Real Cuties Game Blog- Lips
Ok, so I admit that sometimes I do have to return to the dubious murky waters of the girls game. Most of them are awful- see any of the DS Imagine games, which seem to be teaching young girls how to cook, look pretty, care for furry animals and raise children. Oh goody. What did the feminists fight for?!
‘Lips’ is slightly better than the average girls game- I can guarentee that the guys were just as eager to try it at the launch party as the girls were, but they pretended otherwise to keep up the veneer of cool. They did go a lovely shade of jade green when they got beaten though, bless them.
Anyway, just to make sure I was good at the game (I’m not a singer, I just like to pretend I am) I had a little play before everyone arrived. My first major problem was turning the microphones on. Turns out they hadn’t synced properly with the Xbox. You have to wait for various patterns of flashing lights which mean different things. Why they didn’t just put a synch button like they do on the normal controllers is anyones guess. And turning them off again is a huge hassle too- I had to resort to just taking the batteries out a couple of times.
Anyway- once it was synced ‘Lips’ was actually suprisingly fun. It doesn’t require any ability to sing because its so ludicrously easy to get points. You can even just blow into it my very lovely but totally tone deaf boyfriend discovered, although I’m sure there’ll be an update soon to stop you doing that. I was shocked and appalled at how many of the songs I knew. I remember all the worlds to Geri Halliwell’s ‘It’s Raining Men’. Maybe I’d be better off dead?
A big plus is the uploading songs ability. I’ve only done one to try it out (ok yes, and to get the achievment) but it looks like if you can get your entire music collection on your hard drive then parties are sorted with the freestyle mode. You don’t get the words or anything but its still fun if you know the song well enough.
Less succesful are the games. Sure they’re fun and all, but mostly people just want to sing badly without having to do it in public where little miss perfect singer is waiting in the wings to show you up (honestly- am I the only person who thinks that Kareoke is better when noone can sing?!). The noise makers aren’t much cop either if I’m honest. At the launch party, we ended up with three people crowded round each microphone anyway.
It is funny watching a group of drunken twenty somethings try to get the motion sensors working. ‘Lips’ is similar to ‘Guitar Hero’ where you trigger star power with a tilt of the guitar. You move the mic in a certain way to activate the bonus notes. But the moves are different every time, and the diagrams are less than helpful. We generally resorted to shaking it until it turned gold.
‘Lips’ is fantastic for drunken parties., I must say. We got on there at about midnight, and it didn’t get turned off until about 4am. There were some sore throats the next morning. Buts its so funny watching your friends squint at the screen trying to see the words. And then singing the wrong ones anyway. We also ended up splitting into boys versus girls (as you do). Sorry boys, but we kicked your asses, buried the body and organised the funeral in just one song.
So best song? I’m a Geri fan, but Dido’s ‘White Flag’ is the one I can actually hit most of the notes on. ‘Survivor’ requires breathing apparatus by the end. And ‘Personal Jesus’ can’t decide what key it wants to be in. But generally its all fun, although one party man did constantly yell that there needs to be ‘more manly songs’. ‘Ring of Fire’ obviously didn’t cut it. I still need to download Ah Ha’s ‘Take On Me’ too, as well as adding as many Meat Loaf songs as humanly possible on there.
So overall, ‘Lips’ good. Achievments are really easy to get, and its great for parties.
Achievements- 25 out of 40 (555 gamer points)
Currently aiming for- Nothing proper, just going to see if I can actually learn how to sing some of the songs properly.
Favourite bit- Watching other people play.
Least favourite bit- Watching other people hog the mic.
