Let’s Sing 2022 Review – Loud And Clear

The death of the “music game with fancy peripherals” genre is a sad one indeed. Games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band were staples of parties at which nobody wanted to talk to each other, but the undisputed royalty in this area was games like SingStar and Let’s Sing. Luckily, the latter is still going (relatively) strong, as Let’s Sing 2022 arrives on our shores. It’s the first karaoke game to launch for the new console generation, but luckily for our purposes, it’s also launched on PS4.

Karaoke games do feel like something of an anomaly in 2022. When gaming seems geared towards live service elements, loot boxes, and trying to prise kids’ money away from them however possible, Let’s Sing 2022 is an odd duck for simply offering a straightforward singing experience with little fat around it. You’ve got 30 songs available, covering lots of different genres so that nobody in your party will feel left out no matter what their music taste might be.

If you’re a solo singer, you’ll probably get the most mileage out of Let’s Sing 2022’s Legend mode, which allows you to sing songs by yourself in order to earn stars. It’s not a particularly deep or fleshed-out career mode, which is a shame; we’d have liked to see a Rock Band-style journey, taking you from your humble basement beginnings all the way to pop stardom. Still, that’s not really the Let’s Sing 2022 target audience, so it’s understandable that the career mode is relatively bare-bones.

Of course, most of your mileage in Let’s Sing 2022 will be in the multiplayer modes, and there are a few of those as well. The Classic mode allows you to simply pick a song, pick up a microphone and start singing with your friends or alone. There’s also the Let’s Party mode, which pits you and your friends against one another in teams, allowing you to battle each other for supremacy. These are great ways to enjoy Let’s Sing’s varied tracklist.

Let’s take a look at the songs on offer here, because they are, after all, the bread and butter of a karaoke game. The genres are nicely varied, covering modern pop (Billie Eilish’s “Everything I Wanted”, Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open”) through to classics (Wham!’s “Last Christmas” and Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”) and even some throwback pop to get you in the mood for a party (Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”).

It’s impossible to feel like anybody is going to be left out of a Let’s Sing 2022 party, but the disparate nature of the setlist does have its drawbacks as well. Kids will most likely be bored while adults warble their way through Depeche Mode or David Bowie (although they might gain a valuable musical education), while adults will be left baffled by Jason Derulo’s “Savage Love” or Jax Jones and RAYE’s “You Don’t Know Me”. It’s impossible to please everyone, but Let’s Sing 2022 might perhaps have landed on a less inelegant solution for attempting to do so.

What you’ve got here is a simple karaoke package that isn’t trying to be anything else. There aren’t any shoehorned-in modes or features; everything feels like it’s in its right place. The Jukebox and Playlist Creator modes don’t really feel particularly essential, given that the song list is relatively limited for making playlists. However, they’re nice touches, and they might give someone some joy in making custom song lists for their friends to tackle. They’re inoffensive, but you may consider them to be essential depending on what you’re playing for.

There’s also a fairly involved online mode with leaderboards to help you compare your score to others. You won’t find any kind of actual online multiplayer mode here; singing with others around the world isn’t really possible thanks to lag, and besides, it’s easy to imagine bad actors abusing a potential online mode. You can sing with up to 4 others and engage with co-op modes supporting up to 8 singers, which should be enough for you and your buddies or your family.

It’s worth noting here that if you are playing on PS5, you won’t be able to use your classic SingStar microphones. The PS4 version is compatible with these peripherals, but the PS5 game isn’t, so you should break out your PS4 if you want to use these mics. However, if you use the Let’s Sing app, it should allow you to transform your phone’s microphone or headset into a mic for the game, which should more than suffice for the purpose of playing a few songs.

Another nice touch is that Let’s Sing 2022 allows you to import song lists from previous games in the series. While 30 songs may feel like more than enough for most purposes, it does quickly start to feel a bit repetitive, so being able to draw from lists in games gone by is a great option. Ravenscourt has also confirmed that Let’s Sing 2022 will be supported by additional downloadable songs via the in-game store, so when things start to get a bit stale, you should be able to expand the setlist with extra content.

All in all, Let’s Sing 2022 is an easy recommendation if you love karaoke games. It certainly doesn’t do anything to push the boat out or create a more comprehensive experience for those who aren’t in a party mood, but it’s the perfect accompaniment to a get-together. Thanks to its range of songs, breadth of modes (which could nonetheless be expanded a little), and downloadable content, Let’s Sing 2022 should keep you and your friends or family occupied for a good while yet. At least until Let’s Sing 2023 inevitably arrives next year, anyhow.