The Wii is
an ideal platform for party games. The wild control possibilities inherent in
the system allow of you and your friends to go nuts and have a great time. Since
the system’s launch, there have been some shining examples of this, like Wario
Ware: Smooth Moves and Rayman Raving Rabbids, which have offered fun and
addicting party gameplay. Unfortunately, there are also titles out there like
Tamagotchi: Party On, that bring very little, if anything to the table. The game
moves extremely slowly (death for a party game), and the games themselves leave
a lot to be desired. This is one party you’ll probably want to miss.
In
Tamagotchi: Party On, you and up to three of your friends begin by selecting
your Tamagotchi, and then crossing the board on a grassroots campaign of
sorts in order to become the Tamagotchi President. You need to collect money and
gain popularity points for your campaign in order to come out on top and be
president.
Right off
the bat, Tamagotchi: Party On has some pretty substantial problems. The game
will allow no fewer than four characters on the game board, human or CPU. This
means that if you are playing a single-player match, then you are in for a world
of boredom, since you’ll spend a lot more time watching the computer go through
the motions of the game than you do actually doing it yourself.
However,
the four-player requirement would’ve be a problem if the game kept the fast pace
of most party titles. Unfortunately, the game’s pace is ridiculously slow. Each
character must roll their die, walk across the map, and then play their
mini-game before they can proceed, and once three other characters go, a decent
chunk of playtime has passed. Sometimes the waiting is especially unfun, as
often instead of minigames, you’ll simply draw a card like in an actual board
game, giving you an arbitrary amount of popularity points or money. These event
spaces make the game even duller than it already is.
However,
the minigames themselves aren’t too great either. They are few and far between,
not terribly varied, and only for one player. They’re split into two categories;
Gotchi Game Spaces and Mini-Game Spaces. The Mini-Game Spaces are the more
fleshed out of the two, but they are fairly ho-hum mini-games, especially
considering that they’re only for one player.
The Gotchi
Game Spaces are games that play on a Tamagotchi virtual pet unit on the screen.
Naturally, these have basically no complexity, and are geared to play as a
handheld LCD minigame would play, meaning very simplistically.
The game
at least looks pretty good graphically. The character models are done in the
unique style of the Tamagotchi license. The game sports a slightly cel-shaded
look, and a brightly-colored environment that moves smoothly. The graphics are a
little too brightly colored and “pastelly”, and might give you a headache if you
stare too long. The sound effects and music are very repetitive and get very
grating very quickly.
Tamagotchi:
Party On is a train wreck of a party game, very boring and obnoxious. This one is
hard to recommend to anyone, even (or perhaps, especially) fans of the virtual
pet license.
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Gameplay: 3.5
Boring minigames,
slow pace, and generally derivative gameplay describe this experience quite
well.
Graphics: 7.0
Decent looking cel-shading
gives this game a good aesthetic, and the bright environments are appealing, if
not too “saccharin”.
Sound: 3.5
Grating high-pitched
voices and repetitive music.
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 3.0
A crappy party game,
Tamagotchi: Party On doesn’t deliver on the “party” (and just barely on the
“game”).
Multiplayer: 3.0
Lame gameplay translates into a weak multiplayer experience.
Overall: 3.5
A boring party
game that lacks the pace and originality of its genre counterparts, Tamagotchi:
Party On should be avoided at all costs.
