''Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol'', and ''American Idol Encore'', 50,000 points (a perfect score) earns a ''diamond record''. In ''Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2'' the point system was changed so that 60,000 points gives a ''platinum record'' for a song and 100,000 points is a perfect score (''diamond record''). ''Karaoke Revolution Volume 2'' introduces a "medley mode" which challenges the player to sing a string of short clips from various songs. ''Karaoke Revolution Volume 3'' introduces "duet mode" which lets two singers play simultaneously. It also revised scoring so that perfect performances result in exactly 50,000 points (with the exception of the Jackson 5's "ABC"). ''Karaoke Revolution Party'' features minigames, support for the

EyeToy The EyeToy is a color webcam for use with the PlayStation 2. Supported games use computer vision and gesture recognition to process images taken by the EyeToy. This allows players to interact with the games using motion, color detection, and also ...

camera, and a "Sing and Dance" mode which utilizes the

dance pad A dance pad, also known as a dance mat or dance platform, is a flat electronic game controller used for input in dance games. Most dance pads are divided into a 3×3 matrix of square panels for the player to stand on, with some or all of the pane ...

controller. ''Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol'' utilizes

American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It aired on Fox from June 11, 2002, to Ap ...

judges, commentary, and stages.

Releases

Many expansion discs are available for the Japanese version of the game, including an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

song collection and several volumes of

J-Pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

. The North American version of ''Karaoke Revolution'' was released in November 2003 on

version in a bundle with the Logitech headset attachment. The game was sold without the headset in February 2004. The European version of the game, titled ''Karaoke Stage'', was released on April 22, 2005. ''Karaoke Stage 2'' contains the same songs as ''Karaoke Revolution Party''. The

version was released in November 2004 featuring four more songs that were present in ''Karaoke Revolution Volume 2'' and 10 exclusive

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

songs which are the original non-cover versions. The Xbox version also supported

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...

for downloads of more songs. ''Karaoke Revolution Volume 2'' was released in North America on July 13, 2004, on PlayStation 2; ''Volume 3'' came in November 9 for the same platform. ''Karaoke Revolution Party'' was released in North America on November 8, 2005, on PlayStation 2,

and

. The Xbox version was the only version to feature downloadable songs. '' CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country'' was released in North America on March 28, 2006, on PlayStation 2. ''Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol'' was released in North America on January 2, 2007, on PlayStation 2. *

Simon Cowell Simon Phillip Cowell (; born 7 October 1959) is an English television personality, entrepreneur and record executive. He is the creator of ''The X Factor'' and ''Got Talent'' franchises which have been sold around the world. He has judged on t ...

Randy Jackson Randall Darius Jackson (born June 23, 1956) is an American record executive and television presenter, perhaps best known as a judge on ''American Idol'' from 2002 to 2013. Jackson began his career in the 1980s as a session musician playing bas ...

, and

Ryan Seacrest Ryan John Seacrest (born December 24, 1974) is an American media personality and producer. He is the co-host of ''Live with Kelly and Ryan'', as well as the host of multiple media shows including ''American Idol'', ''American Top 40'', and '' ...

lent their voices and allowed their names and likenesses to appear in the game, but

Paula Abdul Paula Julie Abdul (born June 19, 1962) is an American singer, dancer, choreographer, actress, and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreograph ...

did not and was replaced by a judge named Laura who was voiced by voice actress Kenna Kelly. ''Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore'' was released in the North America on

, and

on February 5, 2008, then to Canadian retailers on February 17, with the

version released in North American on March 4. The

and

versions were the only ones that featured downloadable songs, but after May 14, no more new downloadable songs came for either version. New downloadable songs will continue with the sequel, ''Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2''. * In addition to

and

, Paula Abdul's name, voice, and likeness appear in this title for the first time.

did not return to voice himself as the host. He is replaced with a lesser known voice actor Johnny Jay to voice as the host of American Idol for this game. * The

version is the only one that had all downloadable songs available on the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

marketplace. The

version had six songs discontinued from the

marketplace for undisclosed reasons. On November 18, 2008, the downloadable song "I'll Make Love To You" became available again in the

marketplace. ''Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2'' was released on November 18, 2008, in the United States on

, and

. This is the final ''Karaoke Revolution'' game to use the

likeness and features. Konami will no longer use anymore

likeness or license for upcoming future ''Karaoke Revolution'' sequels after this game. Songs downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace for the first Encore game on

are compatible with ''Encore 2''. The previous downloadable songs for the first ''Encore'' game on

downloaded from the PlayStation Store will be automatically imported to ''Encore 2''. Recently for the first time, Konami has released 5 new downloadable songs that never appeared in any of the previous ''Karaoke Revolution'' series before. However, these songs originally appeared from one of Konami's other musical game ''

Rock Revolution ''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 c ...

''. In 2009, Konami released a new version for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 as a

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

of the franchise. It features enhanced career and multiplayer modes, the ability to record footage for venues with the

Xbox Live Vision Xbox Live Vision is a webcam accessory that was developed as an accessory for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was announced at E3 2006 and was released in North America on September 19, 2006, Europe and Asia on October 2, 2006, and Japan on ...

and

PlayStation Eye The PlayStation Eye (trademarked PLAYSTATION Eye) is a digital camera device, similar to a webcam, for the PlayStation 3. The technology uses computer vision and gesture recognition to process images taken by the camera. This allows players to i ...

cameras, and a soundtrack with 50 tracks, all original versions rather than the covers used in previous versions. Four different microphones were released for the game: * The original microphone included with the first ''Karaoke Revolution'' game is a headset model, and is compatible with the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. * An updated microphone model was included with future ''Karaoke Revolution'' games, and is also used for Karaoke Stage, the European edition, and is compatible with the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It is a standardized microphone that is also compatible with other games (such as ''

'', ''

Boogie Boogie is a repetitive, swung note or shuffle rhythm,Burrows, Terry (1995). ''Play Country Guitar'', p.42. Dorling Kindersley Limited, London. . "groove" or pattern used in blues which was originally played on the piano in boogie-woogie mus ...

'', and '' High School Musical: Sing It!''). * An Xbox-compatible microphone was included with versions of ''Karaoke Revolution'' for Xbox. It plugs into a memory card/headset port on the controller. * A GameCube-compatible microphone was included with ''Karaoke Revolution Party'' for GameCube. It plugs into the memory card slot. It is a standardized microphone that is also compatible with other games (such as ''

Mario Party 6 is the sixth installment in the ''Mario Party'' series of board game-style party video games by Nintendo and is the third game in the series made for the GameCube and was released in Japan on November 18, 2004; in North America on December 6 ...

''). The SingStar microphones are not compatible with ''Karaoke Revolution'' but, unofficially, the ''SingStar'' microphones works on the PS3 version of the game.

Reception

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

called the 2003 game the 99th best PlayStation 2 game due to the involvement of Harmonix. ''Karaoke Revolution Volume 3'' received a runner-up position in GameSpot's 2004 "Best Puzzle/Rhythm Game" award category across all platforms, losing to ''

Katamari Damacy () is a third-person puzzle-action video game developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation 2. It was released in Japan in March 2004 and in North America in September 2004. Designer Keita Takahashi struggled to pitch the game to Namco' ...

''.

References to other games

In ''Karaoke Revolution Party'', if a Platinum Record rank is earned in Sing and Dance mode on Expert, the "Feet of Fury" trophy is earned. The font that is used in the trophy description is an exact duplicate of the logo of the unlicensed Dreamcast dance game, ''Feet of Fury''. The same Wavegroup version of "

I Love Rock 'n' Roll "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" is a rock song written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and first recorded by the Arrows, a British rock band, in 1975. A 1981 cover version by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, released as the first single from her album of ...

" was later used in another

game, ''

Guitar Hero ''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...

''. Wavegroup recorded another version of "

Toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...

" for another Harmonix title, ''

Dance Central 2 ''Dance Central 2'' is a music rhythm game for the Xbox 360 and is the sequel to ''Dance Central''. It was released in October 2011. Plot Dr. Tan is monitoring the status of the area in The Airship, laughing while doing so. The player first me ...

''.

References

External links

* * * {{Harmonix games 2003 video games Karaoke video games Konami games Konami franchises GameCube microphone games PlayStation 2 games PlayStation 2-only games PlayStation 3 games Video game franchises Video games developed in the United States Wii games Xbox games Xbox 360 games Video game franchises introduced in 2003 Harmonix games

Gameplay

Releases

Reception

References to other games

See also

References

External links