On Saturday, I discussed a videogame I’d like to see: “Broadway Hero,” a mishmash of Dance Dance Revolution (lighted pads on an oversized dance mat), Karaoke Revolution (singing), and Wii-style hand gestures. At the expert levels, you would be doing your own quasi-professional song-and-dance number.

I got a lot of response for a Saturday.

Thing is, I couldn’t stop thinking about this theoretical game design. I actually went so far as to devise a list of songs that “Broadway Hero” would have, ranked roughly by tier and difficulty.

The first thing that everyone thought would be a total ZOMG challenge is “Modern Major General,” from Pirates of Penzance… But actually, MMG would be a snap. Two-thirds of the difficulty with this game would be the moving and waving around, and I’ve yet to see a performance of Modern Major General where the guy was doing more than hopping back and forth quickly.

Then there’s the “tricky” lyrics – not a problem when, as in Karaoke Revolution and Rock Band, the lyrics are shown on the screen. And if you’ve never sung in Rock Band, you may not know that it doesn’t track what you say, only the pitch of it. I myself witnessed my friend Josh singing along to a French rap song by yelling the words “FRENCH FRENCH FRENCH FRENCH FRENCH” repeatedly in time to the beat.

Hence, “Modern Major General” would actually be a lower-level song on “Broadway Hero.” It’s a repetitive rhythm that doesn’t require a whole lot of range or distinction.

There was the question of how you’d handle multiple singers; a lot of the iconic tunes of Broadway shows have more than one cast member belting it out. The answer is that at least in single-player mode, you sing all the parts.

This is not without precedent. On “Gimme Shelter” on Rock Band, you sing both Mick Jagger’s part and the part of the backup singer (something I’ve noted before as being slightly inconsistent). So if you’re singing “You Can’t Stop The Beat,” you take every line in every chorus and verse.

But at the same time, if you’ve never played any of the karaoke games, you’re striking for a relative pitch, not an absolute one, so you should be good… Except Broadway Revolution will test your limits of breath control. Still, that means we can’t have any songs depending on overlapping parts for effect.

The problem with “Broadway Hero” is, ultimately, game design and expense. When performers are dancing and moving around, they don’t have to worry about looking at a static screen mounted in front of them, but videogame players do – well, at least before they have it memorized. And the expense of a more sensitive, super-wide DDR pad and two pairs of Wii-style nunchucks and a pair of head-mounted microphones that work is making Rock Band look like a simple task.

Now let’s get to the good part: Choosing the song list.

First off, we need iconic Broadway tunes to play on “Broadway Hero.” Yes, I absolutely adore the smaller songs, but this is for a crowd that’s going to want the biggest, most memorable shows possible. They should all be A-listers.

Like Guitar Hero, we have the rule of one tune, one show. Guitar Hero and Rock Band don’t have multiple songs by the same artist (except maybe as downloadable content), and so too must Broadway Hero restrict itself to one tune from each show. Yes, it’s a heartbreaker. Don’t complain. It’s going to be hard enough getting the rights to all these songs!

And finally, we must have easy tunes to perform. Sure, every performance could be as psychotic as “Officer Krupke,” but then how would people learn? And more importantly, I know I get bored on Rock Band playing with friends, because for all of the downloadable content, only “Beetlebum” – one goddamned song – is on the lowest tier. And I’ve played “Say It Ain’t So” so many times on every instrument, I could fucking retch.

We need easy songs as well as hard.

First Tier (Easy Songs, Little Movement Or Dancing):

• “Seasons of Love,” Rent
• “The Internet Is For Porn,” Avenue Q
• “One Night In Bangkok,” Chess
• “Try To Remember,” The Fantasticks
• “My Favorite Things,” The Sound of Music
• “Oklahoma,” Oklahoma
• “Tomorrow,” Annie

UNLOCKED WHEN YOU BEAT THE LEVEL: “The Time Warp,” The Rocky Horror Picture Show

(NOTE: Unfortunately, these are all relatively slow songs. Can’t be helped.)

Second Tier (More Complex Songs With More Dancing)

• “Worst Pies In London,” Sweeney Todd (I was close to choosing “A Little Priest” on this one, but I thought we already had enough pseudo-funny lyrics in, and I wanted something operatic but doable.)
• “Hernando’s Hideaway,” from The Pajama Game (with special unlockable Robert Frost lyrics – as my wife notes, you can sing “Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening” to it beat for beat!)
• “I Don’t Know How To Love Him,” Jesus Christ Superstar
• “One,” A Chorus Line (ironically, I’ve already played “One” from Metallica on Guitar Hero).
• “Comedy Tonight,” A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
• “Modern Major General,” The Pirates of Penzance

UNLOCKED WHEN YOU BEAT THE LEVEL: “Springtime for Hitler,” The Producers

Third Tier (Complex in Either Dancing, Rhythm, Or Lyrics)

• “Defying Gravity,” Wicked
• “Little Shop Of Horrors,” Little Shop of Horrors
• “If I Were A Rich Man,” Fiddler On The Roof
• “Shall We Dance,” The King and I (which I can’t stand, but hey)
• “Wig In A Box,” Hedwig and the Angry Inch
• “Anything Goes,” Anything Goes (Arguable, but I couldn’t have Broadway Hero without Cole Porter!)

(NOTE: This is my favorite level)

UNLOCKED WHEN YOU BEAT THE LEVEL: “76 Trombones,” The Music Man

Final Tier

• “The Phantom of the Opera,” The Phantom of the Opera
• “Cell Block Tango,” Chicago
• “Do You Hear The People Sing?” Les Miserables
• “You’re The One That I Want,” Grease
• “America,” West Side Story

FINAL BOSS LEVEL: “You Can’t Stop The Beat,” Hairspray

UNLOCKED WHEN YOU BEAT THE GAME: “Uncle Fucka,” South Park

NOTE: Yes, I know it’s not here. Yes, I know it’s an absence of one of the longest-running Broadway shows ever. And no, I’m not goddamned putting it in. This is my game and you cannot make me put “Memories” in my game.

(Tell me I'm full of it)