Unlike the Karaoke Revolution series, which has you selecting an avatar which will perform on stage as "you" while you are singing, SingStar Amped features videos from the songs as a background. I find that this is sometimes a nice effect, but the backgrounds aren't interactive, as they are in Karaoke Revolution games. Mind you, the backgrounds are really more of a matter of choice, as these games are all about the music. However, music fans from the MTV generation are more likely to enjoy the actual videos and the actual music performed by the original stars as is featured in SingStar Amped, than the re-recorded music performed "in the style of" the original artists by studio musicians, as is seen in Karaoke Revolution.
Both series of games feature a video overlay that displays the lyrics and gives some indication of where the notes are, relative to each other. The differences between these displays, however, are very noticeable. Karaoke Revolution games have a format where there are "pitch bars" that show where the pitch should be and when and how long the notes should be held and these pitch bars scroll across the screen (from right to left) in sync with the words that are to be sung. While some people have issues with reading these scrolling words, it is very easy to associate the words with the pitch they're to be sung at and to know when to sing. SingStar Amped, on the other hand, displays two lines of text - the current line of lyrics and the next upcoming line of lyrics - at any given time. The problem with this method is that, with the exception of the first word of each line, there is no good indication of when you're supposed to sing the next word. The words simply light up when you're supposed to sing them. If you're totally familiar with the song, then this won't be much of an issue for you. If you aren't totally familiar with the song, you're likely to sing words at the wrong time, not knowing exactly how long you're supposed to hold a note.
As for song selection, SingStar Amped, specifically, focuses on the grittier side of music, with a great selection of alternative and hard rock music. There are 30 "chart-topping songs and music videos," including Boston's "More than a Feeling," Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race," Nirvana's "Come as you Are," Poison's "Every Rose Has its Thorn," Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart" and The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop." One of my favorites is Radiohead's "Creep," although I prefer to sing the words to "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to that one; it fits fairly well if you know what you're doing, and I can still get a pretty decent score. Sublime's "Santeria" is also another pretty fun one, just on principal, while Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild," Iggy Pop's "Real Wild Child (Wild One)" and Quiet Riot's "Cum on Feel the Noize" provide some classic rock favorites to satisfy the oldskool crowd.
