Lips Party Classics

Lips: Party Classics is a stand-alone expansion that adds another 40 songs to the playlist of the popular Xbox 360 karaoke game. This time the game features a well chosen selection of iconic, timeless and not-so-timeless favourites from the last five decades of pop music, from UB40 to Tiffany, onto Mariah Carey and Amy Winehouse.

The Lipsfranchise provides pretty standard karaoke fair. You select songs – available in both long and short versions (ideal if you have impatient friends) – and try your best to sing along with the original artists. If you are using the original Lipsmicrophones, you can shake them to use them as tambourines, handclaps and other auxiliary instruments.

At certain points in the songs you can move or swing the mic around for extra points. The volume is adjustable, allowing you to sing in a meek whisper or allow the attention seekers out there to drown out the track's proper vocalist. You don't need to own any of the previous Lipsgame discs to take full advantage of this new addition to the series. You also have the same access to the vast online song marketplace as the other games in the Lipsseries.

All your previously downloaded Lips songs from the LIVE Marketplace are available directly from within Lips: Party Classics. For the first time, Lips: Party Classics allows owners of other USB microphones to use them with game.

This means that if you own a Rock Band or any other USB microphone there is no need to splash out on the expensive Microsoft mics. This is a great feature, but couldn't this just be added as a simple patch for owners of the other games?

I'm not sure that these additional Lipsreleases are any more than jumped-up song packs. The 40 songs on offer here is a bit tight compared to other music games.

That said, all Xbox 360 owners owe it to themselves to have at least one of these Lipsgames in their collection for those times when your guests have had just that little bit too much to drink.