Konami has announced that their latest Karaoke Revolution title, Karaoke Revolution: American Idol will be based around the hit TV show.

The game is expected to include 40 songs as you battle it out from a first audition up to becoming an American Idol. The title looks to include hit songs from the show along with the celebrity judges including snap remarks from Simon.

Karaoke Revolution: American Idol is scheduled to release in December 2006.

This article was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Certain formatting, imaged, and embedded content may have been lost in the transition process.

"In recent years, SEGA has rebalanced its development strategy to be more Western focused," said Naoya Tsurumi, CEO, SEGA of America, Inc. and SEGA Europe Ltd. "On the heels of our first, successful studio acquisition with The Creative Assembly, the addition of this development powerhouse further moves SEGA toward its goal of becoming a leading next-generation publisher."

Secret Level will continue working at its current studio. New projects from the studio were not announced.

Konami has announced the upcoming release of their newest Karaoke Revolution title, CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country.

The game will feature 35 country songs although they have not officially been announced yet. CMT Presents will include EyeToy compatibility, mini-games and unlockable rewards including new playable characters, songs and more.

Konami's product manager Matt Knoles said, "We are excited to have CMT as a partner in creating a game that finally meets the needs of the growing country music fan base."

CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country is scheduled to release for the PlayStation 2 in March.

This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Matthew Call.

The crazy cats at Konami have done it again. The same company responsible for the Dance Dance Revolution series has created a series of karaoke games. Karaoke Revolution Party is the first of the series to appear on the GameCube, and while it succeeds at delivering an in-home karaoke experience on the ‘Cube, it doesn’t quite measure up to the versions of the game on the PS2 or the Xbox.

The best thing about the game is its novelty. Who would have thought a few years ago that gamers would be plugging microphones into their consoles and singing along to tunes and actually enjoying themselves? Well apparently someone did, and the results are fantastic. Watching one of your good gaming buddies trying to sing along to Madonna’s Material Girl is about as unique an experience as you’re going to find in gaming today. This is one of the best party games out there, since it’s just fun to watch people, especially those who aren’t videogame veterans, sit down and enjoy playing a game together.

What’s even more astounding is that the game actually works. As you sing there is a sort of musical staff on the page and lines appear telling the player how high or low the notes are and when they should be sung. When it’s time to sing an arrow appears on the screen and indicates how high or low the player’s voice is in relation to the melody that the game is looking for. Players gain points for keeping their own vocal cords on pitch, and the longer they manage to stay on tune, the more points are earned. Male gamers with low voices need not be concerned since the game can also tell if the player is on pitch an octave below the normal melody. Amazingly enough, the game is pretty good at determining when gamers are on tune, although those with trained vocal cords and a bit of vibrato may have to tone down their vocal quality for the game to register their singing properly.

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