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This thread has been linked to the game 'My First Songs'.
Kids love singing. Well, mine do at least. Usually when I have a headache or first thing in the morning, or while I’m driving. You get the idea. So My First Songs seems like an excellent idea; Kids can join in with popular Karaoke style games while being able to sing the nursery rhymes they know and love.
The first thing you see is a simple menu. This is easy to navigate, so children of 5 or above should be able to choose the songs themselves. All the songs are chosen through the scenery, so Incy Wincy Spider is a picture of a Spider near the house. The pictures become highlighted when choosen and details of the song appear.
However, when you start singing the problems with this title become apparent. With many modern HDTVs games like this need to sync the sound and picture, so that timing can be correctly set between the words and the game recognising your voice for those words. Most Guitar games and some karaoke games such as Rockband and Guitar Hero have options for this. While it’s less noticeable with a Microphone, it does affect the registering of singing, even if it is off by just a millisecond. With My First Songs there are no options to sync the sound and lo and behold my child's voice came back out of the television a second out from the song itself.
The over-lenient scoring system makes it hard to get a bad score, it’s quite easy, but then I wouldn’t expect there to be a ‘fail’ option in a game for young children. This is just as well because, rather than being able to sing the lyrics off by heart, my youngest daughter was confused. Why? Because the lyrics are American versions of the songs which sometimes differ significantly from the UK lyrics. Sometimes it’s just a few words, other times its whole lines.
The pictures that accompany the songs are bright and colourful, just like the basic cartoons you sometimes see in between other programmes on kids TV. They tell the story quite well and help the kids to get involved with the song, rather than just reading the lyrics (which younger children won’t be able to do anyway). While you could argue that they could be more technical, I feel that the graphics are appropriate for the age the game is aimed at.
As for extras; other than singing each song there is precious little to do. There is no score table outside of the score you are given at the end of each song and there are no mini-games or other things that might make the package more interesting. It’s fairly basic stuff and while children do like repetition, it doesn’t make the pack very good value for money.
My First Songs is a disappointing package by design, borne from a good idea. With so many other similar games out there, including Disney’s Sing It Family Hits, it’s a shame that the same formula couldn’t be applied to Nursery Rhymes.
3/10
The first thing you see is a simple menu. This is easy to navigate, so children of 5 or above should be able to choose the songs themselves. All the songs are chosen through the scenery, so Incy Wincy Spider is a picture of a Spider near the house. The pictures become highlighted when choosen and details of the song appear.
However, when you start singing the problems with this title become apparent. With many modern HDTVs games like this need to sync the sound and picture, so that timing can be correctly set between the words and the game recognising your voice for those words. Most Guitar games and some karaoke games such as Rockband and Guitar Hero have options for this. While it’s less noticeable with a Microphone, it does affect the registering of singing, even if it is off by just a millisecond. With My First Songs there are no options to sync the sound and lo and behold my child's voice came back out of the television a second out from the song itself.
The over-lenient scoring system makes it hard to get a bad score, it’s quite easy, but then I wouldn’t expect there to be a ‘fail’ option in a game for young children. This is just as well because, rather than being able to sing the lyrics off by heart, my youngest daughter was confused. Why? Because the lyrics are American versions of the songs which sometimes differ significantly from the UK lyrics. Sometimes it’s just a few words, other times its whole lines.
The pictures that accompany the songs are bright and colourful, just like the basic cartoons you sometimes see in between other programmes on kids TV. They tell the story quite well and help the kids to get involved with the song, rather than just reading the lyrics (which younger children won’t be able to do anyway). While you could argue that they could be more technical, I feel that the graphics are appropriate for the age the game is aimed at.
As for extras; other than singing each song there is precious little to do. There is no score table outside of the score you are given at the end of each song and there are no mini-games or other things that might make the package more interesting. It’s fairly basic stuff and while children do like repetition, it doesn’t make the pack very good value for money.
My First Songs is a disappointing package by design, borne from a good idea. With so many other similar games out there, including Disney’s Sing It Family Hits, it’s a shame that the same formula couldn’t be applied to Nursery Rhymes.
3/10
That does sound pretty disappointing. Some videogames have the best graphics and gameplay while others are crap.
Kids love singing. Well, mine do at least. Usually when I have a headache or first thing in the morning, or while I’m driving. You get the idea. So My First Songs seems like an excellent idea; Kids can join in with popular Karaoke style games while being able to sing the nursery rhymes they know and love.
The first thing you see is a simple menu. This is easy to navigate, so children of 5 or above should be able to choose the songs themselves. All the songs are chosen through the scenery, so Incy Wincy Spider is a picture of a Spider near the house. The pictures become highlighted when choosen and details of the song appear.
However, when you start singing the problems with this title become apparent. With many modern HDTVs games like this need to sync the sound and picture, so that timing can be correctly set between the words and the game recognising your voice for those words. Most Guitar games and some karaoke games such as Rockband and Guitar Hero have options for this. While it’s less noticeable with a Microphone, it does affect the registering of singing, even if it is off by just a millisecond. With My First Songs there are no options to sync the sound and lo and behold my child's voice came back out of the television a second out from the song itself.
The over-lenient scoring system makes it hard to get a bad score, it’s quite easy, but then I wouldn’t expect there to be a ‘fail’ option in a game for young children. This is just as well because, rather than being able to sing the lyrics off by heart, my youngest daughter was confused. Why? Because the lyrics are American versions of the songs which sometimes differ significantly from the UK lyrics. Sometimes it’s just a few words, other times its whole lines.
The pictures that accompany the songs are bright and colourful, just like the basic cartoons you sometimes see in between other programmes on kids TV. They tell the story quite well and help the kids to get involved with the song, rather than just reading the lyrics (which younger children won’t be able to do anyway). While you could argue that they could be more technical, I feel that the graphics are appropriate for the age the game is aimed at.
As for extras; other than singing each song there is precious little to do. There is no score table outside of the score you are given at the end of each song and there are no mini-games or other things that might make the package more interesting. It’s fairly basic stuff and while children do like repetition, it doesn’t make the pack very good value for money.
My First Songs is a disappointing package by design, borne from a good idea. With so many other similar games out there, including Disney’s Sing It Family Hits, it’s a shame that the same formula couldn’t be applied to Nursery Rhymes.
3/10
The first thing you see is a simple menu. This is easy to navigate, so children of 5 or above should be able to choose the songs themselves. All the songs are chosen through the scenery, so Incy Wincy Spider is a picture of a Spider near the house. The pictures become highlighted when choosen and details of the song appear.
However, when you start singing the problems with this title become apparent. With many modern HDTVs games like this need to sync the sound and picture, so that timing can be correctly set between the words and the game recognising your voice for those words. Most Guitar games and some karaoke games such as Rockband and Guitar Hero have options for this. While it’s less noticeable with a Microphone, it does affect the registering of singing, even if it is off by just a millisecond. With My First Songs there are no options to sync the sound and lo and behold my child's voice came back out of the television a second out from the song itself.
The over-lenient scoring system makes it hard to get a bad score, it’s quite easy, but then I wouldn’t expect there to be a ‘fail’ option in a game for young children. This is just as well because, rather than being able to sing the lyrics off by heart, my youngest daughter was confused. Why? Because the lyrics are American versions of the songs which sometimes differ significantly from the UK lyrics. Sometimes it’s just a few words, other times its whole lines.
The pictures that accompany the songs are bright and colourful, just like the basic cartoons you sometimes see in between other programmes on kids TV. They tell the story quite well and help the kids to get involved with the song, rather than just reading the lyrics (which younger children won’t be able to do anyway). While you could argue that they could be more technical, I feel that the graphics are appropriate for the age the game is aimed at.
As for extras; other than singing each song there is precious little to do. There is no score table outside of the score you are given at the end of each song and there are no mini-games or other things that might make the package more interesting. It’s fairly basic stuff and while children do like repetition, it doesn’t make the pack very good value for money.
My First Songs is a disappointing package by design, borne from a good idea. With so many other similar games out there, including Disney’s Sing It Family Hits, it’s a shame that the same formula couldn’t be applied to Nursery Rhymes.
3/10