“Can you hear the drums, Fernando? …”

Yes, and by the love that is all that is holy and right, please make them stop … as well as other incessant tunes that go round and round in the head. Catching yourself humming “you are the dancing queen …” at a men’s indoor soccer game is an open invitation to get yourself run through the boards.

SingStar has taken a bit of a departure from the general open-format song lists that usually dot the SingStar lineups by releasing a title that focuses on one iconic band, and the one chosen was ABBA. Ok, this is certain to appeal to a much more finite audience, but when you produce a title that focuses on one group, you are bound to get that.

Let’s cut straight to the chase with this title, and that is the song list.

The PS3 version of the SingStar title has 25 songs, as opposed to 20 on the PS2 version. The PS3 lineup includes: Chiquitita, Dancing Queen, Does Your Mother Know, Fernando, Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!, Happy New Year, Head Over Heels, I Do I Do I Do I Do I Do, Knowing Me Knowing You, Mamma Mia, Money Money Money, One of Us, Ring Ring, SOS, Summer Night City, Super Trouper, Take A Chance On Me, Thank You For The Music, The Day Before You Came, The Name Of The Game, The Winner Takes All, Under Attack, Voulez-Vous, Waterloo and When All Is Said And Done.

The production values are very solid and the game looks pretty good on a 42-inch HD screen, but the game mechanics have not changed. The idea is simple – if you have formula that works, don’t mess with it. What this release does is merely add in more songs. In that regard it is an expansion, not a reinvented idea.

For the uninformed, you have a microphone and you are challenged to sing on pitch to the videos. The game features a pitch meter and the words scroll across the screen. You get a score depending on the percentage of notes hit.

There is a multiplayer portion as well, with duets available on some of the ABBA songs featured.

The graphical quality, as mentioned, is solid, and so is the sound. While 25 is not a lot of songs, the game does pick up on the downloads you have purchased from the SingStar store and they can be accessed as well – if you tire of ABBA.

Two younger girls, one 14 and the other 12, who had seen the feature film Mama Mia, where given the opportunity to play the game. The older was not that interested, while the younger enjoyed the game but thought there was not enough variety.

Gameplay: 7.0
Same format, and though it works, it’s hardly unique now. The game may also have limited appeal with the song groups.

Graphics: 7.8
Nice job of adapting the older videos to the HD format.

Sound: 7.2
It sounds good, but not a huge ABBA fan.  

Difficulty: Easy/Med

Concept: 7.0
Nothing new here, just different songs.

Multiplayer: 7.0
Decent modes, but again, it’s been done before.

Overall: 7.0
This will have limited appeal, and as such is not the strongest collection of songs to make the SingStar roster. If you are an ABBA fan, you will enjoy this. If you are not an ABBA fan, you would do well to leave it alone.