Lips Review

For:Xbox 360 Release Date: 21 November 2008
This is the only other other song we haven't tried
This is the only other other song we haven't tried

This is the only other other song we haven't tried

As with all games of this type, your purchase will be heavily influenced by the songs on the disc (check out the full track list here). It's impossible to please everyone, of course. In fact, it's probably impossible to please anyone, given how personal music tastes are. Microsoft has clearly tried to provide as varied a track list as possible, with an incredibly eclectic line-up. The musical trail takes in everything from Alicia Keys' No One to Editors' An End Has A Start, via Roxette's Listen To Your Heart and Stand By Me by Ben E. King. If you're going to buy Lips you're probably going to buy extra songs. Microsoft hasn't revealed pricing for these yet, or what's going to be available (Aha's Take On Me will be a free day one download), so it's impossible to judge at this point, or compare with Sony's SingStore.

Lips' greatest achievement, met with no small amount of cynicism by the gaming press following the game's announcement during Microsoft's E3 2008 press conference, is the ability to plug your portable music player into the 360 via USB and have Lips simply make your DRM-free songs work. The idea, in theory, was that Lips' track list has the potential to be anything you want it to be, and for free. It doesn't quite work like that. We had a peculiar experience here. At home, on my Xbox 360 Elite, neither my 2GB iPod Nano or the better half's shorter, fatter, better iPod Nano worked with it, with the songs displaying but not playing. On the office 360 Elite, however, my iPod worked fine with the game, with the songs playing as expected, without on-screen information like lyrics, or the officially licensed music video. This bizarre turn of events has us all stumped.

When it works, essentially Lips is just playing a DRM-free track from a USB connected device, with pretty pictures layered on top. You might think, well, that's all it was ever going to do. It's not magic. Fair enough, that's what I thought. But check this out. When you first import a song from a portable device, the game asks you an interesting question:

Have we mentioned we haven't tried this song?

Have we mentioned we haven't tried this song?

"You're about to use a song from your own music library. Do you want to send data about this song along with an ID associated with your Gamertag to Microsoft? By doing so you'll cast a vote for the creation of additional content such as videos and lyrics for your favourite songs. Providing this information will also let us notify you when new content for songs in your collection is available."

So clearly Microsoft is looking at providing officially licensed music videos and lyrics for the most popular imported songs, which, I reckon, would be magic. As my better half quipped when we first tried to sing a song from her iPod: "I wish the words would come up." When it comes down to it, how many songs do you know the words to off by heart? For me it's not that many.

Where SingStar wins though is in its ability to save small videos, captured with the PlayStation Eye, and upload them for the community or your friends to see, and listen back to your performance once you're done, even adding voice effects - Lips doesn't have anything like this, which is both a surprise and a disappointment. SingStar also has the added benefit of having a monstrous back catalogue from which you're guaranteed to find an officially licensed track that's up your street, although we reckon it's a bit unfair to criticise Lips for this since SingStar has years of music licensing under its belt.

None of this prevents us from recommending Lips to Xbox 360 owners. It's the only game of its type on the 360, it's got brilliant microphones and it at least tries to allow you to expand the potential track-list to infinity. If you like karaoke, and you have friends or family that like karaoke, it's a damn sight better in-law entertainment option than charades this Christmas, and for that we should be eternally grateful. Now... can I beat Morten Harket's Take On Me score?

VideoGamer.com Score

8Score out of 10
  • Play DRM-free songs from your iPod
  • Wireless microphones are great
  • Playing your own songs doesn't include lyrics
  • No video uploading

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User Comments

chez's Avatar
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chez

Hi i wonder if anyone can help, ive got singstar on playstation 2 which i love but ive been told that lips alow u to sing any song u want to via downloading it on to lips cd... is this correct or is there a catch???
Posted 22:20 on 08 February 2009
TRBO RAD's Avatar
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TRBO RAD

OK so i have written bout this already....this game is great but i have one problem....ONE BIG PROBLEM...so me and my family were playin this last nite the only game i can get everyone to play ok so my mom gets tired of singing and just starts makin up her own words and blowing into the mic....and what did i see her score going through the roof.....what is up with that is ne one else havin this same problem
Posted 06:26 on 31 December 2008
TRBO RAD's Avatar
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TRBO RAD

Got this for christmas and i must say it is a blast i really like jukebox mode u nver know what ur gonna b singing and when u add two ppl who don't know the wrds to the song it equals and extreme laughin-a-palooza really...but....what i don't get is that my sister is not a good singer and im way better at singin than she is and when we compete she is off tune squeaky and a discrace to the ears but....yet she scores off the charts and i am simply just whatever...how is this soo i no im a better singer but this game says she is i don't understand but ne way its still alot of fun even when you lose to someone who sucks to the 10th power
Posted 09:37 on 29 December 2008
MeeShelle's Avatar
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MeeShelle

Brilliant game, however I have played on it none stop since yesterday and now i'm bored and want MORE songs! I must admit I thought it would have more FREE downloads - impressed with the game not overly impressed with the lack of FREE downloads - come on XBOX pull your finger out!
Posted 20:11 on 26 December 2008
Jonny's Avatar
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Jonny

Yeah just one problem, according to manuals as well as some extra digging up, if your songs d have lyrics on them they should be visible on your xbox, problem though, adding the lyrics takes hours, anybody know where to get a automatic lyric downloader that actually works because all the ones i tried so far dont work...
Posted 22:39 on 25 December 2008
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KingRichard

I got my wife LIPS for Christmas... I got the 360 last Christmas.
It's nice... my wife can finally sing her heart out at home. However, the library of music to purchase is lacking (24 songs on Christmas day, with 2-3 of those coming tomorrow). Sometimes when you're shaking the mics, singing and it lines up the score, vibration bonus, etc... the video/singing/scoring lags with horrible visual choppyness... the music stays on queue as does the lyrics, they just skip and get really choppy... horrible code I would have to say... I hope there is a massive update before 2009 or I will send my Wife to Redmond, and she'll give them an earful...
Posted 20:05 on 25 December 2008
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Jamesss

Shall I Get It Or Not I Dont No Because There Is 2 Sides To This And I Dunno Which 1 To Believe
Posted 23:49 on 20 December 2008
CJ's Avatar
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CJ

You guys rock!! I've been trying to sync my mics for 30 minutes and finally resorted to looking for help on line and this was the *only* place that had exact instructions to explain the process. Thanks so much!!
Posted 18:22 on 13 December 2008
Princess R's Avatar
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Princess R

Lips sounds great! Its gonna be my first singing game and it looks sooooo good! I'm 13 so yeah, thats my view! :) Xbox 360 is my first console and I think I got the best console ever available at the moment! :) Great games and lips is so good! WAY BETTER THAN SINGSTAR! I mean honestly they have made loads of singstars and still wired microphones?!?! SONY PEOPL SHOUDL HAVE THOUGHT UP WIRELSS BEFORE MICROSOFT!! Lol :D

Basically, I <3 the Xbox 360 & Lips :)
Posted 21:08 on 08 December 2008
Princess R's Avatar
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Princess R

I have the xbox 360 arcade but lillie do you have a hard drive? Most big games needs a hard drive :)
Posted 21:05 on 08 December 2008
Lillie&7's Avatar
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Lillie&7

Very good rewiew, but i have an "normal" Xbox 360, and it can't play the game :s
Anybody know why? :)
Posted 19:24 on 03 December 2008
BIG WILL29's Avatar
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BIG WILL29

They need to come out with a patch for the microphone audio delay
Posted 19:48 on 30 November 2008
beaker151's Avatar
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beaker151

have the game would like to play it but the frickin thing locks up repeatedly in the loading phase, not the box just the game microsoft finest once again
Posted 03:47 on 29 November 2008
TRBO RAD's Avatar
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TRBO RAD

Well i have heard both sides of this story i read on review that said this game is way to easy and easily forgotten, you can just scream in the mic and you will get an amazing score then i read ur review and you gave the game a pretty good score and i was thinkin mayb it depends on the person and i like singing and it seems pretty great...problem though bout the ipod well i recently tried to play my ipod touch on my 360 and well a no go... what is up with that does that mean it won't work... i also have an ipod video and i wrks on my 360 what is the diff.
Posted 04:46 on 28 November 2008
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liquidkool

can u use the usb mic for lips
Posted 21:07 on 26 November 2008

Game Stats

Go to Lips Xbox 360 Game Index

Review Summary: With better microphones than SingStar and the ability to play songs from your iPod, Lips is great.

Our Score: 8 out of 10
Publisher: Microsoft
Genre: Music
No. Players: 1-6
Rating: BBFC 12
Site Rank: 901 2