Nerdly » ‘Let’s Sing 2022’ Review (Xbox Series X/S)

18th Jan2022

‘Let’s Sing 2022’ Review (Xbox Series X/S)

by Phil Wheat

Now in it’s 2022 iteration, the RavensCourt/Voxler Let’s Sing franchise is now seemingly the only karaoke game left in a market that used to be completely saturated… I still struggle to understand why these types of games fell out of favour, especially in the TikTok era! You’d think that TikTok’ers would love to sing along with their favourite songs given how much they do it on TikTok?! However I think – and this years release, Let’s Sing 2022, really highlights this – that the song choices are not helping bring in new audiences and, I think, might be alienating existing ones…

As per last years game, I’m still worried about the small amount of physical copies of the Let’s Sing franchise actually available at retail. Yes I got a review code for this version of the game BUT, I also like to have all the Let’s Sing games in physical form and so I also pre-ordered Let’s Sing 2022 from an online retailer as my two, yes two(!) nearest GAME stores weren’t stocking it; even if you pre-ordered it! This essentially means you have to get copies from places like eBay once it sells out; and honestly, have you seen the secondary market prices for the previous Let’s Sing games – they’re getting to “Limited Run Games” style of inflated prices these days!

With that being said, lets crack on with the review of Let’s Sing 2022. Which we’ll break down in the same manner as ALL our previous ones (we’ve reviewed a lot of these games by now!)

Controls

Once again, and I hate to sound like a broken record in these reviews every year, nothing much has changed when it comes to the controls in Let’s Sing 2022 – the motto “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” springs to mind. Once again you have the USB mics that you can re-use from previous versions of the game or get with this latest edition. And there is, as per last year, the opportunity to use your mobile phone as a mic by downloading the FREE Let’s Sing mic app for the game and connecting your phone to your console over wi-fi. Which means there’s also more opportunity for playing – players can join the game through a combination of USB mic or phone app. Thankfully the “sing to activate the mic” option once again appears within the latest Let’s Sing game, which means players can jump in and out of the fun, choosing to partake in a particular track or not on a song-by-song basis.

Gameplay & Presentation

Not much has changed in Let’s Sing 2022: avatars; a global-asynchronous-versus-multiplayer-mode; and the “Mix Tape” mode, are all present here along with the same clean look and feel for the menu system. It’s all pretty much the same as last year… The global-asynchronous-versus-multiplayer-mode – or “World Contest” as it’s known in the game – is back as are the unlockable avatars and the updated score multiplier from way back in 2019’s Let’s Sing And there’s still plenty of trophies (and in turn avatars) to collect too, along with bronze, silver, gold, platinum AND diamond records. This means – as usual – for trophy hunters (like me) there’s plenty to go at in Let’s Sing 2022.

The Songs

So this is where the BIGGEST change in the Let’s Sing series has occurred this year… the songs! What happened? Most years we get a great balance of modern, classic and popular songs in the standard edition tracklist, however this year it seems the developers focussed on new songs instead, as I said in the opener perhaps to entice new, younger, gamers (which is probably most clear by the inclusion of the Sea Shanty which became a TikTok meme). OK, so that might bring in a younger audience but what about those of us who liked the mix of old and new, who like to sing throwback songs AND newer stuff? Seems we’ve been left with no option than to dig deep in our pockets and pay for either the song pass or individual song packs, adding to the already inflated price of the game. Plus, of the new songs, there’s a number of dance-style tracks that don’t really “fit” the karaoke game mold, especially those that CLEARLY feature a lot of autotune, repetition etc.!

Thankfully where the new track list in Let’s Sing 2022 IS balanced is in terms of difficulty, with songs ranging from easy to hard, which means there’s plenty of challenge this time round for even seasoned Let’s Sing players… Especially if you want to get on those worldwide leaderboards – which I do (and am)!

Check out the Let’s Sing 2022 tracklist below:

Billie Eilish – everything i wanted
Calvin Harris feat. Rag’n’Bone Man – Giant
David Guetta & Sia – Let’s Love
Ava Max – Kings & Queens
Ofenbach & Quarterhead feat. Norma Jean Martine – Head Shoulders Knees & Toes
Lady Gaga – Stupid Love
Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
Rag’n’Bone Man – Human
Wham! – Last Christmas
Topic & A7S – Breaking Me
Backstreet Boys – Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
Jax Jones ft. RAYE – You Don’t Know Me
Master KG feat. Nomcebo – Jerusalema
Nathan Evans (220 KID x Billen Ted Remix) – Wellerman (Sea Shanty)
Madcon feat. Ray Dalton – Don’t Worry
The Offspring – Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)
Zoe Wees – Control
David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes
Imagine Dragons – Bad Liar
Joel Corry x MNEK – Head & Heart

Conclusion

In terms of gameplay Let’s Sing 2022 isn’t much of a change from both the 2020 and 2021 editions, however that new focus on new(er) songs rather than a mix of decades has hit this game hard. It just doesn’t feel as enjoyable as both the aforementioned versions and without buying new song packs – even just one – the game feels lacking compared to previous years. But – like I’ve said a million times before and ESPECIALLY now given the new, I feel to actually HAVE to buy new song packs – why not offer year-round digital-only updates rather than having to wait a year between releases? Now THAT would be a huge improvement to the franchise and prevent each release from becoming stale.

Ultimately, if you’ve liked previous versions of the franchise you’re probably going to grab this one too but be warned, it’s just not as fun this year.