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Karaoke Revolution, and its sequel Karaoke Revolution 2, are Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Xbox video games developed by Harmonix and published by Konami in its Bemani line.
Idea
The games are based on karaoke singing in which an amateur singer sings a popular song while it plays without vocals; the games are able to sense the pitch of the singer's voice and award points based on how well the singer matches the pitches he's supposed to be singing.
Karaoke Revolution requires the use of a USB microphone. A microphone headset made by Logitech is available in a bundle with the first Karaoke Revolution game and is also sold separately; Logitech also sells a hand-held karaoke microphone. [1] (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN%2CCRID%3D97%2CCONTENTID%3D7983) The game does not attempt to understand the singer's words; because it only senses his pitch, the singer can hum to a song or sing different lyrics without penalty. The game adapts to the player singing one octave higher or lower than the song, to accommodate players whose vocal range does not fit the song.
The songs in the game are covers (not performed by the original artists, but sounding almost indistinguishable from the originals) of pop hits frequently sung in karaoke bars.
Gameplay
The player is depicted as a character on-screen performing at one of several venues, such as a subway station, a carnival, or a football halftime show. The words to the song scroll right-to-left at the bottom of the screen, above a piano roll representation of the relative pitches at which they are to be sung (the game calls these "note tubes"). At the left end of this area, a "pitch arrow" shows the pitch which the player is singing and provides feedback on whether he's hitting the notes. A "crowd meter" shows the mood of the crowd as the player sings; if he does a good job of hitting notes on-pitch then the crowd will cheer more loudly and clap in rhythm with the song, and the scene will become more vividly animated. If the crowd meter falls all the way to the lowest rating, the audience will boo the character off-stage and the game is over.
Each song is divided into approximately 30 to 50 "phrases." A meter will fill up and turn from red to green for each phrase, based on how well the player sings the right notes; if the player can fill the meter to green, he will score more points, and getting several greens in a row will create a "combo" and award a 2x score multiplier until the player fails to make green on another phrase. The game can be set at higher difficulties which make this meter larger and require the player to hit the right notes more precisely to fill it to green.
Since maximum scores for each song are normalized around 50,000 or so, overall scores on songs can be compared. To achieve the gold record for a song, 12,000 points must be achieved. To achieve the platinum record for a song, 20,000 points must be achieved. Winning records will unlock additional characters, outfits, and songs.
Karaoke Revolution 2 introduces a "medley mode" which challenges the player to sing a string of short clips from various songs.
Releases
Many expansion discs are available for the Japanese version of the game, including an anime song collection and several volumes of J-Pop.
The North American version of Karaoke Revolution was released in November, 2003 in a bundle with the Logitech headset attachment. The game was sold without the headset in February, 2004. Karaoke Revolution 2 was released in North American on July 13, 2004.
Song list
These songs are included in the North American release of Karaoke Revolution. Also listed are the original artists on whose versions of these songs the Karaoke Revolution covers were based (none of these artists themselves are heard in the game). Some of these songs are "locked" and require the completion of goals within the game to access them.
- Addicted - Simple Plan
- All You Wanted - Michelle Branch
- Are You Happy Now? - Michelle Branch
- Believe - Cher
- Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
- Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
- Broken Wings - Mr. Mister
- Celebration - Kool & The Gang
- Chain of Fools - Aretha Franklin
- Complicated - Avril Lavigne
- Crawling in the Dark - Hoobastank
- Don't Know Why - Norah Jones
- Every Morning - Sugar Ray
- Everything You Want - Vertical Horizon
- Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
- Hey Jealousy - Gin Blossoms
- Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
- How You Remind Me - Nickelback
- I'm Coming Out - Diana Ross
- It's the End of the World as We Know It - R.E.M.
- Kiss Me - Sixpence None The Richer
- Ladies' Night - Kool & The Gang
- Like a Virgin - Madonna
- One Week - Barenaked Ladies
- Red Red Wine - UB40
- Save Tonite - Eagle Eye Cherry
- Science Genius Girl - Freezepop
- She Talks to Angels - Black Crowes
- Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm
- Son of a Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield
- The Power of Love - Huey Lewis and the News
- Waiting for Tonight - Jennifer Lopez
- When a Man Loves a Woman - Percy Sledge
- Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler
- You Really Got Me - Van Halen
- You're the One That I Want - Olivia Newton-John
These songs, also covers and some of them locked, are included in the North American release of Karaoke Revolution 2.
- Baby One More Time - Britney Spears
- Born to Be Wild - Steppenwolf
- Cry - Faith Hill
- Drift Away - Uncle Kracker
- Every Breath You Take - The Police
- Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
- Genie in a Bottle - Christina Aguilera
- Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley
- Here Without You - 3 Doors Down
- Hot Stuff - Donna Summer
- I Believe in a Thing Called Love - The Darkness
- I Hate Everything About You - Three Days Grace
- I Will Survive - Gloria Gaynor
- Irresistible - Jessica Simpson
- It’s My Life - No Doubt
- I’ll Make Love to You - Boyz 2 Men
- I’m With You - Avril Lavigne
- I’ve Got You Under My Skin - Frank Sinatra
- Jesse’s Girl - Rick Springfield
- Lady Marmalade - Pink, Christina Aguilera, Mya, and Lil Kim
- Let’s Get It On - Marvin Gaye
- Miss You - Aaliyah
- My Girl - The Temptations
- Papa Don’t Preach - Madonna
- Perfect - Simple Plan
- Rich Girl - Hall and Oates
- Rock and Roll All Night - Kiss
- Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding
- Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
- The First Cut Is the Deepest - Sheryl Crow
- The Joker - Steve Miller
- Toxic - Britney Spears
- Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
- We Are Family - Sister Sledge
- White Flag - Dido
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