Ultimate Party Challenge
Score: 50% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Konami Developer: Groove Box Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Party/ Mini-Games/ Rhythm
Graphics & Sound: There are untold numbers of "Party" games for the Wii now. Given the capabilities of the Wii-mote, it seems to be the choice system of developers for party games. Ultimate Party Challenge is the latest of the party games to hit the market, but shockingly it doesn't even take advantage of the Wii-mote capabilities! The graphics in Ultimate Party Challenge look very much like most other Wii games. It has cute little Mii-like characters and lots of bright colors everywhere. You can customize your characters with different outfits, hair styles, and faces. Granted, there aren't an over-abundance of choices, but it's enough to find something you like. You can also buy some new clothes after you've earned coins. You don't get to "try on" the different outfits before you buy them though. Just make sure that you don't create a character that looks exactly like one of the built-in characters. When you go to select your character in the game, it doesn't show the names above them, so if you've made one that looks exactly like one of theirs, you'll have trouble knowing which one yours is easily. The graphics in the mini-games are decent. There's nothing spectacular about them, but there's nothing wrong either. The background music is very upbeat and peppy on the main screen. For the mini-games, you get different sound effects for each game, like the foot fighters where you get to hear the sword slash when you hit the button. Little additions like that were my favorite parts of the game.
Gameplay: There are three main modes for you to choose from in Ultimate Party Challenge. Party Mode lets you play against up to 4 players. You simply add in however many people you want to play and choose the game that you want to play. If it is a game that requires more than one arrow, you will take turns. If it is one that only requires you to press one arrow, then all four of you will play at the same time. Honestly, this isn't an easy task and always leaves at least one person with trouble seeing the TV screen. Playing with four players just isn't very much fun. Challenge mode lets you play 5, 10 and 20 game challenges where the games are selected randomly. You can also do a Match Game Challenge which will let you play 8 games with four players, or a Rhythm Game Challenge where you play 5 rhythm games, or a Brain Game Challenge where you get 5 brain games in a row, or a Selected Game Challenge where you can choose up to 20 games to play. So as you can see, there are a lot of choices to play in Challenge Mode. The same thing as Party Mode occurs when you play with more than one person though, so be prepared to be that person that can't see the screen very well for an additional challenge. Mission Mode is single player. You are given a list of missions you can choose to play. The more you play, the more that you will unlock to play next. Each time you complete a mission, you get coins. You get more coins if you win rather than just clearing it.
Difficulty: There are 40 games total in Ultimate Party Challenge including: a balloon race where you blow up a balloon and timing is everything, Hhuman Cannonball, Foot Fighters, Treasure Hunter, Ninja Master, Sky Shuffle, and many more. Some are naturally going to be more difficult than others. All of the games require you to use the dance pad. Some only require you to use one button though, and personally I found those much easier. They require much less dexterity and concentration. The games that require you to hit more than one button are more difficult. It is very possible to get your feet tangled up. There are no difficulty levels in Ultimate Party Challenge, but the games are only as hard as your competitors are good. If you want the challenge to be easier, play with less talented friends. For more of a challenge, find friends that are better at the games. The built-in computer characters aren't very hard to beat at all once you know how to play the games.
Game Mechanics: The first thing you should know is that you MUST have a dance pad to play this game. Even though there is nothing mentioned about it on the back of the box, it will not go past the title screen without a dance pad plugged in. It doesn't have to be a particularly good dance pad though, just as long as the buttons work. For most games, you only need one dance pad and one Wii-mote for up to 4 players. If you see some that are "closed," simply hook up a second dance pad and you'll have access to those to play as well. Ultimate Party Challenge is not the world's most intuitive game to play. To start the game, put in as many players as you want and click on Go in the top right corner. If you want to know the controls of the game, press the left arrow when you're on the screen right before you play. You Hit (+) to then start the games. This game would have been much better if you could elect to play the games with the controller if you wanted. There really is no need for the dance pad in most of them. It just adds an extra level of complication that makes the game more convoluted without really making it more fun. The one thing that using a dance pads adds is that it tells you how many calories you burned at the end of the game. It's always a very tiny amount though and given that the game has no clue on your age and weight, calories burned really aren't very accurate. With all the mini-game games out there, especially for the Wii, I can understand the desire to try and make a new one more unique so that it stands out a bit more, but using a dance pad instead of the Wii-mote to play them really isn't the right way to go. You might enjoy Ultimate Party Challenge, but we didn't.
-Cyn, GameVortex Communications AKA Sara Earl
Fishdom: Spooky Splash NCAA Basketball 10