Disney Sing It! (Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Windows)

Music games are all the rage and for good reason: they're easy to get into, they expose players to all kinds of music, and perhaps most importantly, they are a fun social activity rather than a solitary experience. In the DISNEY SING IT! karaoke video game, players use the bundled microphone (or use an existing one for the console) to sing along with familiar songs from Disney Channel TV shows and movies as well as Hollywood Records artists. Specifically, players can select from about three dozen tracks from the likes of Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers and High School Musical (1, 2 and 3). But unlike last year's High School Musical: Sing It, which featured animated characters based on real stars (such as Zac "Troy" Efron), Disney Sing It! includes authentic music videos, concert footage, and video clips from the films. Because of this, kids – and kids at heart -- should find this a more gratifying experience.

In case you haven't played these games before, Disney Sing It! will display the lyrics to the words of these songs and your goal is to sing along as best you can. The game measures your pitch and rhythm, and calculates your score on the fly. Sing well and you can win "multiplier" points to double, triple, or quadruple your points within a short period of time. At the end of each song you'll receive your final point value and star rating. While on the easy side -- that is, it's pretty forgiving for those who can't carry a tune too well -- the game nicely blends your vocals into the original song, which should give kids a thrill.

Not only will players unlock bonus songs, which adds to the game's replayability, as does the fact you can play in duet and team mode or in a competitive multiplayer mode, but each song offers different vocal tracks to sing to (up to four in some cases), plus there are varying levels of difficulty, too. Apparently, Disney Interactive Studios will soon announce the ability to download additional songs from the Internet the way you can with games like Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Rock Band 2. Designed primarily for tweens and young teens, Disney Sing It! is one of the better singing-based games to surface in a while, but you really do have to be into the likes of Camp Rock, and High School Musical, and Disney Channel television shows.