LEGO Party (Multi) Review

Happy New Year, to all readers of SuperPhillip Central, past, present, and hopefully future, too! There's nothing like ringing in the new year with a party, and that's exactly what we're going to do here at SuperPhillip Central, specifically a LEGO Party--and being specific even further, a LEGO Party review!

A good, old-fashioned block party

Ever since its arrival on the game scene in the late 90s, Mario Party as a series has found success with both casual and veteran gamers alike. There's something for everyone in the genre--skill-based mini-games, luck-dependent turns, and last-minute victories stolen from the jaws of defeat. It's no wonder then that multiple mascot-oriented franchises in the past have taken aim to dethrone the Mushroom Kingdom's top plumber as master of ceremonies, king of parties.

Despite decades of games under the property's proverbial belt, LEGO hasn't quite delved into Mario Party's territory before. Until now, of course, with the latest in the massive and illustrious LEGO line of games: LEGO Party! Playing similarly to Mario Party to feel familiar while also offering some clever twists to the formula to distinguish itself from its main source of inspiration, LEGO Party offers enough fun to rock your block off.

No doubt players familiar with virtually any entry of Mario Party will find themselves comfortable with LEGO Party. Studs are the game's version of coins, studs are used to purchase Golden Bricks (taking Toad's traditional old place as Star-giver is Mr. Gold), which are the game's version of Power Stars. The player with the most Golden Bricks by the end of the game is the winner.

Golden Brick? Don't mind if I do!

One of the key changes to the Mario Party formula is that mini-games, a popular mainstay of any party game worth RSVPing to, don't happen at the end of every round. Instead, they initiate the start of every round. Not only does placement in these mini-games offer studs, the currency of LEGO Party, but it also determines the order of turns in each round unlike Mario Party where the turn order is stagnant once it's determined at the beginning of the game.

Mini-games start each round of turns, and it's up to the four players to choose which one is played. There are four tiles: three with different mini-games on them, and one tile that selects a random mini-game. The tile that has the most players on it after the countdown ends is the mini-game played. In the event of a tie, one of the games chosen by players will be played at random.  

Do your LEGO Party civic duty and vote on the mini-game you want 
(or the one your opponents hate) at the start of each round.

Thankfully, the 60 total mini-games within LEGO Party are mostly winners, too. Really, the only mini-games that stand out as less than stellar usually involve controlling rockets, which unfortunately, there are a handful of those. The rockets don't feel good to handle, nor do they make for anything other than frustration for the most part. Additionally, one of the mini-games, though totally non-rocket-related requires outside knowledge of art to successfully win--or at least be good at guessing. Either way, if you discover a stinker of a mini-game type, you can use the accessibility menu to shut the category off entirely. While I would prefer being able to turn off individual mini-games instead of categories, it's nice to have some options there all the same.

In Gra-feet-i, cover the most area in your paint color by walking over it before time runs out.

I've broached about the weaker of the mini-games in LEGO Party's varied collection, but for every one mini-game that stands out as arguably annoying or ho-hum, there are at least two or three that absolutely rock and rule. From piloting helicopters in an auto and side-scrolling course of rings to fly through for points, to drilling holes in a grid-based iceberg to trick and trap your opponents into falling off, to taking turns riding and rolling on a giant bowling ball across a lengthy, wavy track to knock over pins, the mini-game options in LEGO Party are indeed mostly winners. 

[Speaking of mini-games, be sure to check out my video of the TOP TEN LEGO PARTY MINI-GAMES!] 

Turn your miniature maze around by walking over it to pour the beakers of your color into the
 tank. Just be sure to avoid the bombs!

Aside from the mini-games that play out as free-for-all matches, landing on a Battle space introduces a Team Battle. As you can probably guess, these are two-on-two battles featuring an exclusive lineup of mini-games. What you might NOT be able to probably guess is that each Team Battle awards the winners with individual Golden Bricks. These no doubt can shift the tide of a game in a swift fashion! Just be sure to cooperate well with your teammate, or else you'll lose out on the Golden Brick opportunity!

Speaking of spaces, there are plenty of other space types apart from Battle spaces in LEGO Party. Variety IS the spice of life of the party, after all... or something to that effect. At any rate, from spaces that bestow or steal studs from the player, to Lucky spaces where players spin a roulette to determine their reward, to Power-Up spaces that grant a random Power-Up item to a player, there's a lot of discoverable variety to be had.

Thankfully, Ted, chance is the one deciding this for Player 3!

Power-ups are wonderful additions to LEGO Party, and these are basically just items from Mario Party 2 and beyond, but these have various uses to them. They can be used to benefit the player or utilized to mess with other players. From multiplying the number of spaces they roll, to adding five spaces to their roll, to switching positions with another player, to transporting them to a specific space (whether that be to a Battle Space or Mr. Gold himself), players can use Power-Ups strategically to put themselves at an advantage or other players at a disadvantage. Up to three can be held at a time by an individual player. 

As for the boards themselves where all these spaces stand and where all Power-Ups are played, LEGO Party sports four boards known as Challenge Zones. While this may seem like a small amount of boards... well... it sort of is. Sure, you'll want to replay boards multiple times not just to see every event and possible outcome on each board, of which there are many, but you also earn experience points for each respective board upon playing and finishing games. These unlock rewards upon reaching experience levels such as exclusive Minifigures, the player avatars of LEGO Party, and carrots, used to, well, buy more Minifigures from the in-game shop. 

That said, three of the boards--or rather, Challenge Zones--I found immensely enjoyable, but one of them, the Space Zone, I found to be a bit underwhelming. The concept is nice, but by the midpoint of each game, an alien pops up, and this results in a long (by comparison to other events in the game), unskippable cutscene that just breaks the flow of the game entirely. 

In the NINJAGO Zone, a flame-breathing dragon sets fire to the center bridge at the start of every third
 round, causing any unfortunate player standing there to lose half their studs.

While the Space Zone isn't the greatest, Challenge Zones like the Pirate Zone, NINJAGO Zone, and Theme Park Zone more than make up for it with lots of fun. They offer different ways to earn free Golden Bricks (such as defeating monsters by properly timing a button press on a spinning wheel in NINJAGO Zone's case), as well as potential to mess over your opponents--which, let's face it, is a huge part of the fun and ruining of friendships in these types of video games. 

A free Golden Brick? Don't mind if I do!

The Theme Park Zone in particular is a great pleasure to play on, as Mr. Gold is always in two locations, and always at the center circle of the board at opposite points of the plaza. Each time a Gold Brick is purchased, Mr. Gold's positions switch 90 degrees. In the final turns, Mr. Thief is added--the Boo equivalent of LEGO Party--who players can opt to visit instead of Mr. Gold. With Mr. Thief, who also appears in every other zone in the game, players can choose to steal another player's studs for free, or opt to steal a Gold Brick from a player for 75 studs. Studs aren't hard to come by in LEGO Party, so you can imagine how quickly chaotic games with Mr. Thief's presence can become!

LEGO Party is of course easy enough to play in some good old fashioned local multiplayer mayhem. If you lack four human players, the remainder can be replaced with CPUs of varying difficulties to choose. However, LEGO Party also sports the potential for online play, which is awesome in theory and thankfully in practice, too. A host can set a room code for their friends to join--Super Mario Party-style--and each game saves progress after every round. Cross play is an option, meaning that if you're on the Nintendo Switch with your copy of LEGO Party, but your friends have a copy of the PlayStation 5 version, that means you can still play a game with them. An incredible feature to have!

The world was apparently against Player 3 in this vase-busting mini-game.

On the presentation side of this plentiful party package, LEGO Party shakes things up with the banter of two co-hosts: Ted Talker and Paige Turner. The two offer oftentimes humorous, sometimes even hilarious dialogue between one another, and it really plays to the game show environment LEGO Party presents to players. Occasionally either Ted or Paige will cut themselves off, especially if a mini-game ends mid-sentence, and by the third or so game of LEGO Party, you'll be hearing a lot of repeated phrases, but they seldom grow tiring or too repetitive. The music is serviceable, though aside from main theme (which is a bop) I can't recall a single melody or jingle in the game.

Graphically, LEGO Party is stellar and impressive. Every facet and piece of the environments throughout the game, whether in studio, in the mini-games, or within the Challenge Zones, is comprised of carefully constructed and assembled LEGO pieces. It's like a massive set come to life in this wonderful world and party package. There's occasional slowdown, however, but this affects non-gameplay moments, such as a cutscene showing the construction of a segment of the Theme Park Zone, for instance. 

All in all, I'm surprised by how much I absolutely enjoyed LEGO Party. The developers really did a fantastic job with this party game, offering mostly well-crafted boards with relatively fast paced rounds (not looking at you, Space Zone), a colorful and creative collection of mini-games (some stinkers notwithstanding), and plentiful amounts of charm thrown in as well, with that latter part being expected from a LEGO game. The developers are also listening to feedback within the community, such as adding bonus Golden Bricks at the end of games, something that LEGO Party lacked by the time I finished up the Platinum trophy on the game a month ago. All this, plus a budget price, deliver a party worth having for any kind of player, young/old, casual/hardcore, and so forth.

[SPC Says: B+] 

 

[VIDEO] Top Ten Winter Mario Kart Tracks

'Twas the day before Christmas, and a list of my favorite (not necessarily the best) winter-themed Mario Kart tracks appeared! From Mario Kart 64 all the way to Mario Kart World, they may give you the cold shoulder at first with their tricky turns and trials, but once the learning curve's taken, you'll most likely warm up to them! 

Note: If parts of this top ten sounds familiar, a fair amount of it was featured in my written list several years back. This is a revised one with inclusions from Mario Kart World, as well!

[VIDEO] Top Ten Arcade Golf Games

We're taking to the tee with ten of the best arcade golf games, in my humble opinion, courtesy of this video top ten. These golf video games certainly give me love for the links, whether they're full of great gameplay, sound controls, charming personality, clever design, or a whole slew of other aspects that you won't need to call a mulligan for!

Princess of the Water Lilies (PC) Review

A new review saunters onto SuperPhillip Central for a game that released just under a month ago: Princess of the Water Lilies. This currently PC-exclusive game takes players on a short and mostly sweet puzzle-platforming adventure. Let's sink our claws into the game with the SPC review.

Cat's Quest, Too.

 

It's generally agreed upon that the AAA space in gaming typically sticks to the tried and true, while indies do a lot more in the way of innovation. Part of that is out of needing to in order to survive on the market--for both big publishers and indies. Take Princess of the Water Lilies, for example. It's an artistic adventure featuring puzzles and platforming, environmental storytelling, and a beautiful game world to explore. It's something that fulfills a niche that isn't a road already well traveled by other games. That's commendable, for sure, but does it make for an engaging game? Good question!

The story of Princess of the Water Lilies begins with an unassuming cardboard box drifting along a river, upon which a grey kitten pops out. She slowly climbs over to the shore before collapsing from exhaustion. Fortunately, a nearby frog stumbles upon the tired kitty and carries her to safety. The aforementioned amphibian is part of a larger family of frogs who not only nurture the kitten back to good health but also take her in as part of their family. Eventually what follows is an attack on the forest that the frogs and now the kitten call home, as well as abductions of animals throughout the world by strange mechanical beings.

Throughout the game, Princess of the Water Lilies uses no dialogue to tell its tale, going for a "show, don't tell" approach that works well overall. It's not an especially complex story, but it's one that is riveting enough to see it through to its conclusion--despite some gameplay frustrations here and there.

Right away you'll notice the beauty possessed by Princess of the Water Lilies.

Princess of the Water Lilies is a 2D puzzle-platformer utilizing limited combat. Really, the only true battling is done against the handful of bosses--and I'll get to those in a little bit. There are five main zones within the game world, and each offers different environmental challenges as well as new mechanics to keep the experience fresh from beginning to end.

While this purple mushroom moves about, the vines in its close 
proximity will become platforms to safely stand on.

For instance, the Caverns contain strings of web that our kitten heroine can climb up and slide down (though this is a bit clunky in execution, particularly when trying to let go of said web string) as well as moving mushrooms that can either be used for bouncing with the brown variations or used to appear and disappear vines and ivy from the path. Meanwhile, the Mountain features special cactus that climb up walls and on ceilings, which can be held onto. It also has dandelion puffs that can be grabbed and used to soar and sail into the air.  

These cactus squares are purr-fect to sink this cat's claws into and ride!

Despite the different mechanics used in each area of the game, Princess of the Water Lilies basic gameplay loop remains similar across them all. You go from--for lack of a better term--room to room, and in each room you are need to find a "key" to open a locked "door". I put quotes around each term, as the form of the "keys" and "doors" change with each area. In the first area of the game, the Forest, you take Beetles (the keys) to Frogs (the doors) to have them allow you to pass and progress. 

For our feline's frog friends, nothing beats a beetle!

Our feline friend doesn't have a huge repertoire at her disposal, but it does the job for what the game world requires of her. She can swipe her paw to interact with characters and switches, she can purr to stun enemies that would otherwise defeat her in one hit, and she can climb up mossy walls, vines, and the previously mentioned strings of web. 

Being that it's one hit and kitty no longer sits pretty--instead she essentially perishes--you might think that this is a recipe for frustration. The answer is contextual: yes and no. With generous checkpoints in both exploration and the boss battles, there's seldom too much progress lost upon death. That said, boss battles do feel out of place by virtue of their difficulty. While veteran platforming fans shouldn't have too terribly much trouble taking down each beast thrown at our feline heroine, less skilled players may see themselves needing a lot of patience, constant redoing and repeating albeit short segments and sections of battles, and getting aggravated by the difficulty jumps that these fights possess. 

Most are alright, but some boss battles are a particularly strong part of this game... in annoying me.

Whether it's scurrying from a pursuing camel that breathes flames and launches fireballs in your path, scaling up spider webs all the while evading balls of silk shot from a gigantic spider chasing you, or attempting to swim safely through patches of toxic bubbles blown out from a huge mechanical seahorse in an almost bullet hell-like fashion, these battles definitely up the ante in challenge to what is otherwise a relatively breezy game. At times, I was enjoying the level of challenge, but other times I felt I was having fun despite these fights. It seemed like RNG was a factor in whether I succeeded or failed a section of battle.

Besides boss battles and searching for "keys", there are a fair amount of secrets within the game--chiefly optional animals that can be rescued from cages, usually placed behind secret walls with telltale signs of their hidden nature. Now, these are generally not too taxing to find if you're keeping an eye on your surroundings and little "hints" in the environments, but they're also not exactly easy peasy to find, either.

Princess of the Water Lilies is not a lengthy game by any stretch of the imagination. It took just over three hours for me to complete the game with every discovery found. An additional hour-and-a-half of playtime was dedicated for me to a speedrunning achievement--beating the game in under the three hours that I barely missed out on my first run--as well as some miscellaneous tasks that one wouldn't think about doing in any playthrough, really. (Seriously, who would think about slapping a cute and precious seal 100 times?)

This area of the game features currents, toxic water, and other lots and lots of swimming.

What Princess of the Water Lilies lacks in duration, it definitely makes up for in its presentation. It's a gorgeous game with beautifully drawn visuals somewhat reminiscent of Rayman Legends, which if you know my love for that game's art direction, that's a hefty compliment by virtue of comparison! The music, too, is impressive, offering a superb symphonic sound that can hit the heartstrings occasionally with its stirring moody melodies. 

Whether it's tacky of me to try to make a value proposition on an artful game like this or not, in the end, Princess of the Water Lilies is a relatively short experience that might be best to wait on a sale before delving into. Taking less than five hours to complete all of its achievements and factoring in its modest amount of frustrations gameplay-wise (but when they hit, they DO hit hard--looking at you, bosses), and you do have some negatives, for sure. On the opposite side of the spectrum, it is also worth noting how the game offers a great deal of charm, rather clever ideas in its puzzles and mechanics, and how it kept me engaged from start to finish, as well. All this amounts to is a title in Princess of the Water Lilies that is worth at the very least experiencing--anyone's playtime versus price proposition notwithstanding.

[SPC Says: C+] 

A Steam code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

[VIDEO] Top Ten LEGO Party! Mini-Games

It's been a bit since I've shared some video content with you all! LEGO Party! is very much Mario Party but with a LEGO twist, and it does enough to distinguish itself from its inspiration too, I do believe! I hope to have a review of the game later this month! In the meantime, check out this video featuring some of my absolute favorites of the 60 included mini-games featured with LEGO Party!