The Yoostar games are a karaoke fan’s dream come true, a statement that’s never been more true than it is with Yoostar on MTV. The concept of the Yoostar games is pretty consistent from one to the next — act out movie and/or music video roles via the Xbox Kinect hardware and see your performance on screen — but this MTV-branded outing break from the norm by focusing exclusively on one company’s IP. In this case, MTV’s. Shows like Road Rules, Pimp My Ride and Jersey Shore butt up against music videos from artists including Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga, Maroon 5 and Weezer in a super-karaoke mashup that really isn’t all that different from Yoostar 2. The biggest difference, in fact, is actually (and ironically) the game’s downfall: its exclusive inclusion of MTV content.
Performing scenes from MTV shows provide a fantastic opportunity to make an ass of yourself in front of a camera, then upload the performance for all of your friends to see. MTV panders particularly hard to the Jersey Shore crowd, because the number of scenes on the disc compared to other shows is dramatically weighted to Snooki’s program. Drunk people, you must do at least one of these scenes, because they’re downright hilarious.
In fact, once again it’s the Yoostar community that brings the most joy to the Yoostar experience, so watching the uploaded performances is a must-do with Yoostar on MTV. Isn’t voyeurism why they invented the Internet, after all? The only hiccup here is that Yoostar on MTV doesn’t have many players just yet, or at least not a great diversity of uploaders, so the pool of performances is relatively shallow. But, what’s there is entertaining. Just please note that if you get Yoostar on MTV, please for the love of God don’t upload your performance of LMFAO’s Party Rock Anthem. There are already too many out there, and the (excellent) song’s being overplayed as it is.
Yet the shows are really where Yoostar on MTV sets itself apart, because otherwise it’s just a glorified karaoke machine. A darn good one, but still pretty straightforward, and not all that different from Yoostar 2. The game’s primary shortcoming, though, comes not from its gameplay but from its content. It’s puzzling to see this game get its own SKU, because the amount of content on the disc — although devoted exclusively to MTV’s extensive library — is surprisingly sparse. Had the shows been released as MTV-branded DLC, and the music videos just been released as normal DLC, it would’ve made more sense and not felt like such a deliberate cash grab. The episodes and scenes are entertaining, but there simply aren’t enough of them to justify a full purchase. Pound for pound, unless you’re hell-bent to perform MTV programming, Yoostar 2 is definitely a better deal.
Score: 6.5
Platform reviewed: Xbox 360 (Kinect exclusive)
