Lego Party is a fun-filled 60-90 minute romp through the game show of your dreams.
I’m not afraid to admit that I’m a horribly impatient gamer. I’m too restless for most RPGs and turn-based games. (What do you mean I have to wait for my turn? They attackedme!) Having to learn in-game mechanic changes at the last minute frustrates me, and I’ve never met a cutscene I didn’t try to skip at least once. Needless to say, finding a party game that doesn’t send me reaching for my phone in between turns can be tough.
Lego Party bursts through that mental block with flying studs.
This four-player cross-platform game developed by SMG Studio takes the familiar Mario Party model and makes it feel fresh, engaging and, above all, fun.
Getting the Lego Party Started
Choose from one of four maps in the Challenge Zone, based on size and estimated game time. You can tweak the number of rounds and head starts once you select your map.
The premise is simple: you and three friends (or up to three CPU players) play across your choice of boardgame maps, collecting as many Gold Bricks, Studs (in-game currency) and Power Ups as you can. As you play across the board, you can earn additional Studs by playing a variety of Lego Party’s 60 Minigames. Winning a Minigame also helps determine your turn order for each round. The player with the most Gold Bricks at the end of the game wins.
Lego is integral to the DNA of this game and its minigames. More than one game relied on players’ knowledge of Lego and their ability to identify specific pieces. Naturally, building is also a big part of gameplay. Players are given their choice of what to construct along the game route.
These constructions can hold special opportunities to earn more Gold Bricks or set players back a few spaces. In one playthrough, I built a haunted castle for a chance to grab a Gold Brick, but triggering the wrong block booted me out and onto the main game route. Longtime fans of the Lego franchise will be rewarded with countless Easter eggs and funny antics in the background. (I could have watched a Lego Yeti chasing chickens for hours.)
Not Just “Mario Party Without Mario”
From the jump, what sets Lego Party apart from Mario Party is that you feel less like you’re playing a board game and more like you’re starring on a televised game show. Lego character hosts Paige Turner and Ted Talker guide you through all phases of the game, providing color commentary and instructions with the brick brand’s trademark zaniness, delivering family-friendly humor that’s still clever enough to make adults snort with laughter. This is key to keeping the energy of the game moving forward, as even when they start repeating lines, the atmosphere feels charged with positive vibes.
Play dress-up with your Lego Minifigures from a selection of costumes and individual Lego heads, torsos, and more.
Another aspect that separates it from Mario games of the past is the level of character customization. Or rather that there is any at all. Yes you can collect costumes from some of your favorite Ninjago sets and other Lego series, but your minifigure is otherwise all yours to dress as you like, like any kid digging through a bucket of parts. That Minifigure can also level up and collect unlockable prizes as you keep playing the game and beat different Game Modes.
What I suspect will attract most gamers burned by Mario Party sessions gone wrong is the omission of, pardon, bullpucky late-game shenanigans like score swapping that just take the fun out of the competition. Yes, there are still mechanisms to mess with your opponents and steal Gold Bricks, but it’s less chaotic, and the options are telegraphed well in advance. Lego Party is more about exploring the boards and goofing off in the minigames rather than letting Toad decide the podium spots by star roulette.
The minigames themselves are a refreshing mix of strategy, wit, hand-eye coordination and pure chaos. There’s even one quizzing your art history knowledge! No more relying on just brute button-mashing or rhythm-matching to have a chance in this fight.
Lego Party features 60 different minigames with play-styles ranging from rhythm, agility, wit, and chaos.
And speaking of fights, I was pleasantly surprised by how few I felt like starting while playing this game with my equally competitive partner. Even at the end of a particularly brutal rocket ship race, where she beat me by an embarrassing degree, I discovered I could make my minifigure character dance, spin and even throw a tantrum (or was it The Worm?) on the podium screen. It’s really hard to stay steamed when you’re having too much fun bullying a CPU character with breakdancing.
Who should play Lego Party?
Overall, if you’re looking for an option for date night, family game night or even post-reality show watch party chit chat, Lego Party is a great choice for all that will keep you on your toes but not at each other’s throats.
Lego Party comes out for PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch on Sept. 30.
