Developer: Petoons Studio
Publisher: Petoons Studio
Platform: PC, PS4
Tested on: PS4
Petoons Party – Review
Mario Party is one of those game series that has been destroying friendships since the Nintendo 64 era. There have been several tries to mimic the gameplay of the series by other developers, spawning games like Sonic Shuffle, Puyo Puyo Party and the Rugrats Treasure Hunt game. The combination of having a board game, intertwined with easy-to-play mini-games has been alluring for years and with the recent release of the newest Mario Party game on the Switch, games such as this still feel relevant. Today we’re having a look at the newly released Petoons Party for PlayStation 4, which is a Mario Party clone directed towards very young players.
Story
The game does hint at a certain story, but this is probably something you’ll have to know prior to playing the game if you know the ‘Petoons’. The Petoons are apparently fighting the evil Kitra, who wants to gain dominance of the island of Kimera and steal the Petoons’ powers. When picking a board you get to hear that you’ll have to battle the evil Kitra at the end of the board, but that’s as far as the story value of the game goes.
Graphics
Graphically Petoons Party is a very colorful mess. The clay-like characters might look extremely simple and sometimes a bit wooden in terms of movement, the backdrops in the game are nice to look at and the different boards look spiffy enough for children. The different mini-games have their own varied themes, which is always a plus for a game such as this. Don’t expect your PlayStation 4 to push the limits of its hardware, but the game does look appealing for children, and the parents that are forced to join in on the fun.
Sound
The music in Petoons Party is upbeat and cheerful and that’s rather important when directing yourself towards a younger audience. The game has a catchy tune on its main menu, which does get a bit annoying if you leave it on for too long. The sound effects are simplistic but the developers added a few original twists to them that also suit the game. Nothing too special in this department, but nothing overly unattractive either.
Gameplay
Petoons Party is a digital board game with mini-games thrown in-between. The game is pretty much a Mario Party clone, albeit directed towards a younger audience, which is easily concluded when looking at the game’s themes and visuals. You can opt to play the traditional format of playing on a board, with mini-games after each turn, or you can just play the Cups which are a concatenation of mini-games, or just opt to play mini-games with no predetermined frame. The game is simple in what it tries to do, and it works for the most part.
When picking the option to play a board, like is the case in the Mario Party series, you’ll start off by determining the order of the players. After each player has rolled the die, you’ll play a mini-game. A peculiar thing with Petoons Party is that you can actually exit the mini-game and just continue playing, without anyone earning points. We reckon this was done to simply play the board game itself, but it would have helped to exit the voting screen as well then, as now the game has to load the mini-game, only to exit it. At the end of the board, you’ll have to fight Kitra in a mini-game and that’s it.
The Cups are simply a set of mini-games you’ll have to plow through to, hopefully, become the victor. This cuts out the usage of the board. If you really want to pick which mini-games you play, you just have to select that mode.
The controls of the game feel rudimentary at best, and often clumsy. The hit detection during mini-games is utter garbage, and having little control over your character doesn’t help either. In the stacking game, some critters you have to catch simply fall out of range, making them impossible to catch, which is a disadvantage when playing against an AI that doesn’t have the same issue, meaning he will win for sure.
Conclusion
Petoons Party is a very simple take on the Mario Party franchise, and to a certain extent, it works for young children. Sadly, everything the game does mechanic-wise feels bland, boring and somewhat unfinished. The graphical style will certainly appeal to children as well, and having the ability to skip out on stupid mini-games is certainly a plus as well. This one is fun for younger children when it’s on discount.
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[…] Party was previously released for the PlayStation 4, which you can check our review of here, and Steam and is now available on the Switch. The developers will also release an Xbox One version […]