Let’s Sing Presents ABBA review: A fun dose of screech-friendly Swedish pop

I’ll admit, Let’s Sing Presents ABBA wasn’t particularly on my most-anticipated games horizon for this year - but it’s always nice when something unexpected crops up in your path, particularly when that thing is unexpectedly fun. I hate to toot my own horn but I can hold a tune, so it’s not unusual to find me singing ABBA on the daily. I’m the girl who’s seen Mamma Mia more times than I could possibly count, so I didn’t particularly think I needed a video game to prompt me to sing ABBA’s legendary bops. That being said, Let’s Sing Presents ABBA is full of a wide array of modes and challenges and I soon found myself sucked into its musical magic.

There are seven modes in total, but let’s begin with how you track those vocals. The easiest - and most cost effective - way to do so is to download the Let’s Sing app which turns your phone into a handy dandy microphone. Alternatively, you can use a USB microphone. I used the official one bundled with the game (courtesy of the publisher) and whilst I can’t say it’s a necessary purchase, I did feel like pop star royalty holding it in my hands belting classic ABBA hits to an audience that included my cat and only my cat.

Check out the trailer for Let’s Sing Presents ABBA below.

Let’s move onto those seven game modes. I started off with the simple Classic mode which essentially sees you sing along to a track, receiving a score for how accurate and ‘pitch perfect’ your singing is. I took on ‘Thank You For The Music’ and landed a sweet Diamond score on my first try, so I upped the ante. Next, ‘The Winner Takes It All.’ While I said earlier that I can hold a tune, we’ve all got limits and I met mine here, screeching my way through the latter part of the song. Still, I ended up with a Diamond score so if you are bad at singing, don’t worry. As long as you vaguely screech the right sound, you should be good. I’m still undecided if that’s a blessing or an annoyance.

Looking for something a bit more exciting, I moved on to the Legend mode. This is the only mode with any sense of progression. You have to complete three challenges before moving onto a ‘boss battle’. Win and you’ll unlock a new group of challenges. Challenges included singing a set number of perfect notes throughout the song or maintaining a chain for so many seconds. Again, any kind of screech seemed to do so it wasn’t exactly hard to defeat these challenges but I enjoyed the tasks far more than I did simply singing ABBA’s hits. In the boss battles, you’re tasked with scoring higher than a singing AI. Throughout the various modes, you’ll unlock outfits for your avatar inspired by ABBA’s most iconic looks. They’re fun additions but I wasn’t clamouring to add them to my collection.

In terms of the other modes, there’s Mix Tape 2.0 which sees you singing five ABBA tracks in a megamix, and World Contest during which you compete against other players. Don’t worry, the other players can’t hear you - or you, them. Both were fun in short doses but didn’t particularly retain my attention. Jukebox allows you to listen to the included ABBA tracks which I could definitely live without. That leaves us with Feat and Let’s Party which sees you team up with your pals competing in either a duet in the former, or a team-based sing-off in the latter. Reviewing this game alone I didn’t have any pals on hand, but I imagine that this is where Let’s Sing Presents ABBA thrives. After all, who wouldn’t want to hear their friends take on ‘Dancing Queen’ several hours into a party. I sure would.

Ravenscourt

My main gripe with Let’s Sing Presents ABBA may just be the fact that there’s not enough songs. There’s 31 to get you started, with many of the major hits there. Still, I couldn’t help but think this could’ve been thickened out with the addition of ‘Angeleyes’, ‘I Have A Dream’ or ‘Lay All Your Love On Me’, to name but three omitted tracks.

All in all, Let’s Sing Presents ABBA is an injection of joy best enjoyed in small doses. Thanks to its mass appeal, it’s a game that I can see having longevity in my collection as I pull it out at parties for many years to come, even if it’s not one I’ll be running back to often as a solo player - much to the relief of my neighbours, I’m sure. I’d like to see the song selection expanded, but the game’s ‘difficulty’ is accessible enough to be enjoyed by seasoned sopranos and inebriated dancing queens alike.

Pros: Wide variety of modes, can support up to eight players, banging ABBA bops

Cons: Could have wider song variety, will lie and tell you your pitch is perfect

For fans of: Swedish pop, any Let’s Sing title

6/10: Good

Let’s Sing Presents ABBA is out now on PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Code for review (PS5) was supplied by the publisher. Find a complete guide to GAMINGbible's review scores here.

Topics: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch