Developer: Studio Nachtwerk
Publisher: Studio Nachtwerk
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Dino Party – Review
We have been playing one party game after another lately, but most of these had the same blueprint as titles such as R.E.P.O. and PEAK, where you had to work together to reach a common goal. For today’s party game review, however, we are going back to basics where it’s more of a free-for-all brawl, rather than cooperative play. Dino Party, developed and published by Studio Nachtwerk, proved to be an entertaining experience, but it did have some flaws that are holding it back.
Story
There is absolutely no narrative component in Dino Party. You pretty much just select either to join a game or to host your own, and you’re good to go. While a story could have been amusing here, we don’t really see how it would have contributed to the experience. It’s all about the gameplay, and that’s perfectly fine here.
Graphics
Graphically, Dino Party is an extremely cute and polished-looking game. While the overall scope of Dino Party is fairly small, we absolutely loved the colorful designs, the different stage layouts, and the overall theme. The dinosaurs look beautifully animated, and with the many collectible cosmetics, you can come up with some goofy-looking dinosaurs. The stages themselves are very small, but they also have quite a bit of variety, and it will take you some time to see them all. The effects are also nicely handled, especially when random events start interfering with the matches. All in all, the design team poured a lot of love into this project.
Sound
As a whole, Dino Party’s sound design isn’t bad, but we reckon you won’t be paying much attention to the music and all the noises while you are frantically beating the hell out of your friends or while trying to survive. The SFX did pack a proper punch and provided decent audio feedback for all the punches, kicks, explosions, and other sound effects.
Gameplay
Dino Party is, as the name implies, a party game that consists of small competitive mini-games. There’s a fair selection of mini-games on a variety of maps, but the objective is really simple here: you need to beat up your fellow dinosaurs or score more points than them. Some of the games are played in a free-for-all format, while others take on a 2 vs 2 format. In a matter of minutes, you’ll get the hang of everything, and it’s only a matter of finding other players. As the game’s player base is still very low, you’re better off recruiting some of your friends for local play or those who can join in via Remote Play Together or have them buy their own copy. This is also the biggest problem with games like these, where they are very dependent on an active player base.
Just like Dino Party’s concept, the controls are really simple. You just kick and punch your opponents, while also being able to jump, sprint, and do a ground slam attack. That’s pretty much all there is to it. The objectives vary from round to round, as you might just need to survive the longest, collect the most coins, destroy robots, or you may even have to work together with another player to herd sheep or to play football. The mix and variety of the mini-games is fun, and the fast-paced nature of the gameplay ensures there are no dull moments.
Even though we enjoyed our time with Dino Party a lot, the cracks start showing after a few sessions. The player base is currently nonexistent, so you’ll always have to plan sessions with friends to be able to play with a full party. Then, you notice that if you plan an evening of Dino Party, the game doesn’t have that much content. We found this an ideal title to serve as a palate cleanser in between bigger titles, or if we had some time to kill and some of our friends wanted to play a few matches. Luckily, Dino Party has a lot of cosmetics you can unlock, which adds some replay value. We do hope that some new content will be added in the future.
Conclusion
Dino Party is a fun party game if you have enough friends who want to join in. The game currently suffers from a low player base, which makes it harder for single players to join. Even so, if you have a buddy or several friends who want to play fast-paced mini-games, then you’re guaranteed to have a lot of fun with Dino Party. While we mainly played the game in short bursts, we ended up playing quite a few hours, and we see ourselves picking this one up from time to time in between bigger review titles. In short: if you’re looking for a simple, hectic, and amusing party game, this one is worth looking into.
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