The X Factor: The Official Karaoke DVD - Volume 1

The Good
It's a simple game that works.

The music is OK, it's not original and it lacks something, depth, quality, can't put my finger on what but it's acceptable. Other than that there's not a lot of content to comment on other than the background music that plays when the menu screen is showing - like the featured tracks it is OK but not memorable.

The Bad
I bought volumes one to five in this series so I'm very, very, very, very, very disappointed in this title. I bought them based on the prominent "12 Interactive Karaoke Tracks" claim on the front panel and expected to get my microphone out and sing along to the songs. Some karaoke games do this but not these. However well you sing, however loudly, however close you stick to the tune counts for nothing because there's no vocal input. The game defaults to delivering a 'random verdict' so there's connection between the player's vocal performance and the verdict given. The only interactive element in the game is the option to force a Good or a Bad video clip to be played when the song is over.

The videos of Simon Cowell delivering these verdicts have been lifted from the TV show. They are very, very short, one of the longest I've seen has Simon saying "I've never seen anything like it' - two and a half seconds tops. To some this may add to the realism but to me, at RRP £14.99, it just seems like an ultra cheap way to cash in on the TV show and rip off the fans

The Bottom Line
Whether you get a hairbrush and sing along to the radio like we did 'back in the day' or whether you stream music and lyrics to your phone/tablet and sing along to that you'll probably be having more fun, and listening to original artists, than I've had with these DVDs. It's probably going to be cheaper too!