Nowadays it's only fools, psychics and crazy folk who endeavour to divine the decision making process at Sony, but heck, it's a fun game to play so let's have a stab. We'll pick something juicy and interesting: why it took so long for SingStar, Sony's big winning karaoke-on-roids game to make its way on PlayStation 3.

Could it be that the development team found it a very imposing challenge making the game work on the PlayStation 3 hardware?

We think not. For the uninitiated, SingStar is essentially a basic, yet attractive menu system that fronts a video jukebox. Overlaying the music is a register that shows you not only the words to sing, but the pitch. It's simple and brilliant and I insist it pulls the chicks (although this is appears to be a minority view). This doesn't take a year to get up to scratch.

Perhaps Sony wanted to ensure they got the online experience dead solid perfect?

Again, we think not. There's around 44 songs currently available in the SingStore, the online shop. Tastes vary, but given some songs you've seen before in previous SingStar games on the PS2, and the majority fall into the "not bad but hardly smash hits" category. So it's clear Sony wasn't pulling together a perfect storm of online musical shopping. Further, the online features in SingStar are nice, but you're hardly going to be chanting "viva la revolution" when you check them out.

These first two scenarios are duds. We suspect "hoping to ensure a good amount of PS3 consoles were in the market before launching the game" might be closer to the mark. With god knows how many PlayStation 2 consoles out there the average SingStar game is bound to sell a lot more than the PlayStation 3 version, at least for now.

However unlike so many game franchises that have been clicked over to upgraded hardware, SingStar on PlayStation 3 is a must buy for that trusty gamer demographic, the "if you owned the original..." crew. It's not that many of the music tracks in SingStar PS3 are in high definition (or at the very least upscaled to look clearer). It's not the customisable My SingStar Online area, where you can get all interactive with other SingStar users and terrify them with imagery of you captured from the EyeToy camera (although as time goes on this will prove increasingly useful). It's not the fruity custom wallpapers and menu skins.

None of the above makes SingStar for PlayStation 3 a must buy. What does is the SingStore. Despite us calling out the middling offering on display at present, it's only going to get better. Sony are promising new musical content every month; if they can deliver on this we'll be happy.

$2.45 per track may seem a little steep - I admit my first thought was "rip off", but then practicality kicked in. Even the best SingStar discs you're going to be lucky to find ten or so songs you regard as must haves amongst the Kylie, Ne-Yo and other dubiousness. Operating on that assumption, $2.45 a track is gold - you even have the ability to preview the track to make sure that it is actually the song you want. The included disc helpfully sprays a whole lot of different stuff - on the assumption you can specialise later on - but it's still a handy selection.

Playing SingStar on PS3 is an extremely familiar experience to existing players - anyone who has played the game before realises it has an idiotproof menu system, which carries across here. Things are still simple, and the play options are largely the same. Actually playing the game seems a little harder than normal. Fans of "Easy" difficulty like me are used to racking up 8000-9000+ per song usually. Here if you're a tone deafy like me you'll be battling to break 7000 most of the time. Heck more than a few times I was struggling to break 6000, scoring the dreaded "Wannabe" tag. Ugh. Harder difficulty levels are even more embarrassing. So yes - scoring is definitely harder, no bad thing this.

The game itself remains top drawer. True, core gamers will cringe at the intro videos but at least Sony have moved away from the little kids jumping around pretending to sing intro, which was guaranteed to have your friends thinking you were creepy. Now you just have to put up with freshly scrubbed Stepford hipsters who look like they defected from an Xbox press conference being all chirpy and musical. Thankfully, rapidly jamming the controller button makes it all go away. And that is about as bad as it gets here. The main concerns about SingStar for PlayStation 3 are likely to be addressed with time. The track collection will grow, the "community" element will grow, and your online space if you elect to fill it will become an embarrassing testament to why you should always deactivate all cams when you have access to the internet.

In value terms this is a no-brainer. If you have the headphones from the PlayStation 2 version of SingStar you can use them (wireless ones are coming soon) so you can score the game for a seriously reasonable $59.95. Sure, it's not going to melt your eyeballs or have you thinking you've been sucked into a bold new world of intrigue, but it's SingStar and its on your PS3, bro. Your mates will love it and now you don't even have to trek back to the shops to top up every few months. Gold.