Never thought I’d need commentary in a party game, but the announcers are great.
Developers with the LEGO IP have done an amazing job parodying their source content, and they’ve also done a great job with their original content with games like LEGO City Undercover and LEGOVoyagers. Now they’re going after Mario Party, and just like everything else they make fun of, it’s another job well done.
If you’ve played Mario Party, you’ll feel right at home with LEGO Party. Sessions are played on board game maps called challenge zones, you win LEGO studs from minigames instead of coins, and instead of collecting stars to win, you collect golden bricks. There’s no mindless story either. Sure, every map has its lore, but the game presents each session like a game show complete with tongue-in-cheek commentary that sounds like it was taken from Pitch Perfect.
There have been all sorts of Mario Party clones in the past, from Sonic Shuffle to Rabbids: Party of Legends, but none have really have encapsulated the same feel. LEGO Party does that by being a straight up clone but also features key differences to really give the game an identity of its own. Add actual polish, and you have a game that actually does compete.
Best minigame right here. Dance the night away and don’t die!
So let’s talk about some of these differences. First of all, turn order in a game isn’t decided by a dice roll at the start. Each round actually starts with a minigame, and not only does the winner win more studs, they also get to go first that turn. Second place goes second, and so forth, and this is done every round. This, alone, makes every round feel dynamic, and the person who goes last doesn’t have to wait all the time. It’s simply a better feeling and a nice touch, and I haven’t even mentioned how this ultimately affects strategy.
As far as strategy goes, in Mario Party, you’d feel an intrinsic need to do things outside of simply winning as many minigames as possible for coins. You’d also feel it’s necessary to land on green spaces and engage with the board as much as possible for bonus stars at the end of the game. LEGO Party doesn’t have these bonuses. So you don’t have to worry about winning the most minigames or having the most studs at all times, but there are definitely some things to plan for.
Even the act of picking a minigame has a sense of strategy put into it. At the start of each round, there’ll be four options; three minigames and a random minigame, and the players have a few seconds to vote on which one is played. The minigames in LEGO Party are also very well polished with the majority of them being a blast to play. Again, they follow the Mario Party formula by giving you the option of practicing the game first during the Instruction Screen before giving it a shot, which gives newcomers a chance to get their feet wet before things get real.
This minigame where you have to get the furthest on the track balancing on a unicycle was an absolute ruckus.
One of my favorite minigames is Bungee Boogie, where you have to put yourself on a floating stage that moves at random, and the person on the stage just dances. You win by dancing for a longer period of time than your opponents, but it’s chaotic because your own controlled movement is limited to a bungee cord, and all everybody is doing is knocking each other over. It’s typical party game fun.
One thing that LEGO Party also borrows from Mario Party is how it raises the stakes by making everything double during the last five rounds. You’ll earn or lose double the studs for landing on blue and red spaces, while minigames also pay double. It doesn’t end there though. On the very last turn everything doubles again, and spaces like shops that would otherwise be useless are turned into Chance Spaces–which are exactly what they were in Mario Party as they come with the possibility of turning the standings upside down. On top of that, spaces that provide you with a stud roulette will also have Gold Bricks as part of the rotation. It all just feels chaotic but different at the same time.
The main difference, of course, is how everything is LEGO-based and if you aren’t into LEGOs or the humor that accompanies them, that’s where you’ll find the naysayers. I played the game with my girlfriend who couldn’t get the over of the mindset that it felt like a generic Mario Party. On that note, I also played with my younger brother who I’ve enjoyed Mario Party with for years but he actually thought LEGO Party was a breath of fresh air and was impressed (and overwhelmed) impressed by all the character customization choices. This is actually both a cool feature and detriment.
The customization possibilities are endless, as long as you aren’t expecting some known IP to build your mini-fig with.
While the building brick company has made a killing off of licensing, aside from properties like Ninjago (which is self-owned), there isn’t any of that here. So no, unfortunately LEGO Batman isn’t here, and neither is Chase McCain. On that note, there are hundreds of combinations of bottoms, tops, and heads to customize your mini-fig with, so that’s sure to attract the customization crowd.
Other modes in LEGO Party include Minigame Rush and Score Chaser (only one player), but they just don’t feature the same amount of fun as the four Challenge Zones. While there are only four maps and that doesn’t seem like a lot of content, the 60 minigames and the in-game announcers really do a lot to make each experience feel different, and that in my mind adds a lot of value to an already affordable package at $40–$36 during this launch. Add the fact that this game is available on everything, and you have the perfect family game in time for the holidays alongside Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing, and of course, Mario Party.
When I got my hands on LEGO Party at Summer Game Fest, I knew it would be something special. It’s disappointing that none of the licenses we’ve seen other in LEGO games make an appearance here, but the game more than makes up for it with the amount of fun and polish each minigame offers, and at $40, I’d definitely recommend this over most Mario Party games, and if DLC comes that does bring known IP to the mix, I just might partake.
Developers with the LEGO IP have done an amazing job parodying their source content, and they’ve also done a great job with their original content with games like LEGO City Undercover and LEGO Voyagers. Now they’re going after Mario Party,…
Never thought I’d need commentary in a party game, but the announcers are great.
Developers with the LEGO IP have done an amazing job parodying their source content, and they’ve also done a great job with their original content with games like LEGO City Undercover and LEGOVoyagers. Now they’re going after Mario Party, and just like everything else they make fun of, it’s another job well done.
If you’ve played Mario Party, you’ll feel right at home with LEGO Party. Sessions are played on board game maps called challenge zones, you win LEGO studs from minigames instead of coins, and instead of collecting stars to win, you collect golden bricks. There’s no mindless story either. Sure, every map has its lore, but the game presents each session like a game show complete with tongue-in-cheek commentary that sounds like it was taken from Pitch Perfect.
There have been all sorts of Mario Party clones in the past, from Sonic Shuffle to Rabbids: Party of Legends, but none have really have encapsulated the same feel. LEGO Party does that by being a straight up clone but also features key differences to really give the game an identity of its own. Add actual polish, and you have a game that actually does compete.
Best minigame right here. Dance the night away and don’t die!
So let’s talk about some of these differences. First of all, turn order in a game isn’t decided by a dice roll at the start. Each round actually starts with a minigame, and not only does the winner win more studs, they also get to go first that turn. Second place goes second, and so forth, and this is done every round. This, alone, makes every round feel dynamic, and the person who goes last doesn’t have to wait all the time. It’s simply a better feeling and a nice touch, and I haven’t even mentioned how this ultimately affects strategy.
As far as strategy goes, in Mario Party, you’d feel an intrinsic need to do things outside of simply winning as many minigames as possible for coins. You’d also feel it’s necessary to land on green spaces and engage with the board as much as possible for bonus stars at the end of the game. LEGO Party doesn’t have these bonuses. So you don’t have to worry about winning the most minigames or having the most studs at all times, but there are definitely some things to plan for.
Even the act of picking a minigame has a sense of strategy put into it. At the start of each round, there’ll be four options; three minigames and a random minigame, and the players have a few seconds to vote on which one is played. The minigames in LEGO Party are also very well polished with the majority of them being a blast to play. Again, they follow the Mario Party formula by giving you the option of practicing the game first during the Instruction Screen before giving it a shot, which gives newcomers a chance to get their feet wet before things get real.
This minigame where you have to get the furthest on the track balancing on a unicycle was an absolute ruckus.
One of my favorite minigames is Bungee Boogie, where you have to put yourself on a floating stage that moves at random, and the person on the stage just dances. You win by dancing for a longer period of time than your opponents, but it’s chaotic because your own controlled movement is limited to a bungee cord, and all everybody is doing is knocking each other over. It’s typical party game fun.
One thing that LEGO Party also borrows from Mario Party is how it raises the stakes by making everything double during the last five rounds. You’ll earn or lose double the studs for landing on blue and red spaces, while minigames also pay double. It doesn’t end there though. On the very last turn everything doubles again, and spaces like shops that would otherwise be useless are turned into Chance Spaces–which are exactly what they were in Mario Party as they come with the possibility of turning the standings upside down. On top of that, spaces that provide you with a stud roulette will also have Gold Bricks as part of the rotation. It all just feels chaotic but different at the same time.
The main difference, of course, is how everything is LEGO-based and if you aren’t into LEGOs or the humor that accompanies them, that’s where you’ll find the naysayers. I played the game with my girlfriend who couldn’t get the over of the mindset that it felt like a generic Mario Party. On that note, I also played with my younger brother who I’ve enjoyed Mario Party with for years but he actually thought LEGO Party was a breath of fresh air and was impressed (and overwhelmed) impressed by all the character customization choices. This is actually both a cool feature and detriment.
The customization possibilities are endless, as long as you aren’t expecting some known IP to build your mini-fig with.
While the building brick company has made a killing off of licensing, aside from properties like Ninjago (which is self-owned), there isn’t any of that here. So no, unfortunately LEGO Batman isn’t here, and neither is Chase McCain. On that note, there are hundreds of combinations of bottoms, tops, and heads to customize your mini-fig with, so that’s sure to attract the customization crowd.
Other modes in LEGO Party include Minigame Rush and Score Chaser (only one player), but they just don’t feature the same amount of fun as the four Challenge Zones. While there are only four maps and that doesn’t seem like a lot of content, the 60 minigames and the in-game announcers really do a lot to make each experience feel different, and that in my mind adds a lot of value to an already affordable package at $40–$36 during this launch. Add the fact that this game is available on everything, and you have the perfect family game in time for the holidays alongside Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing, and of course, Mario Party.
When I got my hands on LEGO Party at Summer Game Fest, I knew it would be something special. It’s disappointing that none of the licenses we’ve seen other in LEGO games make an appearance here, but the game more than makes up for it with the amount of fun and polish each minigame offers, and at $40, I’d definitely recommend this over most Mario Party games, and if DLC comes that does bring known IP to the mix, I just might partake.
by Danreb Victorio
