I enjoy my rhythm games. I like the thrill of performing combos while hearing the sweet note hit effects syncing up with the beat of the song. With the upcoming release of Samba de Amigo : Party Central, I brought out my Joy-Cons to try the game out.

Amigo? I Barely Know Him

A quick history lesson to those who might not be familiar with the IP. Samba de Amigo started off as an arcade machine in 1999, and later receiving a Dreamcast version the following year. Down the line, the IP got a Wii Port in 2008 with the same name.

Fast forward to 24 years later from the original version of the game, Samba de Amigo: Party Central acts as a sequel on the Nintendo Switch and features rhythm game mechanics that’s marketed towards being more of a party game.

Shake Em’ Maracas

As with rhythm game goes, you’ll have to match the beats that are displayed on the screen with Samba de Amigo: Party Central. There are a total of six directional notes that are placed in the shape of a Hexagon, which looks pretty similar to a MaiMai machine’s button layout.

Notes will appear in several ways in the game, as individual notes, streams, sliders, poses prompts, and a unique mechanic being “Happenings”.

There’s two main ways of playing Samba de Amigo: Party Central, that being Button and Shake. With Button mode, it’s as the name suggests where you use the buttons on your joy-con or the joysticks to match the beats. This method is mainly for players who put more emphasis on wanting to get those perfect note hits and getting the highest score possible, since the inputs are more precise.

The other way of playing is a more of a unique one, that being the Shake mode. This mode utilises the features of the Nintendo Switch to the fullest since you’ll be using the Joy-Cons as maracas and move your arms around to match the beats on the screen, which feels like a combination of Beat Saber and MaiMai.

Honestly speaking, Samba de Amigo: Party Central feels a lot more fun in Shake mode as opposed to Button mode. Considering how this game feels more like a party game than your usual rhythm game, playing it on Button mode makes it feel like you’re missing out.

There are certain instances when playing a map, the game will have you imitate a pose on screen, like needing to swing your arms left and right. The game feels a lot more engaging considering you have to physically move your body to reenact the poses instead of inputting a string of button commands.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with button mode, but I personally prefer the Shake Mode a lot more. If you want to go one step further and really work up a sweat, the game also has a “Crazy Mode” difficulty where the beat maps will prompt up more poses.

Samba de Amigo: Party Central also has a unique mechanic in “Happenings”. At certain point during a map, a “?” note will appear and hitting it will bring up a Roulette wheel which will randomly pick 1 of 15 mini-games. These mini-games would have you do all sorts of wacky things from swinging a baseball bat, to doing exercises, and even performing different hand gestures.

This adds a hint of randomness and uniqueness to every time you play a map, which can be a lot more fun especially when playing with friends or family. But, if you’re the kind of player who plays rhythm games to get high scores and don’t want to deal with the RNG, you can also choose the option to turn off this mechanic before you start a map.

At launch, Samba de Amigo: Party Central will have a total of over 40 songs, ranging from popular pop songs like “Sucker” by Jonas Brothers, “Moves Like Jagger (feat. Christina Aguilera)” by Maroon 5, to original SEGA titles like “Escape From The City” from Sonic Adventure 2 and “Fist Bump” from Sonic Forces. Those aren’t necessarily my favourite type of songs, but it fits with the overall vibe for the game.

One gripe I have with the gameplay however is that there are some beat maps at certain difficulties where the beats don’t quite sync up well enough with the rhythm of the music, which results in off-key beat inputs and potentially breaking a combo. It’s not that big of a deal per say, but if you’re an avid rhythm game player who plays titles like Osu! or Project Diva, it won’t be as accurate.

One’s A Company, Two’s A Crowd

There’s a few other game modes in Samba de Amigo: Party Central. There’s the Rhythm Game mode which is the normal solo play. There’s also the World Party mode where you have to duke it out with 7 other players in a last-one-standing wins format.

There’s also the StreamiGo!, Samba de Amigo: Party Central’s streaming platform where your main goal is to earn followers and become the official ambassador of the platform. StreamiGo houses a handful of missions and challenges the players have to overcome to gain followers. Some of these challenges include clearing the song with Rank A or above, or Keeping the Fever level at 5 for 10 seconds, et cetera.

With the game being more focused as a Party game, you can definitely play it with friends or family. Thus the Party For Two comes in, where you can play a handful of modes in local co-op.

There’s the base Rhythm game mode where you can play with a friend. There’s also the Love Checker mode where you predict your compatibility with another player, where you and the other gain hearts when your moves match and sync up.

There’s also the Showdown mode where you battle it out with your friend in hopes to appeal to the in-game audience by playing through segments of a song to woo them over. Last but not least is the Mini Rhythm Game mode where you play through a song while only performing the mini-games from the “Happening” prompt.

Now It’s Looking Like A Party

Visually, the game looks very vibrant and colourful, which fits the overall aesthetic of a party game. It’s very appealing to the general audience and that’s not a bad thing. The background of the maps are filled with life where you can see crowds dancing along, and the character designs are charming as well.

Players also get to customise their Amigo (their avatar), and there’s a hefty amount of customisation too. There’s a lot of silly and wacky costumes to dress your Amigo with, i.e a Banana suit, Hats and Head accessories, the colour of your Amigo, your maracas, beat sound effects and profile pictures. Best part is that you can unlock them all through the in-game coins that you earn from just playing the game.

You can dress your Amigo up in all sorts of colourful combinations of clothing pieces as extravagant as possible and it wouldn’t feel out of place at all, which is great.

Verdict

Samba de Amigo: Party Central is really enjoyable and an all in all crowd pleaser rhythm game with a vibrant aesthetic, with fun and unique mechanics that will definitely get you to move your body, granted if you choose to play the game in Shake mode, which in my opinion is the best way to play the game.

The wide selection of pop songs is fun to jam out to, and it’s definitely best played with friends at a party or gathering.

However, like I mentioned before, if you’re a hardcore rhythm game player that is looking for a high mechanical skill rhythm game to play, this title is probably not up your alley. Conversely, if you’re a rhythm game player who is looking for something new to try their hands on, then Samba de Amigo: Party Central would be the game to try out.

Samba de Amigo: Party Central was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch. Game code provided by the publishers.