Perhaps less known in “hardcore” gaming communities, but on top of the likes of sports games and Call of Duty, multiple music games have yearly installments as well, such as Ubisoft’s Just Dance franchise or Voxler’s Let’s Sing, continuing its streak since 2013. Promising a bit of a revamp from last year’s game, will Let’s Sing 2024 satisfy karaoke fans worldwide? Let’s find out.
La La Land
Curiously enough, our website never reviewed a game from this franchise so far, but I personally took it as a challenge after PLAION’s PR team reached out to us about checking out the new game. Coincidentally, in fact, I did play last year’s title, having a surprising amount of fun with it despite being an absolute dog at singing. So let’s briefly explain how Let’s Sing works: it’s a very basic, karaoke-style rhythm game where players get to sing to whatever microphone they find – USB, Bluetooth, or even using a mobile companion app (with a slight input delay the game does well to counter). Hitting the right words isn’t as important as hitting the right notes and timing, so don’t sweat it if you have a language barrier.
With the game’s gameplay vastly refined through the years, the main selling point is obviously the tracklist, which to be fair is slightly less varied and impressive as last year’s title in truth – though this is vastly subjective. Granted, there’s plenty of iconic songs from many eras: David Bowie’s “Life On Mars?”, k-pop sensation BTS’ “Dynamite”, all the way down to Queen, Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Imagine Dragons and more. There is a decent range from rock, hip-hop, classic and modern pop, offering a good selection of mainstream tracks to sing, either solo or your buddies.
Sing along
The base game only features 20 tracks, which isn’t a lot. Not a novelty that, with last year’s base game also featuring a limited list of songs. But whereas there the players could invest into the more expensive deluxe edition of the game, here there is a brand new VIP membership they can pay for monthly, which practically doubles their available songs day one and should give them other benefits in the future. This is effectively a step backwards from previous games, as it’s trying to get users to spend continously as opposed to a single buy.
Naturally, the game offers solo and competitive play alike, both local and online from 2 to 4 players, with even the possibility of playing duets with a friend. There’s a handful of new and improved modes however, first of which is the new Career mode – this is a fully voiced mode where the player effectively goes through a singing school, meeting teachers, other students, all the way to becoming an international star. Instead of just singing full songs, this features multiple playable lessons on top of actual tips and suggestions on how to breathe, how to vocalize and more. While the characters are quite fun, the key aspect of this is how it teaches advanced skills to players who may only have ever sung under the shower.
It’s a party!
Another important mode, this time for online, is Let’s Sing Fest. Here, live sessions broken down to single genres are played at any time of the day, with players being able to duke it out against others who play the same tracks at the same time, with at the end of the 20-30 minute session the winners declared by the total score. This is a very fun way to challenge many other players at the same time in the genres they feel most comfortable in, with multiple unlocks that can be obtained by performing well.
Speaking of unlocks, merely leveling up in the various songs, modes and genres already unlocks plenty of cosmetic options, from the player’s profile all the way down to their avatar. Indeed, the avatars have been vastly revamped from last year, with a brand new visual style for our floating singing head that can be customized to impressive lengths – even with unrealistic skin colours like green or purple, all the way down to facial hair, hats and accessories of any kind. Or just press the character randomizer button to see what oddities the game can randomly generate for you.
Another year, another karaoke
Ultimately, Let’s Sing 2024 revamps multiple features of the game, offering a more complete and varied experience. The Career mode functions as a great singing school of sorts, and the new online modes create a sense of community and competition not found in prior episodes. Shame then that the starting list of 20 songs is, for my tastes, not on par with last year’s title, and that the new VIP membership is a step backwards for the game’s monetization. But for fans of karaoke, it’s hard to recommend a better new game on market.
Let's Sing 2024
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- As fun as ever
- Refined progression and game modes
- Plenty of online options
CONS
- Track selection is a step backwards, especially on the base game
- The new VIP subscription is worse than previous games' monetization
