Karaoke Superstars

Karaoke Superstars is a series of rhythm games developed by Team Beats (early titles) and Hoodlum Softworks/ACS Production Studios San Jose (2006 onwards) and published by ACS. The series began with the release of its first installment, Karaoke Superstars: Sing Your Heart Out! in 2005, and has since spawned a number of sequels. Originally for PlayStation 2, the series has been released for various consoles, including the XBox, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Initially a home console port of Team Beats' 2004 Japan-only arcade game Karaoke Superstar, localized for the North American audience, the series has since branched out from its main franchise.

Gameplay
Karaoke Superstars uses specially-made USB microphones which detect pitch using digital signal processing, which analyses the frequency of the incoming signal. The frequency is then compared to stored information to evaluate if the note is correct. Due to limitations, the game does not include speech recognition, so singing different lyrics or humming into the mic at the correct pitch will also score points.

Just like its cohorts, Konami's Karaoke Revolution and Sony’s SingStar, the game's objective is to sing to the tune of the song using the aforementioned microphones. A series of “note tubes” appear on-screen from right to left, with the lyrics located right below, which the player then has to hit by singing to the according pitch.

Each missed note will result in the player’s combo being reset, as well as deduction of the player’s Sing Meter. When the player’s Sing Meter is depleted to zero, the game will be over. Higher difficulty levels will make pitch windows less lenient and the Sing Meter will decrease much faster. However, there exists a “Party Mode”, which turns off the Sing Meter completely, allowing players to sing continously regardless of pitch accuracy. Though the player will still be evaluated by their score in the end.

Karaoke Superstars Vol. 2 introduces a “Duets Mode”, which allows two players to sing through certain songs simultaneously, like an actual duet, while Vol. 3 introduces "Sing n’ Dance Mode", which allows players to plug in a To the Beat dance pad and dance to the songs while another player sings (a Japan-only arcade spinoff with a similar gimmick, To the Beat × Karaoke Superstar: Sing Dance Paradise, was later published by ACS a year later).

Soundtracks
The first three installments of Karaoke Superstars feature a wide variety of popular songs of various genres, including pop, rock and hip-hop. Unlike in SingStar and like in Karaoke Revolution, all songs featured in the game are covers, though the 2009 next-gen reboot of Karaoke Superstars uses the master recordings.

Aside from the first three volumes and the 2009 reboot, most of Karaoke Superstars' expansions focus on a certain aesthetic:


 * In 2006, ACS released Karaoke Superstars: Make it Pop! and Karaoke Superstars: Rock the Party!, with a sole focus on pop and rock music, respectively.
 * In 2007, the Karaoke Superstar Flashback duology was released, consisting of Karaoke Superstars Flashback: Let's Sing the 80s! and Karaoke Superstars Flashback: Let's Sing the 90s!, both of which focus on hits from their respective eras.
 * In 2008, ACS introcuced the Karaoke Superstars Presents line, which focuses on songs by specific artists or companies. Titles released under Karaoke Superstars Presents include Karaoke Superstars Presents: Michael Jackson (includes songs written and performed by Michael Jackson) and Karaoke Superstars Presents: The Disney Collection (includes songs from various Disney productions through the years)

Titles

 * Karaoke Superstars: Sing Your Heart Out! (2005; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)
 * Karaoke Superstars: Vol. 2 (2005; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)
 * Karaoke Superstars: Vol. 3 (2005; PlayStation 2, Xbox, Gamecube)
 * Karaoke Superstars: Make it Pop!(2006; PlayStation 2)
 * Karaoke Superstars: Rock the Party! (2006; PlayStation 2)
 * Karaoke Superstars Flashback: Let's Sing the 80s! (2007; PlayStation 2)
 * Karaoke Superstars Flashback: Let's Sing the 90s! (2007; PlayStation 2)
 * Karaoke Superstars Presents: Michael Jackson (2008; PlayStation 2)
 * Karaoke Superstars Presents: The Disney Collection (2008; PlayStation 2)
 * Karaoke Superstars (2009; PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii)

Trivia

 * The series' Japanese counterpart, Karaoke Superstar, is an arcade-based series of rhythm games that focuses more toward J-pop songs under the Avex Trax label. Licensing issues, as well as the lack of a mainstream J-pop market overseas, resulted in the creation of the two different series.
 * Loading screens in the Karaoke Superstars games, starting with Make it Pop! (2006), would often feature various random trivia about the chosen song and/or the performer.
 * A patch was released for the 2009 reboot of Karaoke Superstars to add support for microphones used for other games, such as SingStar, LIPS, Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
 * In the Wii port of the 2009 reboot, players are able to use their Miis in place of the standard avatars. A later patch for the XBox 360 version eventually allowed XBox Avatar support as well.
 * Throughout the years, there have been various expansions in the Karaoke Superstars series that were planned and developed, but were ultimately cancelled.
 * Karaoke Superstars: Hip-Hop Hype!, an expansion which focuses primarily on hip-hop.
 * Karaoke Superstars Presents titles for Mariah Carey, Queen and Motown Records.
 * Karaoke Superstars: Smash Hits!, a recollection of various favorite songs from previous games.