SingStar Pop Hits adds to an already popular series, which can be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home, removing the worry of embarrassing yourself - or in a party environment where someone else might be a lot more tone deaf than you think you are. You can sing to your heart's content and no one would really care, because it's a game of enjoyment rather than challenge. Well you can challenge, but you get more laughs out of it through embarrassment. It's not to say we are all bad, but let's honest: where's the fun if everyone can sing?

For those who don't know what SingStar is, well to describe it simply, it's karaoke. The idea is to sing along to the lyrics displayed and to stay in tune. To know if you're hitting the right note, bars on screen will appear giving you an idea of how high or low you need to go. As you sing along coloured bars start to appear and fill up the bars if you are on the right note or will appear outside of it to show how far off you are. As you are filling the bars/hitting the right note and holding for the duration required, the points start to pile on. At the end of the song you are graded based on the points scored, so you could end up being Lead Singer or Tone Deaf. You can play it back to see how you really sound, but sometimes it's best left alone so you can leave with some pride intact.

You can play in either Single, Battle or Duet mode. Single mode is great if you want to go it alone with nobody in sight or in a group environment where you can show off your vocals. Battle mode sees two of you sing the same song simultaneously with two sets of bars displayed. These bars fill with the colour of the microphone you have so you know how you are tracking throughout the song.

For Duet mode, two of you sing the same song, but unlike battle mode you each sing different parts. And don't worry, it shows you which part you need to sing as it changes between red and blue. It's not that difficult to pick up and roll with, the difficult part is picking up the courage to give it a shot.

SingStar has been around for some time now and with its latest release of Pop Hits, it's fair to say everything is pretty much the same as last, except of course for the new tracks. The structure of the game is largely untouched, but that's not to say it's a bad thing though as it is easy to use and free flowing. The only thing you could really look at critically is the amount of tracks and selection.

Pop Hits has 30 songs, but some don't really fit in and probably won't see much game time. Take Jenny From the Block; it's too upbeat and not something you could easily run with. Frustration quickly sets in on this song as you spend more time trying catch up rather than trying to stay in tune. Baby One More Time, on the other hand, is great. As annoying as the song was, it allows you to break loose into a mixture of high and low tones, testing the vocal cords you think you have.

Track Listing:

• Akon, Lonely
• All Saints, Black Coffee
• Avril Lavigne, My Happy Ending
• Ashlee Simpson, Boyfriend
• Britney Spears, Baby One More Time
• Cascada, Everytime We Touch
• Corinne Bailey Rae, Put Your Records On
• Daniel Powter, Bad Day
• Dannii Minogue, I Begin To Wonder
• Evanesence, Bring Me To Life
• Fall Out Boy, Dance Dance
• Girls Aloud, No Good Advice
• Goldfrapp, Ooh La La
• Jamelia, Beware Of The Dog
• James Morrisson, You Give Me Something
• Jennifer Lopez, Jenny From the Block
• Jojo, Leave (Get Out)
• Keane, Crystal Ball
• Ne-Yo, Sexy Love
• Lily Allen, Littlest Thing
• My Chemical Romance, Helena
• Nelly Furtado, Promiscuou
• Norah Jones, Don't Know Why
• Pussycat Dolls, Beep
• Rhianna, SO
• Scissor Sisters, I Don't Feel Like Dancing
• Sugababes, Push The Button
• Travis, Sing
• Will Young, Switch It On
• U2, Beautiful Day