Yesterday, I bought my girlfriend Lips. It’s a karaoke game in the SingStar mold, developed by the brilliant minds at iNiS Corp., most notably tied to the Elite Beat Agents and Gitaroo Man. I’m not much of a singer unless I’m in the shower and the apartment is empty, but my girlfriend loves the genre.

I noticed as she was playing over a two-hour span (while I was working in the office, writing news for all of you) that she earned several hundred Achievement points within that small timeframe. Because I’m invested in my Gamerscore, I thought I would turn on the title while I was alone this morning. Lo and behold, Achievements are easy to come by ... if you’re willing to sing or cheat.

Here’s the problem though – I’m a terrible singer. In much my usual way, I tried to figure out a way to get the points without embarrassing myself. In frustration, midway through Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” I simply started blowing into the flashing microphone. Magically, I started scoring well. Intrigued, I went from song to song, blowing in the microphone and scoring thousands of points. I earned roughly 60 achievement points in fifteen minutes. Not that bad, if you think about it.

There are some variables that go into this exhaling mechanism. First, if it’s a song like A-Ha’s “Take on Me,” you need to blow in bursts. Occasionally, you can blow through all the words in one mighty puff, but the game is manic in this regard. Secondly, quit smoking if you want to do this. After my fifteen-minute experiment, I was about to die.

The real question is, can you dominate Lips’ Achievements by exhaling loudly? I’ll be trying my best. You guys should try it out, too.