LEGO Party Review

Is LEGO Party better than Mario Party? If you’re interested in LEGO Party, that’s probably the biggest question on your mind. However, the answer isn’t as black and white as I thought it would be and for a first entry, LEGO Party is pretty darn good. Sadly, there are some shortcomings that will probably hold LEGO Party back from definitively stealing market share from the competition, but I am positive that there will be plenty of people that prefer LEGO Party.

LEGO Party Review

To show the slightest interest in LEGO Party means that you not only like LEGO, but also digital party games and there is no way to dance around constantly referencing Mario Party because I can’t think of another genre that is monopolized by one series and has been for decades. The inspiration is clearly here, but LEGO Party has enough of its own ideas that not only justifies its existence, but makes it a worthy challenger.

A large part of why LEGO Party is successful can be attributed to being developed by SMG Studios, who are no strangers to casual and co-op games with titles like Death Squared and their breakout hit series Moving Out. LEGO Party is available to play solo, locally with up to four people or online using cross platform and you also don’t need to be online to play if you don’t want.

LEGO party features the core genre staples including the challenge mode(board game mode), as well as a few different mini game modes. There is the ability to play any mini game you want, but they also have curated lists broken into a few categories such as more brain centric ones or ones that are great for all ages. There are four boards, sixty mini games (with 59 ranging from good to great), and over a billion different combinations of customization on the mini-figures, which should allow everyone to find their personality.

Considering that party games have been around for nearly thirty years, most of the mini games with LEGO Party feel unique with some drawing inspiration from gaming classics like Guitar Hero, Trials, Katamari, Flappy Bird, but there are a few that felt like variations of games from Mario Party itself. When breaking down the mini-games, there are 51 free for all and 9 co-op based games that use the 2v2 mechanic. Unfortunately, there was no asymmetrical options.

However, the way that Lego Party finds success is three fold: To begin with, it fully embraces the LEGO aspect. The entire world of LEGO Party is made of LEGO, and is true to life meaning that you can technically recreate anything you see in the game. The Space zone board for example is eighty two thousand pieces and the Ninjago zone is over one hundred thousand. Many of the mini-games are not just traditional mini games with a LEGO twist, but actual LEGO centric games like reading the building instructions and then trying to pick what piece doesn’t belong. Another one features a tornado of lego pieces and you need to decide which figure can be built using the spinning pieces. LEGO is one of the biggest IP’s in the world, so why not fully utilize it.

Furthermore, LEGO Party is thematically centred around the premise of a game show, which provides a lot of needed life to an otherwise lifeless genre. LEGO Party features two announcers, Ted and Page, who commentate everything, which adds a lot of family friendly humour to the game. Their commentary fills in a lot of the emptiness that can normally be found in between turns and rounds.

The premise gave the game a more experiential feeling. There was a mini game, which felt kind of strange, but then the announcers noted that this was a faithful recreation of a specific Ninjago episode from a specific season and with a quick search this was proven accurate. This completely changed the impression of the level from strange to impressive because it made more sense.

Finally, instead of running from the biggest weakness of Mario Party, which is the randomness, LEGO Party leans into it and turns it into a strength. There is no disappointment at the very end of the game when a win that you deserved gets stolen from you and breaks friendships. Instead, LEGO Party engages the player the whole time because at any minute the entire thing can be turned upside down. It’s always anyone’s game because LEGO Party is always chaotic fun.

During the challenge mode, at the start of every round the turn order is decided by a mini game. This keeps everyone interested as the winner of each mini game will win the most studs, which can be used during the game to buy valuable items. Then halfway through the game and then once again at the end, the game raises the stakes with greater losses, higher rewards and more studs for mini games. This ensures that no player is ever out of the game.

The chaos and randomness throughout LEGO Party actually level the playing field between hardcore and casual gamers, making it a game that’s easier to share with more people.

CRITICISMS

The biggest criticisms with LEGO Party is the variety and it’s detrimental in a number of ways. To begin with the party genre is about two things: Board Game Mode and Mini-Games. LEGO Party is launching with 4 different boards as well as 60 mini games, which is pretty good for a first entry, but when the market is already deeply established and the competition has more to offer, it’s not good enough. Super Mario Party Jamboree, which we reviewed last fall is probably the best entry in the series, which it should be after nearly three decades, but it launched with seven boards and one hundred and thirteen mini games.

This means that the latest Mario Party available offers nearly twice as many boards and games, which is a substantial difference. The silver lining is that the LEGO Party boards and mini games are very good. In fact, there was only one mini game out of the sixty that felt like a huge miss.

The other big issue with variety is that with such a wide breadth of options to choose from LEGO Party is lacking in themes. There is no third party IP in the game for obvious licensing costs such as Lego Batman, but LEGO Party mostly only features three themes: Space, Ninjago and Pirates. Once again, the silver lining is that these are three of the better themes, but there are huge omissions like Castles, Trains and Bionicle. Using those three themes to beef up the mini games and board options would have made LEGO Party a slam dunk.

If you don’t have a full group to play, you can fill the open spots with bots, but on medium difficulty they are basically Skynet level intelligence and on easy they are somewhat inconsistent and either don’t pose much challenge or dominate like the medium bots. Once again the silver lining is that the devs are aware of this and a day one patch will optimize balance on the bots, which means that by the time you read this, it might not be an issue.

Finally, the last few LEGO games like Lego Horizon, LEGO Voyagers, and LEGO Builder’s Journey have created the expectation that all LEGO games from here on out are going to look stunning, but LEGO Party doesn’t meet the visual standards set by the previous LEGO games.

IS LEGO PARTY WORTH IT?

LEGO Party is a bonafide competitor to the Mario Party series. Jamboree might hold the crown for the best party game, but Mario Party has been around since 1998 and Jamboree is the twelfth mainline release. For a debut, LEGO Party is a delightful surprise and has the foundations required to become a stalwart in the party scene.

With a little more variety in boards, mini-games and Lego themes, LEGO Party could prove to be a force to be reckoned with in the future. When you combine the quality and the price point, as well as being available everywhere with cross platform play LEGO Party is sure to cause disruption in the genre.

LEGO Party Final Score

7.5

POST REVIEW INTERESTING FACT

This review talked a lot about LEGO and Nintendo, but did you know that before Nintendo made video games, they actually made Lego like bricks. These were created in the early 1960’s and they were shared so much similarity that LEGO sued Nintendo on the basis of plagiarism, but actually lost due to their being enough differences. For whatever reason, Nintendo stopped making the bricks in the late 1960’s, which worked out well for LEGO, Nintendo and fans of both.