At Microsoft’s Monday press conference I saw Duffy sing “Mercy” in Lips, but the performance didn’t explain much about what is in the game. I started asking questions, lots of questions, and got some answers.
Zune / MP3 connectivity is only functional with DRM (digital rights management) free music. I couldn’t get any details on how Lips removes vocals, but the game has voice reduction. The pre-packaged songs can utilize “hard” voice reduction which removes all vocals. “Soft” voice reduction quiets the original singer so you can faintly hear the artist. “None” has the artist sing the song and you can sing along or just watch the music video. Lips will have downloadable content and it’s probably going to be used to sell more songs.
The microphones are motion sensitive. At anytime you can pick up a mic, shake it, and immediately start singing. You can also shake the microphone to use it as a tambourine or to play other sounds. Lips only supports two singers, but four other people can join in by making percussion sound effects with Xbox 360 controllers. Some of the sounds include claps and maraca shakes.
I was surprised to find out Lips may not be coming to Japan even though it’s made by Inis. This might be because Microsoft hopes to localize Lips with Japanese songs, which could be costly. We get Lips this holiday season.
Images courtesy of Microsoft.
Published: Jul 16, 2008 09:14 am