In the Wii's heyday, some executive or other higher-up at Nintendo dove into the multitude of factors that converged to make the Wii such a resounding success. Among the factors was the idea that motion—even at a minuscule level, like flicking one's wrist—was tied to the brain's production of dopamine. Pairing that concept with the dazzling chimes and flashing lights of a video game intensified that sensation and added a deepened sense of interactivity.
Flicking your wrist to swing a tennis racket in Wii Sports felt so good—and continues to 'hit different' today in Nintendo Switch Sports. Sure, the novelty's worn off a bit, but there's no denying that it just feels right. While VR has carved out a niche for itself as the new home for motion-controlled games, the Switch Joy-Con controllers still make a good host for the occasional motion-fueled jaunt. Unfortunately, Samba de Amigo: Party Central, the first true sequel to the original 1999 Dreamcast maraca-shaking game, doesn't use them particularly well. This is where the vast majority of Party Central's biggest issues stem from.
Part of why previous entries in the series and other games with similar mechanics worked so well on previous consoles like the Dreamcast or Wii was because of how simple the motion controls at the time were. In Party Central, there are six points with two at each position: up, middle, and down. There are other, very simple motions from time to time, but they are often very similar to the things you'd be doing during other parts of the song, just shown to you in a different format.
The Switch's Joy-Con are much more sensitive compared to the Wii Remote. Countless times during an intense rendition of 'City Escape' from Sonic Adventure 2 or 'Tik Tok' by Ke$ha, we found that the game read motion inputs incorrectly, either by reading the input in the wrong location or detecting a body movement and registering it as a shake of Amigo's digital maracas, making it difficult to properly execute the intended motion. The issues were infrequent enough, but they were just annoying and invasive enough in Party Central's challenge modes and special missions (more on that later) that they occasionally caused a fail state.
To make matters worse, the game doesn't properly communicate how to hold the Joy-Con or feature any sort of calibration settings to ensure accuracy. The closest it gets is a (very easily missed) diagram that's not entirely clear about how you should be holding your controllers. It just says to confirm that you're holding your controllers so that you can press the 'L' and 'R' buttons with your thumbs. It doesn't work and doesn't feel particularly ergonomic, especially compared to the Wii Remote's wand-like shape. After all, it's hard to hold a Wii remote incorrectly.
Keeping in theme with its dated feel, you'll be greeted with a screen that warns you about the differences in inputs on your TV. Instead of getting the player to briefly calibrate their controls to the TV as many contemporary rhythm games do, Party Central simply suggests that you check your TV's settings to ensure that its "Game Mode" or other equivalent mode is enabled. That's a baffling choice, even if Party Central's rhythm-based gameplay is fairly forgiving, arcadey fun that's designed for a game night.
System-level changes aside, there isn't much new to Party Central aside from its 40-song tracklist with songs ranging from Latin and contemporary dance music to dad rock hits. And of course, a few songs from Sonic the Hedgehog make an appearance. The playlist is solid, if a bit short, but Sega has promised that more songs are on the way in the form of paid DLC. There are more featured in the game's Digital Deluxe Edition too, which is where you'll find a restrictive number of Sega Sound Team's absurdly strong discography. Even the DLC that's on the way seems pretty scant compared to the options at the publisher's disposal.
Songs take on new depth and meaning at different difficulties, and like any solid rhythm game, you're rewarded for knowing the tunes and hitting the notes right feels great! Despite the minor issues we encountered with motion controls not playing ball, it's a joyful take on the rhythm genre that adds an interesting layer beyond the standard loop you might expect.
In addition to its standard mode, Party Central adds a few new twists to the gameplay. One of the new modes is the StreamiGo mode, which functions kind of like a story mode. You're faced with a number of challenges and songs to complete in order to gain followers and grow your brand. In theory, it's a decent idea, but the follower numbers feel completely arbitrary — failing will still net you followers and won't result in any negative side effects aside from you needing to retry a song or challenge.
Not being able to pick the songs associated with each challenge is a much bigger issue; instead, you're presented with a card with a requirement that you need to complete in order to pass the level. The beginning of this pseudo-campaign will present you with Ke$ha's first major hit (for example) a handful of times. It's not a bad song, but it certainly gets old after the first five attempts at a difficult mission.
There are still some highlights here; every once in a while, you'll be presented with a boss fight of sorts. Any given song in the game is divided up into five sections. If you dance better than the boss does in a single section, you win that section and get a point. Each win is calculated by points, but the game counts 'viewers' instead since each dance is supposed to take place on a live stream. It's an interesting idea, but again, the follower numbers feel wholly arbitrary.
The other notable new mode is the World Party mode, which is essentially a Samba de Amigo take on a Battle Royale. It's a clever application of the game's multiplayer into an online setting, especially one relying on the Switch's so-so online capabilities. There's no lag, and no stuttering or buffering; just lots of shaking those maracas. Instead of being a sudden death gauntlet as one might expect, World Party follows a round-based format, booting the lower-ranking players after its first two rounds á la Fall Guys. Its final round, on the other hand, is a sudden death throwdown between the lobby's best dancers.
Hitting certain notes will let you earn an item that you can use to mess with your opponents. They range from attacks that speed up your opponents' songs to an attack that makes their notes and beat zones smaller. One item causes some of their beat zones to disappear. You'd think that'd be a challenge to guess when the note hits the invisible zone. Instead, it makes you completely unable to hit any note that goes to that area. It's frustrating and will cause you to lose. It's another confusing choice that feels like it wasn't given a second thought.
That one frustrating item aside, it's really fun. Players that lose in the first two rounds get sucked into a black hole, screaming as they slip into the abyss. No, we're not kidding—it's hilarious. Small stuff like this points to the sense of cheer that's lurking just beneath Party Central's seemingly ceaseless onslaught of experience and progress bars. There are jaguars dressed up like the Blues Brothers, dogs in full suits, and dancing robot bears in the game's comically busy backgrounds. Unfortunately, that wacky, mad-cap sense feels buried beneath the game's many, many menus and barrage of progress bars.
Conclusion
Samba de Amigo: Party Central brings back the cult classic monkey and all the fun that comes with him, but it does too much in the wrong places. By bombarding the player with no fewer than three different progress bars to level up in, any sense of growth, progress or leveling feels arbitrary and unnecessary. They feel like an attempt to hide the fact that Samba de Amigo is an arcade game about a dancing monkey that you can dress up in silly little outfits; it doesn't need to be an RPG, so why make it one? After all, Samba de Amigo is inherently fun—be it with maracas, a Wii remote, Joy-Con, or just buttons.
Comments 41
I saw the 40 songs from the full song list, probably around 20% of the songs I like since I do not like modern 2010's and 2020's popular songs like from Ke$ha, Pitbull, Nicki Minaj, etc.
Their songs are terrible.
I still prefer 80's and 90's songs.
Honestly as someone who loves the Wii version of Samba De Amigo and tried out the demo, I think it's more so the controls are more so unorthodox in their function based on what people think they should control like. I will admit that Party Central does feel much odder than the original's controls, but I got accustomed to them after a bit. Definitely gonna be picking this one up
It comes as no surprise that Sega couldn't get their sh*t together and make this work.
It was terrible on the Wii, and surprise surprise! It sucks on the Switch!
The only Samba that EVER WORKED was on the Dreamcast, and I never should have gotten rid of it.
Sega is a shell of a mirage of a phantom of the company they once were...
@Anti-Matter Honestly I don't really care about the time period of the songs, I'm more so iff-ed on the type of songs they choice. Samba De Amigo's visual and musical identity is heavily rooted in Latin America culture and theming, so seeing all of these safe, contemporary pop songs over more Latin American styled tracks like Smooth, Mambo No. 5, Living La Vica Loca, etc., over songs like dang Tic Tok
Samba de Amigo is Sega's cult classic? What? Even Real Sound: Kaze no Regret and Seaman are more of Sega's cult classics than this thing, imo. And there's no need to mention Space Channel 5, am I right?
I get the cost would go up but can’t any of these unique games make special controllers that would work? That drumming game did it.
From what I played of the demo, once you figured out the positions to hold the Joy-Cons, it worked well. But yes, the game could have done better explaining the positions. It's a shame the reviewer hasn't figured out the correct method.
Yeah right, a 6.
When I remember, what disappointing games got an 8 or 9 here, this seems ridiculous.
I played several rounds of the demo and had no issues with the motion detection.
I enjoyed it so much, that I'll pick it up this week.
Given the terrible monkey ball game, I'm not surprised to see Sega doing a terrible job with old franchises yet again.
Personally still looking forward to this as several comments here and in other comment sections didn't mention having issues at all either from the start or after figuring out the correct position to hold the Joy-Cons (which admittedly should've been mentioned by the game, that seems to be the actual problem) and the other cons don't particularly bother me.
I got so excited when this was announced on the Nintendo Direct, I preordered almost instantly. After playing the Dreamcast and Wii games, I knew I was going to like it. It was 26 pounds on Amazon to preorder and I had a 5 pound voucher. For a little over 20 quid, I was more than happy to take the gamble. After playing the demo, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the full version. The Amazon driver is currently on his rounds, so I should have it really soon! 🙌
The track list here does look pretty dire...I wonder if the Japanese version has a different selection (like how Taiko No Tatsujin on PS2 and Donkey Konga had regional exclusive songs) 🤔
I was really looking forward to this for a long time, but the motion controls never felt right in the demo and it ruined my excitement for it. If the game gets a port to VR with proper motion controls though, that might renew my interest. The song list in the game isn't something I'd want to play with just button controls if the motion controls don't work properly
Cant wait for the Quest 2 version.
@Randomarcadedude There'll be a Quest 2 version.
Of all of Sega's Dreamcast IPs, I believe Samba is lucky enough to get two modern entries. I guess Sega doesn't want to do hard work and only focus on the less in-deph IP to bring to the modern era. Skies of Arcadia, Virtua Fighter 3tb, Fighting Vipers 2, Evolution, ChuChu Rocket, Shenmue, Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, all are ignore.
@Serpenterror don't forget Billy Hatcher. I would do things for a re-release.
@ElRoberico Billy Hatcher is a GameCube game.
@Vyacheslav333 It's me. I'm the cult. I played the Wii verson. I imported Samba 2000 and burnt a special import CD AND hooked my Dreamcast up to the internet and navigated the Japanese site just so I could download the songs for it. Samba is my Jam and I make no apologies. I'm gonna get this, too. Hoping it feels better than a 6 to me.
You know they skimped out on license budget when someone as well versed in music as me (not to boast, but I love many types of music, Beatles, The Cure, Asia, but also modern ones like The Killers) can't recognize a single name from the song list.
Or is it me that's out of touch?
Loved the Wii one, so this is a must for me! The Switch demo was fun!
This isn't a game you play for pinpoint accuracy, there are plenty of games out there for that, it's just supposed to be a good time, and it absolutely is.
@Vyacheslav333 Sega has a lot of cult classics tbf. It's like every other game they made in the 90s.
Mine arrived this morning and i love it!! highly reccomend it.
i just wish it had the exact same soundtrack as the Wii one...those singers were superb! and who doesn't love a mariachi version of 'Take on me'?!
Love Rhythm games, but (except for the Sega videogames OST and a Bon Jovi song) I really dislike the song selection so…. It’s a pass for me.
Just had a go on Apple Arcade. .. probably can't recommend that version, if I'm honest. This game lives or dies on the motion controls.
Get it on Switch!
I had a feeling this was going to be really disappointing when I kept hearing buzzwords about tik-tok and modern audiences.
Was already planning on buying the VR version,even more reasons to do it after reading this review.
Sad to hear, that this game isn't as good as the old ones. Looks like that SEGA now has more of a reason to just pump out more Sonic games and let their old IPs rot in theri dungeon.
I was going to buy this for VR too but with Starfield coming out I think I would much rather play that. I'll likely buy this another time when there aren't many games coming out or when things slow down.
@Poodlestargenerica Are you talking about Banana Blitz? if so then yes that game was dreadful. Thank goodness they redeemed themselves though with Banana Mania.
Ok this is bugging me to no end. I played the Wii version, it was broken. It did not work like it should a large portion of the time. Why are we pretending it did? I played it back in the day, the controls refused to work properly. I was certainly not alone in this assessment.
And I say this as someone who is often defensive of motion controls, but these did not even come close to reliably hitting the notes when you played it like you should in the Wii version, no matter what you did. It did not function like intended.
I dunno how this version stacks up, but at the very least, it sounds like an improvement from the Wii version, almost by default.
The Demo was pretty excellent and worked pretty darn well if you ask me - the stick controls were an excellent alternative in handheld & headphones mode if you don't want to go all out on the shakes (but honestly, that's what you want to do here for the fun).
However, it will ultimately live and die on it's soundtrack and everyone's preferences. I don't know about this being a day one purchase for me simply because of the severe lack of songs (as in the amount on offer) i don't have any issue with the available tracklisting. But I'll certainly be picking it up when it comes down a little in price - especially for the DLC on offer which is more money to fork out.
It's a real shame the song content wasn't double even for a mid-budget release. Most rhythm games have upwards of 75+ tracks available in a base version of their game.
I played the demo last night, controls seemed pretty good to me considering it was the first time of playing it.
What I didn't like so much was the aesthetic - seemed a little busier on screen than I remember the Wii version (could be wrong though cos it's a long time since I last played that), which has the effect of making it harder to distinguish the bird that mattered on screen from the jazz going on around it. Also seemed to feel more like a Just Dance game then I remember it, sure to the amount of poses it was getting me to make.
Not a great demo - two tracks, one mode. Uninstalled it immediately after playing each track once. Think I'll wait a while on the full game.
The games that Sega decides to focus on continues to puzzle me.
There are plenty of Dreamcast games that would be awesome on the Switch. Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Nights, and yet, we get this.
No wonder they are a fading third party publisher that only makes Sonic games anymore.
@Sonicka I will co-sponsor everything you said. Get out of my brain!
@Pak-Man Okay.
@HammerKirby Well... Can't say the same about Decap Attack! or Dynamite Headdy...
I love pretending Sonic is the only IP Sega develops!
As someone who has played both the DC & Wii Sambas a ton, my opinion is they did a great job on the Switch version aside from the song lineup.
I feel the controls work like they did on the Wii version in that it determines the position based on the orientation you hold controllers. I'm not sure they could have done much more without requiring a floormat like on DC.
I agree it feels odd holding the controllers in the way required, but after awhile it becomes natural.
A low scoring review of a motion controlled game on Nintendo Life? What a surprise.
The Switch Version's Joycon motion controls work a lot better than the atrocious Wii version.
Not as good as the good old Dreamcast version but at least it's playable.
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