Product Description

Step into the spotlight and become and idol. Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore delivers the most realistic recreation of the American Idol experience with an all-new next generation game engine and 40 smash hits from the 70's, 80's, and 90's and today. Grab the mics and challenge your friends to find out who will be the next superstar and face the music as Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson critique your performances. Millions share the dream. Now you can live it!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2671 in Video Games
• Brand: Konami
• Released on: 2008-02-06
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Dimensions: 2.53" h x 5.54" w x 7.67" l, 1.05 pounds

Features

• Compete online head-to-head games multiplayer support for up to 8 players
• Download new characters, outfits and songs for your karaoke library
• Utilize the EyeToy USB Camera and included microphone
• 40 all-new hit songs including music featured on the TV show
• New un-lockable video content from the American Idol TV Series

Customer Reviews

Encore is more of the same
If you have played and liked previous Karaoke Revolution or American Idol releases you will notice that this one continues in the exact same style. The only negatives are that (again) none of the original artists sing or play their songs but they are actually covered by others. So if you are extremely familar with a particular song you may notice differences here and there with the band's sound and some of the singers do not sound at all like the actual singer's voice. However this is really a minimal problem and does not take away from the overall fun of this game or the others before this one. The game is a blast to play with others and it is not too difficult even for those who can't sing very well. Listed below is the 40 songs included in the game (keep in mind that they are not the original versions):

"Black Hole Sun" - Soundgarden
"Black Velvet" - Alannah Myles
"Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen
"Close My Eyes Forever" - Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford
"Come Sail Away" - Styx
"Copacabana" - Barry Manilow
"Glamorous" - Fergie
"Heart of Glass" - Blondie
"Hemorrhage (In My Hands)" - Fuel
"Holiday" - Madonna
"How to Save a Life" - The Fray
"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - Rolling Stones
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" - Aerosmith
"(I Just) Died in Your Arms" - Cutting Crew
"In the Air Tonight" - Phil Collins
"Irreplaceable" - Beyoncé
"It Ends Tonight" - All American Rejects
"It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" - Billy Joel
"Knocking on Heaven's Door - Guns N' Roses
"Lips of an Angel" - Hinder
"Midnight Train to Georgia" - Gladys Knight and the Pips
"More Than a Feeling" - Boston (5 platinums)
"My Cherie Amour" - Stevie Wonder
"My Heart Will Go On" - Celine Dion
"Over the Rainbow" - Katherine McPhee (15 platinums)
"Put Your Records On"- Corinne Bailey Rae
"Rio" - Duran Duran
"September" - Earth Wind & Fire
"Sister Christian" - Night Ranger
"Sweet Dreams" - Eurythmics
"Tainted Love" - Soft Cell
"These Words" - Natasha Bedingfield
"Time of the Season" - The Zombies
"Tiny Dancer" - Elton John
"Too Little Too Late" - JoJo
"Unfaithful" - Rihanna
"Walking On Sunshine" - Katrina & The Waves
"What is Love?" - Haddaway (10 platinums)
"You Can't Hurry Love" - Diana Ross and The Supremes
"You're Beautiful" - James Blunt

Great game, Great Song Selection, But...
First off, I own all the Karaoke Revolution games except Volume 3. I love them all. Some of the games I felt were lacking in the song selection, but this game has easily the most accessible and familiar songs. Of the 40 songs, I enjoy singing about 35 of them. There are some difficult ones (Bohemian Rhapsody) and some not so hard ones, but it's a lot of fun. I am not going to waste time telling everyone what they already know about this franchise and how awesome it is especially when playing with other people.

So, I'll get to the reason I couldn't give this game 5 stars. I would have loved to given it five stars. This was easily the most anticipated game for me, maybe ever in my life, and I'm a life-long gamer (at 28 years old I've practically been raised by my Sega Genesis and Playstation 2). I just don't see any differences between this and the last American Idol game. Yes, there is Paula instead of Laura, but she's using the same phrases Laura used. If they were going to take the time to do new sound recordings they could have re-wrote some of the dialogue. Yes, there is SOME new dialogue for the three judges, but I've heard very few of the new comments. The box promises new judge interactions. I've yet to see any interaction between the three as there is on the TV show. There are a couple new outfits thrown in to unlock but seriously, there are no new arenas, almost no new animations, or anything really new gameplay-wise.

This is still a great game for newbies and experts alike. No one is going to be disappointed, after all the game is a singing game and its quality should be based on the song choice and singing "controls", both of which are perfect. Personally, though I would have liked to seen something new. New places to sing, maybe a new game variation or feature, maybe even the option to see your virtual opponents sing or be judged. For instance, I am pretty good at this game so I rarely hear the negative comments and that is half the fun...I would like to see some of my virtual contestant opponents gets ripped by the judges before being voted off. While I'm nit-picking, where is Ryan Seacrest? Is he just a disembodied voice? We never see him ever, graphically or in video. I'm not a huge Seacrest fan, but he's all over the show and no where visually in the game.

It may sound like a lot to ask, being that the game is nearly perfect as it is, but I would like to have seen more changes from the first incarnation, but I wish this franchise nothing but the best and hope that encore isn't also a curtain call for the Karaoke Revolution series.

Someone should make a spanish karaoke game.
this game is lots of fun. the best part is that there is so many things to unlock such as characters, more songs, trophies, etc. lots of fun for the whole family. The only little flaw is that sometimes in paula's review it isnt her voice. i think its just pure laziness from the makers of the game, but still really cool game