Sure, everyone thinks they can sing, but can you really? Here are a few things to help weed out those that can’t sing and shouldn’t audition.

1. Get a copy of Karaoke Revolution for PlayStation 2 and sing along. If you can’t get very far in the game, you may want to reconsider.
2. Find an open mic night and get on stage. They’ll be a good judge of you talents, plus it’ll show you how comfortable you are in front of a crowd.
3. If you’re going to the costume store, don’t go to the Idol auditions. Showcase your voice, not your ability to dress up like it’s Halloween.
4. Don’t sing Christmas songs, children’s songs or anything that’s not heard on mainstream radio. The judges are looking for mass appeal out of the winner.
5. Practice Practice Practice. You only get one chance (unless you have lot of money to fly to all additions) and the judges will accept no excuses.
6. Be at least a little humble. No one likes a cocky a** who knows they are good no matter what anyone says. Remember, America has to like you enough to keep you on the show.
7. Respect the judges. A little disagreeing is fine, but flip out and you’ll forever be made fun on on the blooper reels.

Everyone knows that there will be plenty of odd balls in every round of auditions, but do you want that to be you? Save yourself the humiliation and heart break by testing out you talents on more than just your family and friends as their opinion is not always 100% truthful.

As mentioned earlier, we picked up Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol at the store the other day and have been having a blast playing it. Can you handle the pressure? Are you the next American Idol?

In the game, there are two game modes, Karaoke and Idol. Karaoke is much like other versions of Karaoke Revolution where you sing at the beach, Vegas, rooftop or whatever and have a good time. This game really shines when you enter into the American Idol competition.

First off, you create your contestant. Pick your look from your skin tone to your sunglass and then get ready. You’re first stop is the auditions with Simon, Randy and Laura. Laura is who’s taking Paula’s place and looks a bit like Paula. The background is just like you see in Idol auditions and at the end, you are judged. If you sang well, you’ll get good mentions. Pitchy? Well they’ll tell you that too. And, if by chance your singing is horrible, they won’t let you go to Hollywood or Simon will surely tell you to never sing again.

After that you make your rounds from that first round with the basic stage to the final grand finale stage, the sets are represented really well. As you go along in the competition though, you can be cut at any time. Ryan Seacrest also appears in the game, but only as a voice. He comes on when it’s decision time much like on TV. Only in the game, he’s not quite so mean with long pauses and commercial interruptions.

An interesting note, other Idol contestants have names like Kelly, Bo, Rubin, Clay and Carrie. Their picture doesn’t match, but you are competing with the best.

As you rack up points and do well, you’ll unlock Idol video clips. Contestants from every year singing the songs represented in the game. And they are not all good. William Hung appears in a video clip along with a bunch of other horrible Idol auditions. But don’t fear, great clips from Carrie Underwood, Bo Bice, Fantasia Barrino, Kelly Clarkson and many others are there. Even some Idol faces that you may not quite remember like Justin Guarini.

The only thing really missing from this game is Paula Abdul. She’s been replaced by some Laura character and only shows up in the video clips. However, her Straight Up does appear on the song list for the game.

The only downside to the game is the freaky tongue action. I know that sounds weird, but when the judges are giving feedback, the tongue is really odd. Not sure who forgot to fix that code.

Overall the American Idol game represents the TV show very well and I’d highly recommend it to any fans. Randy says Dawg a lot and Simon will insult you for singing bad but that’s just how it is. I’m not the best singer, and I’ll never be an American Idol, but this is fun.

Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol is available for Playstation 2. Since Playstation 3 can play PS2 games, it should also work with PS3.

Song List:
All My Life
Alone
(There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me
Be Without You
Breakaway (by Kelly Clarkson)
Build Me Up Buttercup
Can’t Help Falling In Love
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Dilemma
Do I Make You Proud? (by Taylor Hicks)
Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me
Don’t You Want Me
Easy
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Flying Without Wings
Heartbreaker
Heaven
Hungry Like The Wolf
If You Don’t Know Me By Now
It’s Not Unusual
Just The Way You Are
Let’s Stay Together
Love Will Keep Us Together
More Than Words
Photograph
Piano Man
Proud Mary
Rock With You
Saving All My Love For You
She Bangs (made famous by William Hung)
Stand By Me
Stickwitu
Straight Up (by Paula Abdul)
Sugar, We’re Going Down
The Real Thing (by Bo Bice)
Total Eclipse Of The Heart
Unwritten
What A Girl Wants
You And Me
You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling

While out at Walmart last night, I found American Idol Karaoke Revolution! Complete with Randy, Simon and, umm, Laura?! That’s right, Paula doesn’t make an appearance.

You get to go from the audition stage to the finale in hopes of becoming the next American Idol superstar! So far I’ve been praised and criticized by Simon, made it to Hollywood and voted out of the competition. It’s a lot of fun and I’ll return soon with a full review.