UltraStar Deluxe is a FREE alternative to the popular Playstation game series SingStar with support for up to six players. UltraStar Deluxe converts any song into karaoke fun.  It is structured much like SingStar, you can play solo mode or in party mode with up to six players. Points are awarded based on how well you maintain the pitch and tempo of the song you’re singing. If you have a video to go with your song, it will be played in the background; if not, you see the cover art.

You don’t need special karaoke versions of songs to play the game. The regular versions work just fine, since the scoring is based off how well you emulate the song. You can, however, use karaoke versions if you’re looking for the authentic singing experience. In addition to adding your own songs, there are even tools to extract the lyrics and songs from SingStar games to use in UltraStar Deluxe. If you want to play it right away without the hassle of importing songs or ripping them from SingStar, during the installation process UltraStar Deluxe will ask you if you want to download a package of Creative-Commons-licensed songs they’ve formatted for the application. The actual application is a quick download, but be prepared to wait on the bundle of Creative Commons songs.

UltraStar Deluxe isn’t particularly resource hungry and works with a variety of hardware. You can use the USB and wireless mics made for SingStar with it, but it is worth noting that it isn’t a mouse-friendly application. You’ll need a keyboard, wireless media center remote, or set up your Wiimotes as computer remotes to navigate within the application. For more information on UltraStar Deluxe, including skins and plugins, check out http://www.ultrastardeluxe.org and their informative wiki (http://ultrastardeluxe.xtremeweb-hosting.net/wiki/doku.php)