Review of Interactive Karaoke: Rock Hits Volume 1

Introduction

Karaoke and rhythm action games are fast becoming big business. Deja vu? No, that`s what I said in my last Interactive Karaoke DVD review. You can read it elsewhere. It doesn`t matter what age or ability, whether you sing like nails on a blackboard or have no sense of rhythm, karaoke was made for everyone, and sometimes this can be stressful...I won`t go into those talentless individuals on those terrible TV shows. This aside, it can be fun as well as embarrassing, so dust off those leather trousers and get ready to rock.

Rock Hits Vol. One has as you might guess, rock songs. Nickelback, Creed, Chad Kroeger and Linkin Park feature here. I`ll be honest with you, with the exception of Linkin Park, Nickelback and Chad Kroeger, I don`t think I`ve heard the other songs before so I can`t say that much of the rock music here is appealing.

Testing, testing, doh, doh, doh, doh, doh, la, la, la, la, la, la, doh, doh, doh, doh, doh, la, la, la, la, la, laaaaaa.......turn it up!

Video

Presented with a fullscreen video transfer, the video is clear enough throughout with no discernible problems. While singing you get a choice of three screen backgrounds. Angle 1 has the lyrics while we move forward down a texture-mapped tunnel in the background. It reminds me of that old Psygnosis game, "Microcosm". Each song has the same tunnel effect but with different textures. Angle 2 removes onscreen lyrics and instead just features some pretty looking graphics, again all pre-rendered with textured surfaces and colour cycling. Angle 3 is a blue screen with onscreen lyrics. Angle 1 with the animated backgrounds and lyrics seems to work the best. It gives people watching something to look at.

Audio

Presented with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack, there are no technical problems with the sound that I could hear. There are multiple audio tracks on the disc and picking a different one will remove drums, bass, vocals, guitars or drums. The enclosed lyric book informs you of the options that you have for each song. Changing this while the songs are playing works well enough, though the audio balance on some of the tracks sounds odd with too much bass or too much guitar coming in to drown out the vocals. As you might expect, these aren`t the actual artists singing though some sound like they could be.

Features

Rock Hits has easy to navigate static menus with no extras on the disc itself. Included in the slim DVD keep case is a lyric book with all the song lyrics. This in itself is what`s required, but all the lyrics are bunched up and there are no breaks to indicate chorus or breaks in the songs. This makes it a bit difficult to read.

There`s also a DVD catalogue enclosed with a myriad of other karaoke discs available. 3 points for the lyric book, but it could be better.

Conclusion

I`m not convinced that Rock Hits is a real party disc like Chart Hits simply because of the genre. This might explain why there`s so far only one rock DVD compared to 7 chart ones and lots more classic song ones too. Unless you`re a loud rock-loving family, then you might think twice about this disc. Having said that, removing the loud guitars with the various audio tracks can soften the tempo of the songs and make them sound more `poppy`.

The songs are competently produced with the DVD doing exactly what it sets out to do. The three video angles here can liven up an otherwise static screen and distract your onlookers, while the various audio modes to remove musical instruments works fairly well. Some of the tracks here sound better than others with the previously mentioned audio balance problem only occurring on a few of the songs. The DVD is easy to use and you don`t need any other equipment either. With the lyrics in front of you, you suddenly see what the words are and sometimes the timing of the onscreen lyrics can be a little out of synch, but it`s not bad at all.

Rock Hits isn`t bad, it`s just not something I`d personally choose when it comes to karaoke DVDs; I`d plump instead for Chart Hits since most tastes are catered for and these songs lend themselves well to a Christmas type party atmosphere thing. It`s harmless fun, until someone starts crying...

At around £12.99 from Play, there are loads of other discs in this range available and something to suit most tastes including 80s, Classics, Disco, R&B, Love Songs and TV Idols. If you like the rock songs here you might well check this DVD out.