FUNCTIONALITY

The wireless microphones are compatible with both PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, and with all versions of SingStar. During our playtesting we didn’t suffer from any lag when testing them on either system, and the mics proved to be very responsive, picking up on even the slightest change in pitch. They didn’t suffer from Lips’ infamous “white noise” problem either that allowed players to rack up points by simply blowing into the mic. Not that you would cheat anyway, would you?

The mics also appeared to work fine at range (we managed to push them to 20 feet before we ran out of space), and again without any noticeable lag.

As mentioned earlier, each microphone uses two standard AA batteries, and though Sony didn’t provide us with an estimated battery life, our mics were still up and running after the two to three hours we spent testing them. To preserve battery life, the mics also shutdown automatically after fifteen minutes of being idle.

It’s also been confirmed that the microphones are compatible with the PS3 versions of Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, though unfortunately we couldn’t verify that ourselves.

But the most obvious advantage offered by the wireless mics is the ability to sing (and dance?) untethered, something that Lips took full advantage of with its motion-sensing capabilities. SingStar’s wireless microphones, unfortunately, do not include such a feature, removing any possibility of motion-sensing themes being introduced to the series in the near future. Whether or not you’re one of those that find yourself restricted by a wired setup, we’ll leave to you to decide, but it’s disappointing that Sony chose not to incorporate any increased functionality that could be hosted by a wireless device.

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