For more on We Sing: Pop, check out our full We Sing: Pop review. Or, for more of the best Nintendo Wii games for a 7 year old, why not try our Family Game Finder
We Sing: Pop is a karaoke game for the Wii, much like Lips on the Xbox 360 or Singstar on the Playstation, letting you sing along to a variety of hits from that wide genre known as "Pop music". Featuring songs by everyone from Adele and Lady Gaga to Wham! and Hanson, there's a decent range of songs on offer, and your kids are bound to find something to sing to - although you might struggle a bit, unless you're familiar with the latest tunes (or a closet Peter Andre fan). Once you've chosen your song, you'll be singing along to the official music video, with lyrics on screen telling you what to sing, and pitch bars giving you an indication of what notes you need to sing (and letting you know if you're too high or too low). It's really very easy to pick up and play, and as soon as you've chosen a song, you'll be away, and heading for a high score.
Controls are virtually non-existent - all you use the Wii Remote for is pointing at and selecting options on menus. What may cause a problem is the speed at which you need to read and sing out the lyrics, which could be too fast for the less proficient readers - although there's nothing stopping them humming along, making up there own lyrics or just belting out the chorus if they don't know the song too well. It's not possible to fail a song by not doing very well, like on Rock Band or Guitar Hero - so there's no need for young 'uns to worry.
As a karaoke game, We Sing: Pop does contain a few mildly mature lyrics, although there's nothing here that's phenomenally strong. With the harsher swear words ****ed out in the lyrics (and blanked out in the music), the only "bad" words your children may end up singing are the more pedestrian, God, damn, hell and the rare "bitch". There are, however, a few sexual references here too, most of which are innuendos, with Lady Gaga's Bad Romance being a prime example - "I want your psycho, your vertigo stick, want you in my rear window, baby you're sick".
Some games live for their multiplayer options - and the We Sing series is definitely one of them, with masses of multiplayer choices for up to four players. Depending on your mood, you might fancy the working together-ness of the standard We Sing mode, where everyone co-operates for the best score; Pass The Mic is similarly co-operative, but has a bit of a twist - each person gets to sing a section of the song, before passing the microphone onto the next randomly selected player. There's also a fair few competitive modes, from the standard Versus, where it's a competition for the highest score, and Team Battle, where teams of one to three players compete for the top score. Marathon lets you set up a list of songs to sing through, with the person with the highest score being declared the winner, Blind has the sound and lyrics disappearing at random intervals leaving just you and your memory, and Expert is for the serious karaoke singers, as there's no lyrics or pitch bars shown on the screen at all. So plenty for families to choose from!
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii
