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Wii U Hands On: SiNG

Written by Adam Shear

Probably the least popular game at the Wii U Experience event in New York was a new karaoke game called SiNG, developed by Freestyle Games, the makers of DJ Hero. It makes sense why nobody wanted to play SiNG. Put a bunch of introverted nerds in a room and everyone is gonna stay away from the singing game. Luckily, I am not an introverted nerd, I’m an extroverted professional. I had no problem getting up and trying SiNG on Wii U. Here is what I thought.

What makes SiNG different from other karaoke video games is that the player is not facing the television, but is instead facing their audience as pictured above. In one hand, I held a microphone, and in the other hand, I held the Wii U GamePad vertically. The mode I played was called Party Mode. In this mode, I was not being scored, I was just performing for a crowd of four people and anyone peeking into the room where the game was set up. In the final game, there will be a mode where you can be scored based on how well you hit notes, and you can even do duets with another player. Although there will be plenty of songs to choose from in the final game, I was only given a choice of three. Between LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem”, “The Shoop Shoop Song” by Betty Everett, and Carly Ray Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe”, I decided to go with “Call Me Maybe”, just for the heck of it.

The game was pretty straightforward. The words to the song appeared on the GamePad and I just had to sing them. I looked down at the words a lot, but found plenty of opportunities to make eye contact with my audience. While I did not notice it until half way through the song, there were cues at the bottom of the GamePad telling me to point my mic to the audience, get them to clap, or to pick an audience member to sing to. This definitely makes it more of a performance than just generic karaoke. As for how I sounded, don’t get me started on that. Singing is one of those things I just don’t do, just because I know I’m a terrible singer. I wasn’t prepared to hear my voice blaring through the TV speakers behind me, but what I heard was worse than I could ever imagine. My speaking voice is great, but my singing is atrocious. Even someone peeking into the room commented “Oh god he’s terrible!” Didn’t need strangers rubbing it in, but yeah, I knew she was right. My audience looked like they were having a good time the whole way through, and that’s all that mattered.

In the end, I really enjoyed my time playing SiNG. This game is gonna be great for parties and family gatherings. Holding both the microphone and Wii U GamePad at the same time was not a problem. The GamePad is really light, allowing for holding it in one hand to be very comfortable. As for me, maybe I’ll play this game again if the opportunity presents itself. Otherwise, I’m going back to singing in the only place I’ll ever sing out loud which is in my car, while I’m driving, alone. SiNG will be available this Holiday season exclusively on Wii U. To see SiNG in action and to get a better idea of how it works, check out the video below.

About the author

Adam Shear

Contributing Writer. @AdamShear. When he's not spending his hours working in the TV industry, he's spending his time playing video games and thinking about them.

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