The Samba de Amigo series is unfortunately one that often goes forgotten. The original release on the Dreamcast was one of the console's "must-have" titles, and the Wii port made the game much more accessible thanks to not needing special controllers to play. Of course, there was the arcade release as well, and a version created for the PlayStation 2 EyeToy and found within SEGA Superstars, but other than that, the series basically stopped there. Outside of some callbacks and references in other SEGA titles, Samba de Amigo fell into obscurity and mainly became known as the "Easter Music" in Phantasy Star Online 2's lobby ("Vamos a Carnaval").
That is, until the end of 2023.
Samba de Amigo: Party Central was the first new entry in the series in many years, releasing on the Nintendo Switch and receiving a VR version on Meta Quest. Thanks to the Switch and VR using motion controls, the game was able to return to its original maraca-based gameplay. However, the game also decided to do something new. Rather than focusing on its Latin-based soundtrack, Party Central focused more on popular English and Japanese songs, with only a handful of the previously used Latin songs making a return. Of course, such a move was sure to be controversial for long-time fans, but the biggest question of all was simply how good the game would actually be. It had been so long since the original, and if the gameplay wasn't as solid as it used to be, then the soundtrack ultimately wouldn't matter.
Well, after over a year and a half of the game being out, all of the DLC has been released, and we now have a complete picture of what Samba de Amigo: Party Central really is. So today, I'm going to take a look back on my time spent with the game and hopefully answer all of your questions.
SAMBA DE AMIGO!
Samba de Amigo isn't a story-focused game; instead, it's a full-on rhythm-based party experience, with its gameplay being the absolute core. To put it simply, players hold a Joy-Con (or Meta Quest Touch Controller) in each hand and shake them to the beat of the song. On the screen, there are three circles on both the left and right sides. As notes fly towards these circles, players must shake their controllers to hit them.
Timing is key, and the direction the controllers are facing will determine if the notes are actually hit. Some notes require rapid shakes, others are combo notes that fly into different positions and must be hit simultaneously, and then there are notes that make you follow their pattern to complete them. It starts out pretty simple, but the harder the song, the more notes need to be hit. There are also multiple difficulty settings that increase the note count per song, and sections that require players to strike poses just to mix things up. Songs quickly become a mismatch of all these different note types and speeds based on the song settings themselves, and additional party events are thrown in to make things even harder. These events can slow down or speed up songs, or even require specific notes to be hit with a specific hand. This ramps up the challenge even more than just playing on a higher difficulty, and it's mainly where the "party" aspect of Party Central comes in.
And honestly, this pretty much sums up the entire gameplay. Pick a song, get used to shaking the controllers to the beat, and practice, practice, practice until you can complete the song with a high score. There are, however, multiple gameplay modes that help change things up.
StreamiGo! is the first and "main" mode within Party Central. This is the game's "story mode," where the goal is simply to become as popular as possible. This is done by playing songs and ranking up, and the higher the rank, the more cool accessories and costumes become unlocked. It is the full single-player game mode, and where most players might end up spending their time.
Love Checker is a weird concept, but it's basically a co-op mode that checks to see how "in-sync" you are with your partner. Does it really check how much in love you are? No. But it is an alternative multiplayer mode that can be checked out (and one my wife and I pretty much never bother with).
World Party is the final mode and is the game's main multiplayer PvP mode. This mode pits you against other players online to battle it out, with the players with the lowest score being ejected from the match. The game keeps going until there is a winner, and hopefully, that winner is you!
Overall the modes offered are decent, and do provide a full Samba de Amigo experience; however, I personally spent most of my time simply playing the songs, and doing so in co-op with my wife. The other modes were great when I was alone, but this is the type of game that is more fun with others.
The Songs:
As mentioned before, the song selection this time around is a bit different. While classics like "La Bamba" are here, most of the song choices are popular hits from both the West and Japan. We have everything from "You Give Love a Bad Name" to "Tik Tok," and from "Sucker" to "Karma Chameleon." SEGA even included some of their own hits, such as "Escape from the City" and the famous Yakuza song "Bakamitai" (although the latter is DLC). It's quite the mix of songs, and honestly, that can make it a hit or miss for some players.
There are over 40 songs included in the game, with many DLC packs available as well. These DLC packs range from Persona 5 music to K-Pop, with a handful of other classics such as "Tubthumping" also included. Again, these songs tend to stay away from the Latin roots the series was originally known for, and that might be a disappointment for many. Even so, the songs that were chosen for Party Central are still a lot of fun, and playing the maracas to Carly Rae Jepsen stops feeling weird pretty quickly.
Should you play it?
Samba de Amigo: Party Central is a game I really like, but it also has many missed opportunities. This is the first Samba de Amigo game that has been accessible since 2008, and instead of serving as a replacement for the original, it does something completely new. This is fine, of course, but not seeing the vast majority of original songs return is a bit odd. It's clearly a game that wants to fully stand on its own and still allow players to enjoy the original release, but playing the original isn't as doable in today's world.
Looking at Party Central as a standalone entity, it really is a lot of fun. It has an interesting soundtrack, the gameplay becomes very addicting, and it's also quite the workout! Although it doesn't take long to get through the game's base song list, the game being physically demanding may prevent most players from playing it all in one go. On the other hand, this is a game we have personally broken out at parties, and having different players will help you get through the entire song list in a single night. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes playing everything once is enough to be done with the game for a while. Again, this is great for parties, but it can burn you out when playing solo.
The real issues with the game actually stem from the controls, with your movements not always being read perfectly. Thankfully, the game is very generous with your movements and will often count hits even if you're doing it completely wrong. However, other times it likes to be picky and makes you miss notes you should have hit. There's certainly room for improvement here, but the game does work well enough to S-rank the entire song list with 100% accuracy—it might just take a few tries because something got thrown off.
Additionally, the party events can occasionally ruin some songs, and they cannot be turned off when playing multiplayer. Some songs can devolve into you and your friend doing poses for most of the song, preventing you from truly getting to play. Or you could land on the fast & slow event, which speeds through the entire song or makes it so slow that you start missing every note. While these events are fun when playing competitively, sometimes you just want to play the song normally, and that isn't an option. It's also a bit of a letdown that Player 2 cannot customize a character, as they are forced to play as whoever the stage chooses as a sidekick (if there even is one).
Putting aside these complaints, the game is a great time, and I do recommend it for sure! Since its release, my wife and I have put countless hours into the game, and it's something we still break out when someone new comes over or if we take the Switch elsewhere. It's a fun party game that's easy to pick up and understand, and it's great for anyone who likes music of any kind. It isn't a massive game by any means, but it has just enough content to keep you coming back.
It really is a shame that DLC has seemingly stopped at this point, as this is a game that would benefit from a constant stream of updates. Other music titles like Rock Band have thousands of songs to pick from, and Party Central could have gone the same route. Maybe not to the same scale, but it would have been great to slowly build a large library as the years went on.
Oh well... Maybe next time, SEGA?
VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
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