American Idol comes to the Xbox 360 in the absurdly named video game, Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore. Published by Konami, makers of the hit Dance Dance Revolution franchise, Idol lets you live out your superstar fantasies from the comfort of your living room, allowing you to virtually audition for and win the nationwide competition by using the included microphone to sing. It's a neat karaoke game with a slick license, but a low song count coupled with a somewhat bland presentation keep it from being the ultimate singing experience.

Idol plays similar to most karaoke video games, with you doing your best to remember the lyrics and match the pitch to a series of popular songs. Words scroll along the bottom of the screen, and you must sing them clearly as they reach the Now bar, a vertical white line. In addition, you must also pay close attention to the Pitch Arrow, doing your best to keep it from rising (too high) or falling (too low). In addition, a Crowd Meter lets you know how pleased the audience is with your performance, and hitting notes correctly during a song's phrase earns combos that'll rack up lots of points. In similar fashion to other music games, Idol rates your overall performance on a scale that ranges from Great to Lousy.

A karaoke game is only as good as its songs, and in this regard, Idol performs admirably, despite them being covers. You get 40 hits with the option to download tracks via Xbox Live (for Microsoft Points, of course). Songs fall into Rock, Hard Rock, Classic, Country, Disco, '80s, R&B and Ballad, and included song run the gamut with Black Hole Sun, Black Velvet, Knockin' On Heaven's Door, Irreplaceable, Copacabana, More Than a Feeling, Over the Rainbow and Tainted Love. It's by no means as impressive as Rock Band's song list (especially with that game's extensive online store), but it suffices.

In addition, Konami gives you several deeper options. Quick Play lets you hop into the action singing any song you want. American Idol, on the other hand, allows you to enter the competition, auditioning to go to Hollywood and then moving on to win America's vote. What's especially cool is the ability to select the number of rounds, so if you don't feel like going through 18 songs, you can instead opt for a more time friendly four, eight or 13.

Injecting the game with added personality, Konami managed to get Randy, Paula and Simon to record voice samples for their 3-D models, and they'll judge your performances accordingly. Over time, you'll hear the same things over and over (and they look a bit robotic), but there's enough variety to keep things fresh. With that said, there's no Ryan Seacrest, which is actually a huge let down.

Singing karaoke alone is a bit creepy. Singing with friends, on the other hand, is fun, and American Idol has enough to keep you and your fellow singers busy. Offline, you can engage in Tournaments with up to eight players or go head to head, challenging an opponent to the same song. Online, via Xbox Live, you can join an online league or go into an American Idol tournament with judging enabled.

On the downside, you can only communicate using a headset, you cannot talk to anyone past the setup screen and you'll never see his or her performance. Instead, the game shows you their final score. These puzzling decisions undermine the whole point of karaoke, which is to gather with fellow music lovers and communicate.

We're also disappointed with the presentation. You can't create a character from the ground up or import your face onto a model, which would give the online component more personality. And despite the game's license, Konami failed to capture the anticipation and agony of defeat that comes from losing. You won't see the artificial intelligence sulk off the stage.

Combine that with the lack of Seacrest and the whole experience feels a bit detached from the show. It's a solid karaoke effort, and casual fans probably won't balk at its shortcomings, but it could have been better, especially when compared to Rock Band, which has more songs out of the box. Signing the three judges, however, was clutch, and seeing as how the technology works extremely well, you'll probably enjoy what American Idol has to offer.

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Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol Encore

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