Common Sense Media Review
By Christopher Healy
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Fantastic karaoke, but adult themes in lyrics and videos.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Lips: Number One Hits
What's It About?
LIPS: NUMBER ONE HITS is a singing game that allows players to perform along with a variety of hit songs from different genres, and rates perfomances based on how well the singer hits and holds the notes. The game comes packaged with a wireless, motion-sensitive microphone, which turns it into a more physically active game as well. Players may be called up on to shake the mike like a tambourine or to use it to strike certain poses at key points in a song. Players can sing cooperative duets or in competitive duels. They can also plug in an MP3 player and sing along with any song of their choosing.
Is It Any Good?
Lips: Number One Hits is one of the better-looking, better-performing, and more polished karaoke games out there. The scoring is gentle enough to let lots of people feel good about their singing at a party. The ability to create playlists and upload your own MP3 tunes to the game also add to its value as a party game. One great thing about Lips is that all the tracks are ready to go from the moment you pop in the disc -- no need to play through a tacked-on story mode and "unlock" songs. Being as Lips is such a great party game, it would have been nice if a second microphone had been included (you can have up to four, all being used at the same time, but those are, of course, sold separately). The motion control on the mikes works really well, and the ability for anybody to pick up a controller and provide percussion is a fun addition. All in all, this is a great package.
Online interaction: For every song you sing, you are ranked on Xbox Live's leaderboards, and awarded tropies based upon your ranking. Users can also challenge others online to song duels. There's no way to censor online interactions.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the portrayal of women in the media. How are men and women depicted differently in these videos? Is it realistic? Or fair?
Parents can also talk about Kanye West's smoking. Is his smoking meant to be appealing in the video? Or is it meant to symbolize his character's depression?
Parents can remind children about safeguarding themselves during online interaction.
Game Details
- Platform : Xbox 360
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Available online
- Publisher : Microsoft
- Release date : October 21, 2009
- Genre : Music & Dance
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : February 15, 2023
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