Yoostar on MTV review

We’ll begrudgingly admit that we watched with a mixture of abject terror and pure fascination as the “stars” of Jersey Shore catapulted into the hearts, minds and hair products of the public, but not once did we ever watch an episode of the now infamous reality series and think, “I could have delivered that line way better than The Situation.” Well, we won’t admit that we did.

Above: Outside of the videos you'll be recreating, the game itself is visually sparse

In a nutshell, the Yoostar franchise is visual karaoke. Yoostar on MTV takes that deep dark desire to insert yourself into scenes and music videos from the network and delivers that ability to the comfort and privacy of your home. Using Kinect’s camera you position yourself to replace whatever actor or artist you want to recreate while lines or lyrics are displayed above your scene. Timing bars signal when your line or lyric should be recited and your performance is recorded, scored and played back after the scene is completed.

From a technical standpoint, the game works just as described. We did experience some quirks in audio when we were in a party setting where a half a dozen people singing LMFAO in unison was considered as too much background noise whereas the same group singing Lady Gaga earned us multiple perfect lyric scores. Further tests would be needed to determine if the game is just anti-Party Rocking.

Above: We're still waiting for our own GamesRadar reality show, MTV

There are over 80 scenes from MTV series and music videos with more clips delivered via DLC, so if you’ve invested any time into the network in the last three or four years you’ll probably find something you’d be willing to try. However, those of us who stopped watching MTV when they stopped playing music videos will be hard pressed to find any interest in the game at all as the music videos are much newer than some of the series available.

Above: A sampling of some of the titles you can recreate scenes from

The biggest problem with Yoostar on MTV lies in the fact that you have to be invested in MTV to find enjoyment in it. A majority of the content relies on clips from MTV franchises and it doesn’t do well as just a music karaoke game because you’re only allowed to perform portions of a song. While the novelty of inserting yourself into scenes is fun at first it easily wears thin after a time and waiting to save clips after a successful performance can disrupt the momentum of play. 

A potentially good rental title for those that fall squarely into the target MTV demographic, Yoostar delivers what it advertises but won’t be a game that you’ll regret passing on.