I don't know what it is that dragged me into singing. I think it was this one time my buddy James and his wife Mandy took me to this sports bar, and, God knows how many drinks later, I was on stage, yelling out lyrics to Lenny Kravitz and having a good time. It's that feeling of discovering how good (or bad) you really are that'll probably give you a reason to approach Karaoke Revolution Party, the latest incarnation in the long-running series from Konami and Harmonix.

The gameplay hasn't really changed much. With the help of an included microphone (or not- the game is sold separately if you already own it), you basically sing along to a number of songs provided in the game. As you proceed, you'll see that your voice is measured on a bar in the lower part of the screen that matches the octave of the songs in question. High parts have to be hit high, low parts have to be hit low, etc. As you proceed, your performance meter will rise in popularity (or deflate, if you suck), and you'll have the ability of getting some combos together to snag approval at the end of the song. Pretty simple, really. All you need is some kind of withstandable voice and you're on your way to success.

Of course, you don't HAVE to sing like a pro to have a good time. It helps with getting the score, but part of the joy from playing something in the Karaoke Revolution line-up is that you can have such a good time trying, and even find someone laughing uncontrollably if they can't handle trying to do an Ashlee Simpson song. (Hey, it's not like Simpson herself seems up to trying these days...heh.) Pros will have a field day here and actually make themselves better by changing the difficulty to a higher setting, or choosing a song with more stars that will obviously be quite the obstacle for them.

The presentation is just about the same as previous games. Like they've done with past editions (and even with the release of the stellar RedOctane game Guitar Hero, Harmonix has split the screen in half, with a bar on the lower part of the screen reading your performance and a chosen singer on the top half belting out the tune you're singing along to. It's still a great set-up, and it gives you the idea that you're really a star in action, even when your performance is indicating far otherwise. The songs themselves are well selected, even though some clearly don't fit and probably won't get picked other than for purposes, like if someone's completely drunk.