SingStar, the karaoke game that's inspired either love or loathing in many a party guest across the land for years now, is back with a new compilation ready for the summer and sure enough it's as tricky to review as ever. It's all about the you see, the game hasn't seen any real changes for ages now so how good each release is in the grand scheme of things comes down to how well its track listing suits your own personal taste.

SingStar games tend to come in two distinct flavours, there's the genre entries such as 'Rocks' 'R&B' and '80's' which contain a set of tracks all from a particular style or era. The other kind takes a broader approach and tries to cram a little bit of everything onto the disk in an attempt to ensure that whatever the audience there is something for everyone. This new Summer Party release fits firmly into the latter category, offering songs from people like Sugababes, Adele and Rihanna (yep, that horribly annoying Umbrella one) next to tracks from Pulp, Razorlight and Kaiser Chiefs stopping off at people like Wham!, Amy Winehouse, Chesney Hawkes, Mika and KT Tunstall along the way.

All the modes and options you've come to expect from SingStar are present and correct, from the party favourite modes like Battle and Duet to the single player experience for those secure enough in their vocal abilities to go it alone. For better or for worse the core game is also unsurprisingly unchanged which means you can still sing pretty much anything as long as you hit the right notes at the right time but let's be honest messing around with it like this is half the fun especially when you not the best singer in the world.

The slick presentation is as impressive as ever too and even though they're not by any means new the little touches like Eye Toy support and the ability to swap between different SingStar disks in-game without needing to re-boot the console still raise a satisfied smile.

The only real niggles are to be found in the track listing and as such are purely personal in nature. I'd have preferred 'Common People' to 'Disco 2000' as the Pulp entry, 'Lets Dance' seems a poor choice of Bowie song to me and there's never a valid reason for Peter Andre or Mambo No. 5 on any occasion.

SingStar as a concept is fantastic, the fact that each disk is now nothing more than the same game packaged up with new tracks is largely unimportant since that's really all you want or need from it now. That means we're left with having to judge each release on the basis of the track selection and on that front Summer Party does exactly what it says on the tin. It's not going to be the perfect package for anyone, however most people will probably find at least a couple of songs they can enjoy singing, and for what is essentially a party game that's pretty much exactly what you want.

It's next to impossible to award a score since it's all going to be down to musical taste but a quick flick through my fiances extensive SingStar collections shows Summer Party to be one of the stronger entries into the series in my opinion, so I'm going to give it a decent score secure in the knowledge you'll all ignore it and decide for yourself.

77%

By Paul Newcombe