The real gem in SingStar Queen is of course, the music, which will appeal to any diehard or even mild Queen fan. This fantastic song list boasts 25 songs and while it includes obvious karaoke standbys such “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions”, the list also has songs such as “Fat Bottomed Girls”, “I Want to Be Free”, and “Somebody to Love”. There’s no doubt that there have been and will be many, many drunken warblings of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, complete with Wayne’s World head banging. It is disappointing to find however, that the Flash Gordon theme and Bicycle Race aren’t included, but that’s just a personal disappointment. Perhaps they’ll make future appearances as DLC. There are also a few exclusive tracks to the PS3 that aren’t on the PS2 version – “A Kind of Magic”, “Hammer to Fall”, “Killer Queen”, “Radio Ga Ga”, and “The Show Must Go On”.

In spite of this tantalizing library, it suffers from the same problem that has plagued every SingStar game, in that the artist vocals remain. As a karaoke veteran and enthusiast, the only voice I want to hear when I sing is mine and not Freddie Mercury’s, Gwen Stefani’s, or Christina Aguilera’s. If that were the case, then I might as well sing along to a CD. There’s a feature that supposedly removes artist vocals but in most cases it just mutes them as much as possible, but sometimes the music is muted along with it.

If you’re a Queen fan and don’t mind about the artist vocals then by all means pick up this game, some mics, and call a few friends over. However, if you take your social singing seriously then you’re better off going to your local bar/bowling alley/karaoke parlor and get your fix there. Or better yet, invest in a karaoke machine.

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