''Karaoke Joysound'' (カラオケJOYSOUND) is a

karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...

service and online song library from Japanese karaoke service provider Xing. The Joysound service, which started on various karaoke computers, was adapted into a

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company known for releasing numerous titles across video game consoles, home computers, and mobile phones. Headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo, it also maintained an office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. F ...

for

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

, licensing the ''Joysound'' online song library alongside Xing, who also helped co-develop the game with Hudson. The game was originally released in a retail package with an included USB microphone on December 18, 2008 in Japan, and was later released there as a downloadable

WiiWare WiiWare was a digital media entertainment service operated by Nintendo that allowed the download of games and applications developed for the Wii video game console. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the W ...

game on July 28, 2009.

Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game video game publisher, publisher, and the video game branch of the wider Bandai Namco Holdings group. Founded in 2006 as it is the successor to Namco's home and arcade video game ...

released a port to the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

titled ''Joysound Dive'' on November 23, 2011; one of only two

games to enforce region locking (the other being '' Persona 4 Arena''). It was shut down and removed from the

PlayStation Store PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital distribution service for users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable content both ...

on October 31, 2014. In January 2012,

Konami , commonly known as Konami, , is a Japanese multinational entertainment company and video game developer and video game publisher, publisher headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo. The company also produces and distributes trading card ...

(which acquired Hudson Soft and all its original IPs in 2011) announced they would release the title for the first time in North America under the simplified title ''Karaoke Joysound'', which connected to a much different music library of well-known English songs. It was originally expected for a March 2012 release, but was delayed until October 30, 2012, and was made available as both a standard disc and a microphone bundle. On July 17, 2014, the software was re-released as a downloadable WiiWare title, without any prior announcements, for the North American Wii Shop Channel, courtesy of publishers Brother International Corp. It was originally announced for a July 3 release, but it was delayed for unknown reasons. The software is spiritually succeeded by the Joysound-licensed ''Wii Karaoke U'' app for the

Wii U The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The W ...

in 2012, and it is only available in Japan and Europe. On May 18, 2015, Konami announced the termination of the Wii Joysound service. Last date to purchase songs was July 21, 2015 and the service was shut down on October 29, 2015. A successor for the

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

named ''Karaoke Joysound Switch'' was developed by Xing (who worked on the original games) and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

. It was released only in Japan on December 6, 2017. Tose contributed to the Switch version during a major update in 2024.

Overview

''Karaoke Joysound Wii'' is a game "designed to provide a karaoke-club experience at home". The game requires an internet connection for players to access new songs to download. Buying tickets for songs with Nintendo Points, players rent the songs they want to sing for a limited period (from 24 hours to up to 90 days) from Xing's song library. Choosing a stage to perform on, players are able to select from a previously created avatar or use their own Miis to represent themselves. Players are also able to adjust options such as echo, key and speed of the song, and other players can use their

Wii Remote The Wii Remote, colloquially known as the Wiimote, is the primary game controller for Nintendo's Wii home video game console. An essential capability of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with an ...

s to accompany the singer by playing instruments such as cymbals and maracas.Hudson details Karaoke Joysound Wii ahead of release
In addition to the included microphone, the retail version includes 70 songs on disc as well as a lesson mode which trains and quizzes players on tone and rhythm, and a party mode with five

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements and is often smaller or more simplistic than th ...

s. Along with omitting the included songs and extra modes, the WiiWare version features a number of cosmetic changes.

Reception

In the six months after release, the retail version of ''Karaoke Joysound Wii'' sold over 250,000 copies in Japan.

Joysound Yearly Chart

Joysound published Top10 songs in

Heisei The was the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, when hi ...

(1989-2019).

2010-2019

2020-2029

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://kjw.joysound.com/
Official website
(in Japanese)
The complete history of Karaoke
2008 video games Karaoke video games Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games Video games developed in Japan WiiWare games Wii-only games Wii games Wii Wi-Fi games Karaoke Multiplayer and single-player video games Hudson Soft games Konami games Bandai Namco games Nintendo games PlayStation 3 games Nintendo Switch games Tose (company) games