So, last month, during the Adobe Community Summit in San Jose, California, I had a nice visit with my cousin Karen who lives there. We had dinner at her house (where she lives with her partner Peter), and they made a comment during dinner about doing some karaoke in their living room afterwards. At first, I thought they were kidding, but my cousin isn’t exactly a jokester. Peter is seriously into karaoke, and we had a ton of fun for a couple of hours singing in the living room. Oddly, I think I caught the karaoke bug, because it’s been in the back of my mind since the trip. This week, I bought a karaoke game for the XBox 360 (which I haven’t turned on for a long time), American Idol Encore. As far as karaoke games are concerned, I think Konami (and Blitz Games) did a pretty decent job. I don’t think the 3D renderings of Randy, Paula, and Simon are all that great, and that’s probably the biggest thumbs down for the whole game playing experience for me. Oh, I guess I should disclose that I’m an American Idol fan, but that’s not necessarily why I got the branded title. I just couldn’t find many options for the XBox 360 that were karaoke style games. I’m hoping that if I practice a bit on the XBox that I’ll be in better form for the open lounge singing at Nye’s Polonaise Room with Piano Bar. Watch out Jer Thorpe! Here I come!
