Party games are my bread and butter. They bring me such joy, no matter if they are good, bad or indifferent. Party Party Time is a 1-6 player mini game selection on PC and Switch from party game specialist developer Sat-Box. I’d argue that this is their crowing achievement so far as its a game that offers lots of fun and variety in a modular format.
The base game contains nearly 30 mini games for £2.97 and then there are optional DLC packs for £1.89 that add on different themed games too. Some are more sports focused, some more timing paced, some more attack focused for example and the more you buy, the more variety and silliness you get to enjoy. Whilst a couple of games are definitely variations on a previously available minigame (there are a few variants of pushing everyone else off a platform for example), the vast majority of the games are unique and require a skill of sort.
You can choose from 1-6 players and fill out the remaining slots with bots, who on hard can be very challenging to beat. Then you either decide to play individual games without any carry over or a more marathon points scoring mode that looks for an overall winner. The graphical avatars are basic on the launch game and two of the DLC packs are about getting more character choice but ultimately they all play the same and remind me heavily of PS2’s bombastic. They are cute and playful and suit the general lo-poly minimalist vibe the game is going for.
The minigames then. Are they good? Largely, yes.
There are quite a few arena style minigames which range from shooting each other, to launching neverending bouncing balls to avoid to competitive whack-a-mole and these reward aggression. Timing based games take up a large slot too with things like fastest finger first, guess the arrow direction, rhythm games, having a timer count down from 10 seconds and buzzing when you think its at zero. Sports games often have a party snazzing up. Darts for example have spinning boards where you try to obtain areas on the board for when the time runs out. Baseball homerun hitting and hammer throws feel like they’ve come from an Olympic video game. Penalty shots are here too and the controls are simple to pick up and easy to perform.
Where Party Party Time shines best is when it goes a bit rogue. There are a lot of nods to Fall Guys in some of the more slapstick levels, which is fun. There are silly games like pass the bomb or fill the glass with water, taking it in turns to put the next player in jeopardy. One DLC focuses entirely on co-op games and this puts all the players working together to reach a goal within a time limit. This fresh approach to obstacle courses in a conga line, collectively jumping rope or catching balls out of pipes and throwing them in the right coloured bucket can unite everyone when you’ve maybe got too vicious on the competitive games.
There are a couple of tiny nitpicks I have but they are minor. The controls are a little floaty which makes some of the platforming related games a little too random for my liking. This carries over to player attacks. Many games allow you to punch other players and they’ll bounce across the screen but I found that attacks didn’t always register. I’ve put this down to the general floaty nature of the game but it does prevent this from being on the absolute top tier of party games. There is also a Beat Saber inspired rhythm game that is completely broken and unplayable that needs fixing.
What I cannot dispute is the joy Party Party Time brought to me and other players when playing. The bots add challenge when you are in smaller numbers but I cannot wait for this game to be on my next games night. It is silly, simple and over the top fun at its budget best and a great addition to the party game genre. I recommend taking a look at the video review as I show 10-15 second snippets of loads of the minigames throughout.
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