There was once a time when any party involving videogames and alcohol eventually resulted in a bunch of drunken half-nerds murdering a classic song on Sing Star but times have changed. Where there were once mics there are now Wii Remotes or watchful Kinect devices to fill any absurd craving for drunken humiliation. Unlike dancing games that shunned the dance mats of yesteryear and got a new lease of life thanks to motion controllers, Karaoke games haven't really evolved with the modern party genre.

With a fresh new take on the tired Karaoke formula, can Wii Karaoke U pull singing games out of their pit? Well, as soon as you start the app, Wii Karaoke U combats the biggest problem all karaoke games face - Pricing and song selection.

Wii Karaoke U is a free download from the eShop that allows you to buy play time in the form of tickets. You can buy an hour long ticket, 24 hour pass or month pass and play any song, as many times as you like, for that time period. The game is played online, with a library of 1,500 songs, each of which get streamed to your system when chosen. You can search through these songs either by artist or song title and if you're not too sure what to sing then there's a bunch of different options to find music by, like breaking it down by the year, genre, popularity or country of origin.

The 1,500 strong track-list really is jam-packed with variety, especially when compared to other games in the genre that offer around 40 songs. It's almost overwhelming when you first flick through the menu to decide on what to sing. When you actually have chosen your song though, you may be slightly disappointed. Whilst SiNG Party offered quality over quantity with its fantastic backing tracks and original singers, Karaoke U is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the complete opposite.

The tracks in the game will sounds very much like your cheap karaoke machine at the pub. Some of the more popular songs will have backing singers as well as just instruments, but the voices are so terrible that you'll be relieved to hear the customisation options are extensive and allow you to drown them out completely. Whilst most songs certainly are passable, a couple of the more obscure tunes really do sound just like Wii Music renditions.

But in the end, it doesn't even matter. With a track-list this extensive and the fact that they're streamed to the system in a matter of seconds, it can be forgiven. And given the nature of the game, you'll be having far too much fun singing the night away to notice the authenticity of the instruments (or indeed, lack therof).

At first, the singing may seem very simple. Initially, the game is set to simply show lyrics and for you to sing them back. There's no scoring, no pitch-line or online rankings. Tucked away in the 'more modes' tab though is a bunch of features that really add depth to what a lot would assume to be a shallow karaoke title. In the 'more modes' tab you can choose to add ratings to songs: Standard, In-depth or Online.

Standard Rating looks like the original mode, where just lyrics are shown on screen. At the end of the song though, you'll be given a score out of 100 depending on how well you have done. Online mode is very much the same, but your score is then also ranked with players from across the world. In-depth is perhaps the most fun option, though. This is the one that plays out like your regular karaoke game, with a pitch-line and lyrics on screen and not just one score at the end, but a bunch of scores depending on the pitch, power, flair and style you sang in. One other great feature of this mode is the 'replay' button which will replay your last performance, so you can hear just how beautiful or deafening your rendition of Bieber was through the eyes and ears of everyone else.

Sadly only one of these features can be applied at once, so you'll have to choose whether you want a pitch-line on screen or whether you wish to have your score compared to other people online or if you want neither of those and just the simple karaoke set up.

Finally, Karaoke Battle is where you'll spend most of your time if you're playing this as a multiplayer title. Choose who is in your team and what songs you wish to play and face off against your friends, even if you only have one mic. You can pass the mic (or GamePad) from person to person for each song and then scores will be compared at the end. Another great feature is that whilst one person is singing, the next song can be chosen on the GamePad, so you're not all waiting for each other between songs to find a ditty you want to sing.

That's the core of the game, and with such a vast array of songs, it will last you a very long time (given you have the tickets). The game does have a few cute extras, like the ability to dress up your Mii as a super star (or indeed, a bear), to customise the stages and to play instruments with the Wii Remote but these really are just little extras and probably aren't worth your time when there's so much singing to be done.

One thing that you may want to keep in mind is that none of the songs are censored. Dark themes and swear words are displayed in all their glory here, with a couple of the songs available being slighty heavy in this regard. With that in mind, and the bizarre rating of '3+', you may want to be cautious if you're planning on playing this with a younger acquaintance. If not though, it can be quite funny seeing your chirpy Mii singing his little heart out to 'Tears Don't Fall'.

Wii Karaoke U is possibly one of the most accessible Karaoke games out there, with its vast array of music, compatibility with other microphones and the ability to sing into the Wii U mic itself. With a free hour long trial, and 1 hour tickets costing just £1.79 a pop, you should at least give this game a try. It may not be as high quality as SiNG Party or Sing Star, but it certainly surpasses them as far as fun and value for money is concerned with its vast array of music and cheap ticket prices.