SingStar Guitar Review (PS3)

As such, if you like SingStar — and you've got a couple of Rock Band/Guitar Hero guitars lying around — you'll probably enjoy SingStar Guitar.

Someone, somewhere is probably planning on writing an epistle about SingStar Guitar. There's really no need. Get this, SingStar Guitar is a lot like SingStar, just with guitar.

Did we just blow your mind? On the surface, it's a very familiar package. There are thirty songs included on the disc ranging from fantastic oldies from The Cure and David Bowie, to some more modern tracks from The Veronicas and Ladyhawke. There's also that Stereophonics track where they crash into a lake in the music video. The track-list is fine; it skews more towards the pop-scale of things, which actually suits us. Obviously the cool thing about SingStar is that you get the actual music video in the background of the game during gameplay. Watching The Veronicas look sultry while we waggle the strum-bar up and down? Hot.

The twist with SingStar Guitar is that there's a note-lane running down the screen when you've got a guitar plugged in. Any piece of hardware will suit — Rock Band or Guitar Hero — so if you're into these type of games, you'll probably be covered.

There's actually no need to own the SingStar Guitar disc. Guitars are supported alongside the regular SingStar 5.00 patch, but you'll have to pick up some DLC which supports the new feature. Obviously the entirety of SingStar Guitar's set-list is designed to use the guitar peripheral.

The mechanics are super simple. There's no star-power or combo mechanics. It's just basic note highways and strumming. SingStar Guitar make it easy to quickly set-up a game in which you sing and play guitar, so if you feel yourself somewhat of a budding singer-songwriter, the game is perfect. All the typical SingStar options are also on offer, so if you've got a PlayStation Eye the game will film you, take photos and record your audio-feed. These can then be uploaded and shared in the game's community portal.

SingStar Guitar is very simple and is aimed at a very specific audience. It's slicker, quicker and more attractive than a traditional Rock Band or Guitar Hero release, but then that's always been in SingStar's nature. It's the pop-music leanings that give it a unique identity. The karaoke is still class-leading, and the guitar support just adds to SingStar's party focus.

Purchasing intent really just boils down to how much you like SingStar, and whether you've got a couple of guitars lying around.