Electronic Arts had a real challenge facing them of how they would create a compelling video game version of American Idol. How do you make a game based around a show that revolves around singing but having it work for both the iPhone and the iTouch, when the iTouch does not have a microphone?
A few concessions later American Idol: The Game was born and it ends up being better than you might think.
The solution was to make the game rhythm-based using the accelerometer. This makes the game a lot like a lite version of Guitar Hero and Rock Band not only because of the rhythm style, but the fact that you must beat songs to unlock more.
The objective of this game is to impress the judges by singing well and trying to be the next American Idol. As you progress you will encounter a few characters that give you advice, cheer you up, encourage you, or help you improve your singing voice.
Before every competition, you will be faced with 3 songs, and you have to pick which one you want to sing. Up till the Top 10 I have only seen about 6-7 songs I have the option to sing, which can get annoying if you don’t like any of them. Hopefully there will be more songs later in the game and updates with more songs.
In career, you earn style, fame, and talent points by making choices and performing well. I have yet to see any point to these, but they must be important somehow.
There is also a quick play mode where you can sing any song you want that you have already unlocked in Career. You don’t have to worry about judges or anything in this mode, so just relax and have fun with it!
The controls in this game have a simple concept but it doesn’t mean the gameplay is simple. All you do is tilt your iDevice and guide the star so that it hits the notes. The gold notes are worth more than the regular white notes, so try to get every single one of those. In various parts of some songs there will be “Dance Breaks” where you are no longer singing, but tapping stars as the come across the line like in Tap Tap Revenge.
The graphics in this game are pretty good. Not as good as you would expect from an EA game, but they are still pretty good. When the various people are talking to you the sound matches up with the motion of their lips, so that is good. Most of the pictures and people are real, even after the song ends you are given a clip of the three famous judges telling you how you did.
The sound in this game is also pretty good. As I mentioned before the voice matches up with the picture, and also, while singing they did a good job of taking a new voice and putting it behind the song. You can tell when you miss a note or hit it badly because the singing doesn’t sound very good for a bit. This game is pretty hard to play without sound just because you cant hear when you mess up and it is easier to keep a rhythm with music playing.
Overall, this game is pretty good, but not what you would expect from EA. You might want to wait for an update with more songs though before you pay the asking price of $4.99 though. Also, it is pretty short.I got to the Top 10 in like 10 minutes. The songs are not full length just a small section of it too. I would definitely wait for an update with more songs and more challenging songs or a price drop, as it is not worth it.
The Good
Fun to play
Unique
Idol Fans will enjoyThe Bad
More songs needed
Not very difficult
Feels a little too short
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….
..if only i liked the show..
love the show, kwl game
wow great music app
looks great
i can’t sing ^^
its really big and looks fantastic
want to have!!
Thats disappointing that its not that great, I would of expected it to be better like you said since its EA. O well I think I will skip this one and save up for NFS
FYI there will not be a giveaway for this app.
Dude, I used to love this show!
wow
looks really great
im not a great singer
and i dont look american idol i just look the german version of it
but its from ea and its huge i think about 420mb
thats why i cant understand why its so short………….