Customer Reviews

Lips Number One Hits Bundle

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

While the original "Lips" game had several issues, they were forgivable since it was the first game in the series; however, like the previous reviewer I am pretty unhappy about the 2nd installment of this franchise. I just want to make a couple things clear for anyone who has not yet purchased this game, especially if you already own the first game.

1. Despite being a "4-Player" game, only 2 people can sing - So don't buy the game thinking that 4 people can sing. The problem if you own the original Lips is that you already have 2 wireless mics and Microsoft doesn't currently offer a standalone version of this game. You need to pay a premium price for the bundle, only to have an extra mic that you can't even use.

2. If you own the original Lips and want to sing songs from the original game, you need to switch discs even if you have the original game installed on your hard drive. Then after you're done with that song, you have to reinsert the Lips:NOH disc. If you want to sing 2 songs consecutively from the original Lips game, you would still need to reinsert Lips:NOH and the insert Lips again! Not only this, but sometimes the game will freeze during the whole process.

3. As of 10/30/2009 most of the downloaded songs from the original games are now working, but there are a couple songs that do not work.

Overall this game is a slight improvement on the original, but if you own the original you may want to wait until Microsoft works out some of the kinks and/or until the release a standalone version, because you won't be able to use the extra mic and this game is definitely not worth $60.

Lips Number One Hits (LOH) ships with a extra microphone (one extra microphone) This isn't enough if you just bought the game as a stand alone game and it is completely worthless if you already own the original lips. They are just trying to milk customers so that they buy a extra microphone to go with the game.

The menus are slow it takes 20-30 seconds to load your avatar

It no longer shows your overall ranking if you are ranked less then 1000

The preview clips for the songs are too short, they will play several times while you are getting the settings correct for the song you want to sing, this gets very annoying when you have to change a few thing before you play the song.

They should allow you to shake the mic to determine who is going to be the solo singer, instead you have to go to the assign mic screen first (and listen to the too short preview clips several times)

For a game that is really no more then a Add-on (as evidenced by the 250 achievement points available) You shouldn't have to switch the discs back and forth this is annoying if the Xbox 360 is near you and it is virtually impossible if the 360 is in a cabinet

A lot of the new songs aren't very good or they are not well known

They make it hard to improve your singing because it doesn't show where your pitch is compared to what they are looking for (like rockband)

It displays the total number of songs available on the home screen, not just the songs you own but also all the songs that they want you to buy.

I wish I could return this game

While the 'game' alone is fun to play, and it offers a few improvements over "Lips", "Lips Number One Hits" is not a full game and is in fact a game add-on that you can play on it's own.

Not all Lips DLC works with Lips NOH.
This game offers only 250 Gamerscore points.
"4 players" means 2 singing on mics and 2 making noise with noisemakers via Xbox360 controllers.
Even though you see all Lips, Lips NOH, DLC, and Store songs in the sing menu, you cannot download Lips or Lips NOH tracks to your hard drive to play together. If you have the Lips NOH disk in and want to play a Lips song, you have to switch disks and then back again for each Lips song.

At this point in time, there is no way to purchase Lips NOH without a mic, so if you already own Lips, you will not have 3 mics, and ony be able to use 2 at a time.

While it is fun to play when you have the sing menu sorted to only show Lips NOH songs, it becomes more of a hastle than it is worth to play otherwise, especially if children playing keep calling you into the room to 'fix it'.

So far, iNiS and Microsoft have not addressed or acknowledged many of the issues listed above even though they have been brough tup on many threads on the official forums.

Lips Number One Hits is definitely an improvement over the original Lips. The lag time while menus are loading is greatly reduced, the interface is much improved with better menus and presentation. Not only do the menus look cleaner, but they make more sense. For example, now you will see five albums across - the perfect width for your tv, so you only need to scroll down to see all the tracks. Also, unpurchased tracks from the store are in their own section at the bottom, so you don't need to leave the main "Sing" menu to hear samples or make a purchase. One of my favorite new features are Trophies. You earn these by ranking high enough on the leaderboards. They add a new challenge in the game that is an addictive element as you strive to get more valuable trophies, or any trophy. I find myself playing the tracks I ordinarily wouldn't (not my cup of tea) just to have a trophy in them. The tracklist has some outstanding songs in a variety of genres, and your download content from the original Lips will work here with no hassle whatsoever. Unfortunately though, if you want to play a track from the original Lips you will need to choose the track on the #1 Hits menu (yes, they are listed - albeit without the benefit of album cover or sample) and then open tray and put the Lips disc in to play the song. Then you need to swap discs again at the end. This really disrupts the flow of gameplay and is generally more trouble than it's worth. It would have been far better had they been able to allow the upload of Lips tracks into #1 Hits the way the Rock Band tracks were uploadable into Rock Band 2 (with the exception of only a few). They claim it is a licensing issue. If you are looking for gamerpoints, you will only be able to get 250 on this game instead of the 1000 most people have come to expect from a $60 game... one consolation about the price, however, is that the game includes a wireless mic. I did have a lag problem when I first got the game but it seems to be fixed now. I wish to note that most of the tracks on this game come with the original music video. Only a few (in most cases because the song came out before music videos were standard) have a "stand-in" video created by the developer. But as far as I'm concerned the videos are vastly more entertaining to watch than the avatar on stage we get in some other music titles. As for download content, it is released every Friday and usually includes at least three new tracks.

Although not perfect this is the best karaoke game I have played. Compared with the original Lips, the Singstar PS3 games, and the Karaoke Revolution games this one is superior (I love these kinds of games and have played them all). I recommend the game for anyone interested in karaoke.

Very disappointed that the Xbox 360 Mic that comes w/ it is not usable on other karaoke games. I am returning it because of this. The song selection is not very good, either.

Bought this for my 10 and 12 year old daughters. They love the game, especially the wireless mic's make it super fun. Highly recommend.

Okay, I previously wrote a review of Lips. And while it's a karaoke simulation and decent at it, there was a lot I didn't like about it.

And after playing Number One Hits, it even makes the original Lips look worse. Like Lips was Windows 3.11 and Number One Hits was Windows XP. They really made a lot of improvements. Nothing so drastic that you can't recognize the game. But it just seems like a much more polished version. seriously, every aspect of Lips was enhanced.

the menus are nicer. everything is easier to understand. you can easily tell which mics are active. they even beefed up the instructions for setting up the mics. the autocalibration tool is great. if you ever had to manually calibrate these kinds of games (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, etc), you can imagine the pain but this is the easiest calibration tool you can imagine. just stick the mic in front of your tv speaker or stereo speaker and let the tool run.

now for the song selection... wow. a big improvement. the original Lips was a mish mash, trying to hit every single genre so you end up having a bunch of songs you hate. this one is far more accessible, since it was pulled from more popular songs.

the graphics in the game are just as great as ever. they even made it a little easier to follow the lyrics and pitch bar. it's still not as easy to read as in the other karaoke games (Karaoke Revolution, Rock Band, the static scrolling of Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero), but it is getting better.

and of course, Lips has a huge online library to buy from. this is a karaoke game you don't worry about being abandoned like Karaoke Revolution 2009.

now for the negatives...

number one hits does feel a tiny bit more like a karaoke game instead of just a karaoke simulation. but it doesn't feel like a game like RB/GH/karaoke revolution.

while the mics are cool and wireless, they're still not as good sounding as the wired mics. so it's disappointing that the wired mics (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Karaoke Revolution) don't work in number one hits. but they added wired mic support to Lips Classics so I can't wait.

the only other major gripe is you do have to swap the disc if you decide to play for instance a song off the original Lips. it really is annoying. you can't even keep the disc in there if you intend to play another song off the original Lips. so you're playing #1 and then decide to do original lips. eject #1 disc and insert original disc. then when you finish the song, you have to reinsert the #1 disc. and if you want to play another original Lips song, you once again have to eject the #1 disc and reinsert the original disc. what a pain!

i understand that it's probably a form of protection against reselling. what would keep someone from installing lips to the hard drive, selling it at the game shop, and buying number one hits and having access to all the original Lips songs? but they could've developed a better scheme. maybe have a 1-time disc check at startup of the game? and then from then on, only needing the new Lips disc?

that said, I don't ever plan on loading up the original Lips. I'd rather do the disc swapping and play the old Lips songs with the new interface and improvements of the new #1 hits. It's almost as good as when you were used to playing Guitar Hero 2 with only the guitar. and then trying out the old songs in Guitar Hero Smash Hits with whole new options, master tracks, etc. like previously watching a movie in VHS and then buying the HD version. a whole new experience.

i am a believer in the Lips franchise after this #1 hits disc. I am definitely picking up the Lips Classics disc. The series continues to get better. that said, there's still a lot of room for improvement if they're willing to revamp the pitch bar and scrolling text. it still depends too much on you having experience with the song.

I was hoping that Karaoke Revolution 2009 would be supported by Konami but it appears they've abandoned that franchise. KR2009 was actually superior as a karaoke game (even though the graphics were inferior to Lips) but with no future song support (no rehashed covers please!), that is a dead dinosaur. the irony was that KR2009 and lips #1 hits were released nearly at the same time with a lot of the same songs. so now I have little reason to go back to KR2009 because I can play the songs I like on the #1 hits disc.

This game is fun! The makers made it so much more entertaining than simply karaoke.

The original music video is available for most songs, but we hardly ever selected this option unless it was for nostalgic purposes because the "game" selections were so much fun.

"Games"

1) "Kiss" There is an option where a couple is running towards each other. The better you sing, the closer they get. The goal is to sing well enough that they run into each other's arms and kiss. Too cute. ^.^

2) "Bomb" The bomb is lit and your job is to sing well enough that your cup of water will tip over and extinguish it. Of course, it'll light back up again and you have to keep putting it out with your amazing voice.

3) "Fighters" Two rockstars are fighting over the spotlight on stage. The better singer knocks the other off of stage. The rounds keep going until the song is over.

There are not a lot of songs on this disc that I either knew or liked, but they do have plenty avaiable for purchase on line. My advice is to buy the cheapest version that already contains the most songs you know and be ready to spend $20 - $50+ adding songs to customize your disc to your song taste. Also, look for the "packs" first. Buying individual songs add up fast, but if you like a particular artist, they have a few "packs" containing 3-5 of that artist's work for less than buying them individually.

My teenage girls love this. Its lots of fun for everyone, even those too shy to sing have fun watching everyone else. The only problem we've had is that we thought there were songs to unlock and we can't seem to figure that part out. Still a great night of family fun.

Not sure why people are so down on this game, but I took a chance on purchasing this title especially since it's nearly half-price now and you get an extra mic! So I broke down clearly what I thought about this game compared to the first LIPS:

PROS:
-Better looking and organized interface
-Much better selection of songs
-Individualized stats between players and utilizing their created avatars.
-More achievements and now trophies
-Able to play all songs downloaded from LIPS store (That I originally downloaded for first LIPS game)

CONS:
-Slow loading of players from title menu. (Faster than previous LIPS game though)
-Unable to play first LIPS tracks without swapping to first LIPS disc. Wish they would had a feature to
weed these songs out at least so don't have a bunch of empty looking boxes on the song select menu.

So I can understand not wanting to purchase this game for 50-60 bucks with it's flaws, but for half that price you're practically purchasing a mic and getting a FREE game to go with it. So on a final note, the wife and I love this game.