Let's Sing ABBA Review (Xbox One)

STAFF REVIEW of Let's Sing ABBA (Xbox One)

Thursday, October 20, 2022.
by Peggy Doyle

We’re heading into the holiday season shortly, and nothing screams holiday get together like channeling your inner Diva or Rock God and singing with your friends. With that in mind, I was able to get some early practice in with Let’s Sing ABBA. Let’s Sing has been around for a long time, and with ABBA releasing their first new music in 40 years, there is no better time for the long running karaoke series to give us ABBA to sing along to. Now, Dear Readers, I am of a ‘certain age’ that it doesn’t take much to convince me to belt out ABBA at any given time, so I was happy to take on this review under the guise of ‘work’ solely to justify me singing ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Waterloo’ etc at the top of my lungs with no shame. I will gladly sing along with the Swedish supergroup of Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid, as I tackled 31 of their tracks (all with official videos) for you.

Let’s Sing ABBA, from Voxler and Ravenscourt, is a rhythm game where your voice is the instrument. Let’s Sing doesn’t require you to have any fancy microphones, as you can use your headset mic, any USB mic, or download a simple to use app on your phone. It felt more realistic holding my phone to sing, like a mic, but I’ll dive into that a bit more shortly.

All of the modes in Let’s Sing ABBA are the same as the last few Let’s Sing releases. This means Legend and World Contest modes are there for the solo players. You basically have a campaign full of challenges, but like any karaoke, this is best enjoyed with a group of friends who want to showcase their singing chops. Classics like ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘Take a Chance on Me’, ‘Knowing Me Knowing You’ and ‘Super Trouper’ are all there, as well as newer music such as ‘I still Have Faith In You’. If you have a favourite ABBA song, it’s likely in Let’s Sing ABBA. I’d hazard to say that even people who wouldn’t necessarily call themselves ABBA fans would enjoy belting out some of the more familiar songs for fun. Other than the music though, nothing really is new compared to other Let’s Sing titles.

Classic Mode allows up to four players to just sing along with songs. No twists or competition required. Four players can also take part in the Mixtape Mode as well. This mode sees five separate songs all mashed together to make the ultimate mixtape. This will keep players on their toes. Mixtape is great if you don’t want to invest the time to sing the whole songs. Feat Mode has you singing duets with your favourite partner (real or AI) and Let’s Party mode allows up to eight players (split into two teams) competing in a number of challenge laden performances. Jukebox mode opens as you complete the songs in any other mode. It simply puts the videos up on the screen with the lyrics.

Any Let’s Sing veteran player knows that you don’t actually even have to know the words to do well at the game. The game recognizes the tone/notes you hit. To be certain of this, I actually played through a few songs without actually singing any words, I just merrily hummed my way though making sure to raise or lower the tone to hit the sweet spots on the screen. This was helpful in the newer ABBA songs with which I wasn’t particularly familiar. You could even ramble gibberish as long as it was remotely on key and still score well. My favourites were ‘Does Your Mother Know’ and ‘Voulez-Vous.

Notable songs missing were ‘Angeleyes’, ‘I Have A Dream’ or ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, to name but three. Now, I understand they can’t include every track from ABBA’s extensive body of work, and maybe there will be DLC in the future. There is a token progression system included and if you ever stuck on what to do next, a simple push of a button will prompt you with a suggestion. No need to feel overwhelmed by the choices in front of you.

Back to my issues with using the app as a microphone. Even though you adjust your settings at the beginning, there was constantly a delay for me. I went in and re-adjusted my setting multiple times and could never get it to line up properly. Possibly, this was an error just on my part, but even so, it was frustrating. Equally frustrating was no way to verify your pitch. It would be nice if there was an option to alter pitch/octaves in the game as not everyone will be able to sing all songs at the required pitch. I will never be able to hit the baselines required for some songs, for example. Thankfully Let’s Sing isn’t about being perfect all the time, it’s about enjoying yourself karaoke style. Full disclosure, I reviewed this solo and tested out most mode using AI partners. I firmly believe that this is a game to be played with friends as that’s where the Let’s Sing franchise shines.

Let’s Sing ABBA wasn’t on my most-anticipated games horizon for 2022 - but it’s always nice when something unexpected comes along, especially when it was this much fun. I am known to break into song to the delight/horror of my friends and I like to think I can hold a tune. I’m also the girl who’s seen Mamma Mia more times than I could possibly count, so it’s easy for me to tell you that I found myself sucked into the musical magic of Let’s Sing ABBA. Ultimately whether you pick it up or not depends on how much you love ABBAs music. Simple as that.

It’s a solid entry into the Let’s Sing series. It was the same as other entries as far as gameplay, so the only real difference was the music and new avatars, and that was enough for me to find it enjoyable. ABBA sits alongside only a handful of acts that seem to have longevity and cross generational appeal. I’d hazard to say they are up there with the likes of The Beatles and Queen. For this reason, they are a perfect choice for this outing of the Let’s Sing franchise. Voxler didn’t give us anything new but delivered what was promised and that’s enough for me.

*Let's Sing ABBA was provided by the publisher and reviewed on an Xbox Series X*

Overall: 7.3 / 10
Gameplay: 7.0 / 10
Visuals: 7.0 / 10
Sound: 10.0 / 10

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