Sing along to songs from 'High School Musical' movies

— -- If your kids are obsessed by all things High School Musical, then the new Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year video game will be right up your alley. Timed to hit shelves along side of the High School Musical 3 DVD release, kids will be able to sing 10 songs from that movie, as well as 15 songs from the first two High School Musical movies.

Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year is a karaoke game for the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game comes boxed with or without a microphone. While you can sing duets using one microphone, it is easier with two, so if you don't own a second microphone, you might want to pick one up. Also, some game options need two microphones.

From the main screen, you can choose to explore the game as a single player or with friends in the multiplayer mode. Or you can jump right in with singing from the Quick Play option.

In this karaoke game, the words to your selected song appear on the bottom of the screen along with a pitch detection bar. As you sing the words, if you hit the right pitch, the bar fills with color. If you are off pitch, a shiny white circle appears on the screen to show you if you are above or below the pitch. If you sing the words at the right time and in pitch for a whole screen, you earn point multipliers. At the end of the song, you are given a score.

If you have never played a karaoke game before, the single player mode offers you singing lessons with Kelsi (Olesya Rulin), one of the High School Musical characters. Kelsi teaches you how to warm up your voice and then lets you practice singing on pitch and with accuracy. She also teaches you about how to breathe while singing and how to harmonize.

This is the second Sing It game from Disney based on the High School Musical license. But unlike High School Musical: Sing It, which only covered songs from the first two movies and presented animations as the background videos to the songs, this game lets you watch authentic video clips from the movies showing the stars singing the song. This improvement makes you feel like you are transported back into the movie.

The game offers a wealth of modes, from just singing the songs karaoke-style (with the words and pitch detection bar helping you) to singing on your own (with no words or bar on the screen). Friends can choose to sing songs as a duet, or if they have two mics, they can compete in a "versus" competition. There is even a way for up to eight to compete in a team competition. A special Gig mode lets you sing five selected songs in a row.

You don't have to be a good singer to play this game. The game offers three difficulty levels with the easy level being very forgiving of your singing. Even when singing with a friend, you can each set the difficulty level that is most appropriate for your singing ability.

Since many of the songs feature more than one singer, you can choose to sing with the cast or single out a specific character's part. With the latter, it can get challenging when your character is singing harmony instead of the melody.

The bottom line is that this is an easy game to pick up and play for kids who love the music from the three High School Musical movies. For them, just reliving the movies by watching the movie clips will be a thrill. But add in the ability to sing with their favorite characters, and they will be in High School Musical heaven.

Gudmundsen is the editor of Computing With Kids magazine. Contact her at gnstech@gannett.com.