However, if there was one component I feel the online SingStar experience is missing, it is online play. While it is great to find new people while browsing through the SingStar community, it would be even nicer to find someone you thought had a nice voice and be able to invite them to an online duet. Since every person’s SingStar identity includes their vocal ranking, high scores, and other stats, it would be so easy to just search for someone who was especially proficient in a single song and battle it out. Unfortunately, however, the online mode does not include any actual match functionality, and you’ll have to settle for watching videos of friends, family, and perhaps even total strangers for now.

As far as new tracks are concerned, SingStar Volume 2 has a modest collection of 30 new tracks that cover a wide variety of musical genres. You’ve got rock standards like Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady” and “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” by The Police, pop songs like “Love Song” by Sara Bareilles and “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield, and, of course, the original emo standard, “Pictures of You” by The Cure. There is definitely something in the tracklisting for everyone, but I can’t help be disappointed that there are only thirty songs. Generally, most PlayStation 2 SingStar titles have about the same number of tracks, and I was honestly hoping that a current-gen title would include more content, especially considering the Blu-ray’s incomparable size capacity. Still, the songs that are included are nice, and if you find yourself looking for more, you can always browse the 500 songs in the SingStore catalog.

Visuals in this game are pretty good and feature the same basic SingStar look we’ve grown accustomed to with some HD improvements. Most notable is the HD up-scaling given to some of the older videos. For instance, even though the video for “Don’t go Breaking My Heart” by Elton John and Kiki Dee is over 30 years old, the video has been remastered quite well and looks surprisingly sharp. SingStar Volume 2 also has a customizable menu interface with several high-resolution pictures for you to choose from as your home screen and menu background. These pictures are all a little abstract and feature everything from a warm sunrise to a close-up of a strawberry. Although I doubt anyone will really obsess over these customization options, they certainly are nice, and it doesn’t hurt that the pictures are all quite pretty to look at in high definition.

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Overall, SingStar Volume 2 is hardly a game-changer. Basically, everything you’ve ever experienced in a SingStar game is once again present in this title. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the SingStar formula has proven successful thus far, and the minor tweaks they have made in this entry all seem for the better. So, if you’ve got a PS3 and an urge to sing your heart out, SingStar Volume 2 is definitely worth adding to your collection and just may make you a star at your next party!

By Amanda L. Kondolojy
CCC Staff Contributor