168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Samba de Amigo: Party Central has me shaking my Joy-Con all over the place. I'm jumping in the air, then running on the spot. I‘m getting into all the poses displayed on screen in the midst of each pop banger, far more dramatically than the game expects me to. Then, the dancing takes a sudden break for a baseball minigame, and I’m hitting home runs like I’m playing Wii Sports on Christmas Day 2006.
Soon the music comes to an end, and my limbs are aching. But I bagged an S rank, and made an idiot of myself in front of my flatmates, so it’s just about worth it. At least until I return to the tracklist to do it all over again. Only this time, with more of the pain and none of the daft minigames, since you’re not always guaranteed to get one. I’m awkwardly laughing my way through a Bon Jovi song, but it feels forced. I’m praying that the next song has a little more to offer and doesn’t keep killing the vibe. So, after three minutes of Joy-Con waggling and no minigame to break it up, I get another rꦑandom chance to have some fun. Hopefully, I’ll get it this time.
For the past few days, this has been my routine with Samba de Amigo: Party Central. The Sega classic fits onto the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Switch like a glove, with pitch-perfect controls and effortless charm. But after putting its best foot forward for the first few dances, Party Central has tragically little to say for itself. Mechanically, it’s hard to fault. But in trying to learn from more modern rhythm games, it loses so much of its iꦉdenꩵtity, and what we get in return doesn’t justify such a huge tonal shift.
Samba de Amigo drops its Latin influence almost entirely in Party Central, instead going for a TikTok-inspired, viral video vibe. Which would be fantastic, if it had the soundtrack to match. But instead, we’re trading ‘Samba de Janeiro’ for ‘M𓃲oves Like Jagger’, and that’s unforgivable.
Tracklists give rhythm games their personality. But in this case, it actively detracts from what made Samba de Amigo so exciting on the Dreamcast back in the day. What takes its place feels so soulless. Most of the songs are by no means bad - early Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande tracks turned these artists into pop icons for a reason - but it's been done before, and better.
When you’re bopping to ‘Break Free’ and ‘TiK ToK’ in Party Central, you can feel how much it is trying to play catch up with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Just Dance, when it shouldn’t have to. Samba de Amigo is its own thing. You’re not pulling off actual dance moves here, you’re waving your hands around and having a laugh. The change feels insecure. That’꧂s not even getting into how dated it all feels too - if Sega was adamant about going the pop route, where are the modern hits?
That’s not to say that every influence from modern culture was a mistake. Party Central’s best single-player asset is its influencer-inspired mission mode. There’s an unbelievable amount to complete, all giving you a bunch of different ways to play, mixing everything up nicely. Even if the songs aren’t too🎃 exciting, the gameplay very much is, so it’s great to have a mode that makes the most of it.
The best touch though has to be the 20-player online dance-off in the World Party mode. With eight human dancers and 12 CPUs, you have to survive three rounds until a winner is crowned. Not only does this give you plenty of opportunities to try out some🍌 of the randomly selected minigames that break up the maraca waving, you also get to hurl hostile items and abilities at your opponents, like destroying half of their screen to make it harder to keep to the beat. It’s enough to inject Party Central with a much-needed dose of charm and help you forget that you’re dancing to school disco hits in 2023.
Will these game modes be enough to sustain Party Central - and the long-neglected Samba de Amigo series - for long? Probably not, and that’s a real shame. There are already DLC music packs available and even more on the way, but that only highlights another missed opportunity. Sonic music (already available to purꦿchase for $4.99) and K-Pop tracks (launching soon) should be here already. If we’re leaving ‘Samba de Janeiro’ behind, give us something that other rhythm games can’t offer. Esp﷽ecially since Sega can pull from some of the best video game soundtracks out there.
Samba de Amigo: Party Central has some great moves, but can't keep to the beat. It reminds me of my own abilities, dancing myself tired as I try to do a perfect run of my favourite song. Sometimes, I'm grooving and making it look easy until I muck up on the final chorus. Other times, it's a mess from the start, and I'm just bored and sick of listening to Ke$ha.
When it finds itself, Samba de Amigo proves that it deserves to be revived more often than it is. But it loses this streak too quickly. Samba has far more potential than a few fun dances to keep the family busy over the holidays, I just hope it doesn't take Sega a bunch of DLC packs and another 10-year hiatus to realise that.
Samba De Amigo: Party Central is♓ a music-based rhythm action g🔥ame featuring a host of top artists, from Ariana Grande to Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. Your job is to shake your maracas to the beat, racking up the highest score possible.
