With the Jonas Brothers mugging on its iridescent cover, one would be right to assume “Disney Sing It Pop Hits” would be just another vehicle for the House of Mouse’s manufactured tween pop stars. Except for one thing: a mode called Sing It Pro. While every other singing game out there is pretty much a karaoke machine with an incredibly limited song list, “Pop Hits” uses the game’s ability to detect pitch to do something that would seem obvious but I haven’t seen in any other series. In Sing It Pro, perky blonde Tiffany Thornton, of “Sonny With a Chance,” whatever that is, acts as your singing coach, guiding you through lessons on everything from breathing to holding long notes, managing duets and key changes, and the ultimate challenge, harmonizing.
In 25 exercises of a few minutes each, Thornton, backed up by a piano, sings “lalala” and “oooh yeah” patterns, and you’re graded on how well you mimic them afterward. This training is an absolute blast to go through between singing the game’s packed-in songs, and will have any budding singer yearning to join the school choir. (One note of caution, though: The ability to hear and repeat melodies is often one of those things people either “get” or don’t, and it can be humiliating if you can’t even get past the first lesson.)
Apart from Sing It Pro, “Pop Hits” does the standard duties of a singing game well, too. For one, the stable of songs is better than you’d expect. There are only two that “everybody” knows, Colbie Caillat’s “Bubbly” and OneRepublic’s karaoke-destined “Apologize,” but even folks outside the target demographic will be singing ultra-catchy odes like Miley Cyrus’ “7 Things” or the JoBros’ “S.O.S.” in no time. Another bonus found in no other singing game: “Pop Hits” lets you play back your recording after you perform, a delightfully embarrassing experience for all.
‘Disney Sing It Pop Hits’
Systems: Wii, PS3, PS2
Price: $39.99, $49.99 with microphone
Four out of five stars
Broken ‘Hearts’
The Nintendo DS may be a great platform to attract a wider audience to the PlayStation-native series “Kingdom Hearts,” which stars Disney characters and worlds in role-playing games created by RPG powerhouse Square Enix, but “358/2 Days” leans too far toward the relatively more obscure Square Enix side of this otherwise fruitful partnership. Series favorites Donald Duck and Goofy hardly appear at all, and instead the focus of this side story is Organization XIII, a group of spiky-haired Japanimation girly-men who all wear black trenchcoats and have names containing the letter X.
From a technical perspective, this action RPG, in which you’re running around hitting enemies in real time rather than selecting commands from menus, contains what might be the best graphics on the DS. Characters and backgrounds were designed to look great close up in the game’s many cut scenes, but when zoomed out during actual gameplay, all the pixels blend together and you can’t even make out the main guy’s eyes. Fighting is based on a “Zelda”-style Z-targeting system, but you’re almost always pitted against groups of enemies, so being locked on one evil plant means you can’t see the four shooting seeds at your backside.
If “358/2 Days” has a saving grace, it’s the “Panel System” for customizing your character. Taking a page from “Chrono Cross” and “Final Fantasy XII,” you can “attach” spells, upgrades, etc., to your character and his weapons, and it’s addictive to tinker with the panel combinations between every battle. If only the actual fights were this much fun. The game could have been served very well by a conversion to a 2-D battle system in which all enemies are visible on one plane and the graphics are much clearer. As it is, only “Kingdom Hearts” completionists need apply.
‘Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days’
System: DS
Price: $34.99
Two out of five stars
