Hey kids, have you ever wanted to play a game of lawn darts, but didn’t want the hassle of going outside to do it? Well, your prayers have been answered with Game Party 2. That’s right, Midway and Farsight Studios are back with another Game Party title and it’s largely more of the same, which is unfortunate for people who bought the previous game, as there is very little new here to justify a second purchase.
Gameplay
As the name implies, this is a party game at its most basic. There are eleven different games to choose from, as well as variations of each game. Unfortunately the gameplay is nearly identical for every game and none of the games are overly exciting. There are three motions used through-out the game. So essentially you have three motions and eleven games which means...that’s right, you’ll be using the same motions over and over for several of the games. Seriously? I mean, I know this is a casual-focused title, but I think most people are capable of utilizing more than three motions.
The games themselves aren’t horrible, I’ll admit. Darts can be fun, and Hoop Shoot works pretty well. However, like I said before...three motions, which is no fun at all. If they had allowed for a bit more variety I may have been able to tolerate the game a bit more, but as it stands, the motion controls only allow for a simple back and forth motion three different ways. One going up, one going down, one pushing forward. Period. Essentially none of these games represent their true-life counterparts very well at all, which makes it difficult to recommend playing this as opposed to actually going out and playing the real games themselves. Shell out a couple of dollars and you can even buy a pad and paper to record high scores while playing.
Game Party 2 allows you to participate in a number of tournaments if you’ve got a group of friends over, but chances are you won’t want to. The tournaments are pretty much more of the same, meaning that there’s no variety to them at all. You can do a Best-Of series, Loser Goes Home, Winner Moves On or Head to Head. The only difference between each one is the number of players involved and how each player progresses, which means that if you’ve played one, you’ve pretty much played them all and maybe lost a few friends in the process.
If you choose to use a profile you can win tickets based on how well you do in the games. The higher the score, the more tickets you’ll receive which can be used to unlock different items for the create-a-player mode or the games themselves. There’s a good number of unlockables, all things considered, but you’ll likely tire of the game before you can unlock them all. Still, considering just how little thought went into the actual gameplay, it’s nice to see they were able to add at least some value to the title.
One questionable design choice is that instead of using your Mii’s at all, you use pre-made Mii-like characters. You can also use the create a player feature, in which you can make a character that looks exactly the same as the pre-made ones. You’re given the options to change the hair, face and clothing of the avatars, but the faces are all pre-fabricated and identical to the ones already available in the main game. There’s a good variety of characters here, but if you’re going to create characters that look like gussied up Mii’s, why not just let us use the Mii’s to begin with?
Sounds and Graphics
While there’s a good variety of characters available, none of them are very nice to look at. Slightly more detailed than Mii’s but somehow lacking the charm of the Mii’s you can create on the console itself. Visuals are bland and there isn’t much to the animation. Farsight Studios did simply the barest of minimums with this game, and it shows.
The sound is completely unremarkable. The music is the same repetitive and annoying drivel you’d come to expect with a title like this. Crowds cheer and jeer, but other than that, there’s no voice acting to be heard.
Value
There are quite a few variations of each game, but being that the games are all played the exact same way, there’s not much value to the package at all. Not all of the games are throwaways, but there’s just not enough to the games to make them appealing to anyone over the age of 5 at best. Add to this the fact that there are only a couple of new games that didn’t appear in the original and you’ve got no reason at all to purchase this game. There are a fair number of unlockables for your characters which is nice, but it would have been nice if they’d focused more on gameplay and less on the number of wacky masks you can put on your character. Conclusion
Another budget-priced casual title that doesn’t strive to be anything but that. Not worth your time or money.
+ A fair number of items to unlock.
+ Hoop Shot and Darts aren’t terrible.
Cons
- Too much recycled content.
- Uses Mii-like avatars instead of just using Mii’s is dumb.
- Controls are way too simple and repetitive.
- Sound is just awful.
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
I’ve always been an advocate for cheap and easy...Er...when it comes to gaming, that is. Unfortunately, it’s because of this that I’ve missed out on some of the bigger titles over the past few years. (CoD4, anyone?). Buying used games, ordering online from sites like Amazon or Ebay, is a simple way to avoid high pricing, (at least until you factor in...
I’ve always been an advocate for cheap and easy...Er...when it comes to gaming, that is. Unfortunately, it’s because of this that I’ve missed out on some of the bigger titles over the past few years. (CoD4, anyone?). Buying used games, ordering online from sites like Amazon or Ebay, is a simple way to avoid high pricing, (at least until you factor in... 
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