A new song and dance

When planning the perfect holiday party, there are two ways to get great entertainment for the assembled guests.

You could take the hard way: Get a copy of Martha Stewart Living and learn how to create some homemade bongos out of pantyhose and shoeboxes.

Or there’s always the easier, more enjoyable route: Purchase a copy of “Karaoke Revolution” for your PlayStation 2.

Once gamers don the Janet Jackson-like headset microphone -- included in the more expensive bundle -- and select one of the large-handed cartoon characters to serve as their cyber-performer, the action starts. Choose the cyber-venue -- like in front of a bunch of friends at a party or a big stage at the county fair -- then select which song you’ll attempt to sing.

As lyrics scroll on the bottom of the screen, dashes tell you how long to stretch the note and what key to sing it in. The 36 songs included on this collection are all rated by their complexity, and that’s a good thing for the vocally challenged. The game keeps score based on how close you sound to the actual recording, so if you miss too many notes and butcher a tune, your audience approval meter slides into the red. Sure, you think you’re singing “Like a Virgin” just like Madonna, but the crowd is booing you for a reason, Sparky -- you’re flatter than sheet rock. Bomb bad enough and the crowd disperses, the stage gets dark and you hang your head in shame. Back to Dairy Queen for you.

The song selection juxtaposes a handful of classics with disposable tunes. No Sinatra, or Britney Spears for that matter, but happily there is an option to add future discs, hopefully expanding the choices once Avril Lavigne’s 15 minutes is over.

If being judged makes you want to call your therapist, there is a mode where you can just sing the songs without reactions -- “for the karaoke purist,” as the packaging says.

For the timid, be sure to have plenty of spiked eggnog on hand to soften the stage fright, cyber or otherwise.

Mike in hand

Like your karaoke a little more old school, with a mike you actually have to hold? Not a fan of fancy graphics or punchy game play? Are long load times and nonintuitive controls your cup of tea?

Then “Xbox Music Mixer” is perfect for you.

This title comes with its own regulation-size mike and promises more than it delivers. Only 15 songs are included on this collection -- more can be downloaded on Xbox Live -- and there are no funky cartoon people singing along. It’s more like belting tunes out at your local bar, only without any of the fun. Worse, the mike we tried smelled like popcorn-flavored wet foam rubber. And the game offers the ability to strip lyrics off songs uploaded from your own collection, leaving you with just the instrumental track to sing over. When we tried it with a Billie Holiday song, it managed to strip out the music as well.

The title also offered other features you’d probably want to find somewhere else. “Music Player” lets you drop in your own CD and add “visualizers” to the tunes. Think of these as geometric screensavers you can swirl around with your controller. Whoopee! There are also animated “ravers” who move to a beat that only they can hear. Yep, Lady Day or songs from their crappy sampler, the dance moves are exactly the same.

More good news: You can add your own music and photos and create slide shows set to music. Of course, to do so, you need to connect to a PC -- for photos at least -- and if you have a PC, you don’t need to waste your time with this.

American idle

On “American Idol,” the title song gets mind-numbingly overused. Most of the song choices are of the bland boy-band variety. And Simon’s commentary makes you wish you had a flamethrower to go “Grand Theft Auto” on him.

Aside from that, “Idol” is a perfectly great waste of two hours. That’s how long it took to win the whole tournament and see the big finale -- the credits and a replay of the final performance. Yawn.

*

Games

“Karaoke Revolution”

Good: Great premise; great for groups.

Bad: Limited, cheesy song titles, for now.

Details: PlayStation 2; $59.99 with headset, $39.99 game only. Rating: E (everyone)

“Xbox Music Mixer”

Good: Comes with a sampler of music you’d be angry if you bought separately.

Bad: Where to start? Controls, features, graphics ... uh, everything.

Details: Xbox platform; $34.95. Rating: E (everyone)

“American Idol”

Good: Graphics are cutesy. Game play quickly finished.

Bad: Everything else.

Details: PlayStation2 platform; $29.99. Rating: E (everyone)