LEGO Party! Review

Are you a big fan of multiplayer games like Super Mario Party and are looking for something different to try? Then I may have found a perfect game for you, especially if you are a big fan of LEGO. LEGO Party! is a title full of minigame madness as you compete against other players locally or online to try to obtain the highest number of Golden Bricks. If you are playing solo, you do have the option to turn on CPU players. 

Before hopping into a match, you need to select the minifigure that you want to play as. There are 46 figures to choose from to begin with and 300 different characters in total to unlock as you play. You can customise your choice the way you want by swapping their head, hair, hat, expression, along with the upper body, and lower body; you can really tweak the figure to make it your own. Here, you also get to select who the CPU will be and their difficulty level. Though I have to say that the Yeti is pretty cool the way they are, so you don’t really need to change anything!  

You, along with the other players, are contestants on a game show, hosted by two very enthusiastic hosts, Ted and Paige. They will be commentating all the way to the end of your round, like you were watching an episode of Wipeout. There are multiple modes to check out: Challenge Zone, where you claim the most Golden Bricks to be the champion; Minigame Rush, has you playing a series of themed minigames to win the most studs; or Score Chaser, where you try to beat your competition to get the high score crown. There is also an option to practice any of the 60 minigames from the full collection. 

Challenge Zone can be played with up to four players locally or online. There are four different stages (zones) to play with different projected amounts of time to complete: Pirate Zone, size is small, playtime 60+ minutes. NINJAGO Zone, size is medium, playtime 75+ minutes. Space Zone, size is medium, playtime 75+ minutes. Theme Park Zone, size is Large, playtime 90+ minutes.

These times aren’t set in stone, and however; you can set it so that you are playing fewer or more rounds than the usual 10. This will change how long it will take you to complete that zone. Each zone is totally created using LEGO pieces, so they look really cool. I can’t imagine how long it would have taken to make all these stages and elements!

The commentary in the game is amusing at first, they will not hesitate to smack-talk any of the players, but after a while, you will notice repetition and that a lot of the things they say are just wrong. The commentators say things that aren’t right, like "This is player one’s first brick" when it was the fourth… or just outright mixing up the characters currently playing. If I’m currently in first, I’m pretty sure I’m not barely surviving at the bottom.

For each round, all the players currently competing vote on the minigame that they want to play from three choices and or random, if they don’t want to make a selection. This was a neat way of doing it instead of being forced to play something you don’t enjoy. Unlike other party titles, there are no games that require you to team up, except for the odd time someone lands on a Brick Battle square that pits two characters against the others to win Golden Bricks, and there are no three-on-one games. You are left to battle it out on your own for the minigames.

The other difference that I really enjoyed was that player turn order changes every round, depending on how you did in the last minigame. First, you will play the game, and your placement determines what order you get to go in. Having it this way also lets you earn studs to spend before moving around the board. This gives you a better chance of having the 50 studs required to purchase a golden brick or that item that you really want to pick up. 

Something that is really fun that you come across as you explore the different zones is that there are spaces that allow you to change the board by building stuff. In the Pirate stage you have the option to construct the Flying Dutchess or the Jolly Roger. Whichever one you select, there will be free Golden Bricks and treasure spaces where you can get free studs if you visit them.  

I do find some of the maps, the Theme Park one in particular, aren't very balanced. There are two Mr. Gold minifigures here (they are twin brothers) and where you can find Gold Bricks from, that are located near each other. When someone buys a brick, they usually move to a random spot on the board; in this stage, they just constantly move a few spaces down from where they were before going in a circle. It doesn't give you much incentive to check out the different regions on this large map.

Once all the rounds are finished, the competitors are all taken back to the studio to see who the winner is. There are no bonus blocks at all, so you can’t rely on help from silly things like moving around the most around the map, having the worst luck, or by collecting the most currency. Some people will be happy to see that there are no random bricks awarded, but I got used to obtaining random bricks/stars like this from Mario Party. I was also sad that I couldn’t check out a graph or stats showing the number of bricks collected by everyone throughout all the rounds. 

After playing multiple rounds on all the maps by myself and with other people, I think LEGO Party! is a fun game to play with your friends. It switches things up enough that it doesn’t feel like a blatant rip-off of Mario Party, but there are some bugs present that are a little annoying, but aren’t bad enough to ruin the title. I landed on a Chance space where you are supposed to transfer studs and bricks between players. Somehow my character was selected as the recipient of studs from myself, which shouldn’t have happened… 

The bonus is, the price of this LEGO title is more wallet-friendly than if you were to purchase the full Mario Party Jamboree game. It was also fun to fully customise your minifigure pieces by swapping their head, legs, and costume. I feel that if you are looking for another party game to add to your repertoire, this game is a good addition, especially if you are a LEGO fan.