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Opera Slinger opens with music. Rock music. A couple bars of guitar riffs and the distinct sound of a motorbike. You're the protagonist, Fortи — with long blonde locks and a fantastical red coat with epaulets and tails secured by a medallion on your chest — riding in on a "motorbike" that's a treble clef on its side. Pleased with the sound, I cranked it up.

My precious opera house! It has been destroyed! How can my fans continue to worship me? Who has done this? Why ... you think to challenge me? Aria, Opera Queen indeed. I am Fortи — hair-flip — and the audience will decide who is Opera Slinger Supremo!

I stepped into the spotlight as the music cued, adjusted the microphone, took a deep breath and sang. "Chi del gitano i giorni abbella?" Hmm ... um ... wait. The words running across the screen in "follow the bouncing ball style" were in English. I fumbled, and my opponent began to get the upper hand. Hastily, I tried to catch up, stumbling over the words.

"Tip: Sing louder so the audience may hear you better," the program prompted.

Oh, ho — maybe singing louder would help. I lustily belted out the rest of the Anvil Chorus from Verdi's Il Travatore into the microphone with my helpful 4-year-old nephew, who had invaded at the sound of the motorbike, singing loudly beside me.

"Yay! You won!" We ran to the next spotlight in the ruined opera house. Just in time. The strains of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik tipped me off to the next song. Wait-a-minit ... that's not opera. Never mind. The lyrics are in English anyway, and if the first "sing-off" was anything to go by, the lyrics were taunts at your computer opponent anyway. They were. "Aa-aaah-aaaah!" My nephew warbled with me as we sang the word "song" in a long running phrase. I kept the microphone near my mouth. Just in case ... "You need to sing in a higher voice." The program prompted. Phhhbbtt. I'm a contralto. The computer opponent, Aria, is a soprano. Yeah, I'm going to sing or can sing in that octave range. Actually, I can, but that's another story and nothing to do with reviewing the game.

The third spotlight took a little more running and jumping to get to. Alright! An aria. La Donna и Mobile. A lovely lilting lyrical piece from Verdi's Rigoletto. Rock opera style, but still. It was an aria from an opera.

La donna и mobile

Qual piuma al vento,

Muta d'accento — e di pensiero.

Hey ... interesting. The lyrics do not matter. I continued in the same vein. Whoops, we're not going to make it to the next spotlight in time! How do you get there? Whoa ... the drums act as jump pads. We made it. Ah ... Spring. From Vivaldi's Four Seasons. I sol-fa'ed the song. It worked fine. The crowd meter stayed with us. We won this one, too! Woohoo!

Cutscene! Miss Aria heroically-sized-lady-with-rams-horned-helmet wasn't happy. With a sustained high C, she destroyed more of my precious opera house. The dramatic opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony sounded. Buahaha ... C minor. Take that! I matched her note for note, standing to reach the higher notes. I had a chorus behind me by this time as my niece had come running when she heard me singing.

I had won! Applause thundered. Fortи! Fortи! The crowd chanted. I raised my hands high then bowed to my adoring fans as my opponent promised revenge and slunk away. My two little fans cheered along as I aped my avatar and raised my hands in victory. Take that, you two-bit opera-house-ruining-diva wannabe!

Opera Slinger, a 2007 Student Showcase winner at the 9th annual Independent Games Festival was written by a group of 10 students, who called themselves the Treblemakers, from the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. As described on the home page, "Opera Slinger combines the singing fun of karaoke with elements of classic action platforming." However, as I found out, it's a game that can be played with microphone alone as its key mechanic is pitch and beat matching.

This is a one-level game and a student exercise. Take it as it is. The game stage — the ruins of an opera house — provided many different levels and excellent challenges in getting to the spotlight in a given amount of time before the music started and you were expected to begin singing for the audience. This game is a fascinating experiment in using sound and performance as a gameplay mechanic. Originally conceived as a game which would use voice to activate abilities and attacks, it morphed into a competitive singing, action platforming game that we see today.

Selecting the male or female option cues the game to the expected frequency band of your voice. When I tried the male option, the game prompted me to "sing lower," and although it also prompted me to "sing higher" when I selected the female option, neither had any actual impact on my score. I played this game several times, trying different options, singing in different octaves and volume, mumbling into the microphone, using a very fake vibrato; I found that as long as you matched pitch regardless of octave (i.e. you can sing the song an octave lower), beat and duration (holding the long notes without losing volume), you can't lose this game.

It was immensely fun, and I regret that it wasn't longer and that the Novice, Adept and Virtuoso levels did not increase the difficulty nor did you lose points for not getting into the spotlight. The passages of music were no different or any longer — unless it was weighted on pitch and beat match, and I proved to be so pitch perfect that I aced them all. I am a trained singer with perfect pitch, so I suppose that I could have aced all the songs.

Now, if wishes were horses, someone would take this concept and ride it out. Create a full game of it. You lose points for not attaining the spotlight but were forced to perform from where you were when the music starts. Novice level allowed you to sing the song without using words. Adept level allowed you to sing it in English. In Virtuoso level, you had to do it in the original language and pronunciation counts. Additional points for matching intensity (loudness/softness)? Multiplayer could have competitive play or cooperative play, singing duets/trios/quartets with the artificial intelligence or your friends. Instead of whanging away on a plastic guitar and hurting my wrist for my music in gaming jollies, I could be singing Parle-moi de mere with the voice of ... oh, I swoon at the very thought!