![]() ![]() We apologise if our somewhat despondent tone clashes with the game’s vibrant and loud aura, but that’s only because we’re not enthusiastic about Party Central’s chances of thriving. While Party Central could easily enjoy a constant stream of licensed music and guest tracks from other Sega games, any post-launch longevity will be determined by how popular the game is initally. Sega has already announced there will be post-launch DLC, although it has yet to clarify if it’s paid DLC or how much of it the publisher has planned. Samba De Amigo: Party Central – completing songs earns you money for costumes, accessories, and even skins for the maracas (pic: Sega) Something emphasised by the loud background visuals and bright effects that avoid being too obnoxious or distracting. We’d even argue the motion controls, if imprecise, are perfect for multiplayer since it makes everyone involved look rather silly and matches the feel of the game’s party atmosphere. We kept instinctively matching the poses rather than press the appropriate buttons and while we certainly would’ve adjusted with enough time, it’s nowhere near as entertaining to onlookers. We definitely had a more consistent experience using the buttons and control stick, though a hybrid option would be nice considering your chosen control scheme also applies to the random poses you sometimes need to do. Thankfully, we did spot an option to disable them. They’re not too obtrusive but rhythm game purists will likely balk at their inclusion. This is further emphasised by the various mini-games that can trigger mid-song (such as hitting baseballs at a target) and a roulette wheel which makes temporary random changes that risk throwing off your timing, like making the markers small or speeding the song up. Maybe things are stricter on the higher difficulties, but our session suggested Party Central is more concerned with appeasing casual newcomers to the genre, rather than rhythm game enthusiasts that will immediately restart a track if they miss so much as one beat. The on-screen markers only react when you shake the controller but when we pointed them down, there was no telling if the game agreed until it was too late. Or at least where the game thinks they’re positioned. It doesn’t help that there’s no in-game indicator of where the Joy-Cons are positioned. In fact, it was the downward markers we had the most trouble with and in an effort to overcompensate, we somehow fooled the game into thinking we were pointing up. The motion controls are by no means awful, and they’re fairly responsive, but we kept pointing the Joy-Cons down and shaking, only for the game to act as if we weren’t pointing down and not counting our shakes. It took us only a couple of songs before we swapped to buttons. Samba De Amigo’s entire premise is that you’re shaking maracas to the beat of the song, holding the controllers up above you, to your side, or below you, depending on the direction of the beat markers that emit from the centre. When prompted with the choice between using the motion controls or just pressing the buttons, we picked the former, for the most authentic experience. We had a short amount of time to play any songs we wanted by ourselves, followed by a multiplayer session with another journalist. ![]() Samba De Amigo: Party Central – there are a few other Sega references but the lion’s share go to Sonic (pic: Sega) It’s by no means a bad selection, though, and is bound to elicit nostalgia from anyone who’s been a teenager in the last three or so decades. The song list is mostly an eclectic mix of rock and pop, ranging from Guns N’ Roses to Kesha, with just a handful of tracks from the original game peppered throughout. While the Dreamcast game featured its fair share of then current pop songs, it primarily consisted of Latin music, yet those are very much the minority in Party Central. This discarding of the original game’s aesthetic is matched by the song list. It almost has the same energy as your dad coming with you to a nightclub to prove he’s still ‘with it.’ ![]() Aside from the Switch’s Joy-Con controllers serving as maracas, Samba has otherwise shed his Latin America inspired aesthetic, trading his sombrero for a modern, flashier outfit and dancing in neon-lit environments rather than a samba street party. From the announcement trailer alone, it’s obvious that Sega is prioritising appealing to a newer generation. ![]()
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