Press “A” to Party

Genre: Arcade / Party Game

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Press “A” to Party is a One-Button Arcade-style Party game where players try to see how long they can last in one of six simple one-button minigames. This game was released on Nintendo Switch in 2021.

The presentation here is extremely simple, using colorful, blocky, flat 2D visuals, and backed by a pretty catchy chiptune soundtrack (sorry, I don’t have any examples to share). It’s nothing especially noteworthy, but the combination keeps things fun and lighthearted and doesn’t interfere with the gameplay, so it works well enough.

As for the gameplay, each of the minigames here is exceedingly simple, but they vary somewhat in quality. There’s a grappling hook game where players press the button to swing like Spider-Man, which is pretty fun and has some nice physics that keep things from getting stale too quickly. There’s a vertical-scrolling game where players press the button repeatedly as they bounce back and forth on the walls, trying not to hit obstacles lining the walls that’s also fairly fun. There’s a game where players are jumping from circle to circle with the right timing and without taking too long. This one’s a bit more difficult, but still fun. There’s a game where players try to navigate a twisty series of passages using only a grappling hook to latch onto the corners of the path, and this one is frustrating enough to keep it from being especially fun. There’s another vertical-scrolling game where players use a grappling hook to climb up, and neither I nor those I played with could get the hang of the controls for this one. And finally, there’s a game that’s just like the vertical-scrolling repeated button-press game where players instead hold down the button to rise as they bounce off the walls and try to avoid obstacles – this one is so similar to the second game I mentioned that it doesn’t really feel like an additional minigame.

So the good news is that the minigames that work, work well, and are fun both in single-player and multiplayer, with multiplayer allowing players to marathon a custom gauntlet of minigames or having the game randomize things. However, the bad news is that there are only six minigames, and of the group, I’d say that only two are particularly fun, three range from so-so to awful, and one is essentially a copy of one of the other games.

And while, yes, this game has a fairly low $7 price tag, a minigame collection with only two worthwhile minigames isn’t much of a minigame collection. I suppose if you view Press “A” to Party as a fun but brief distraction for those two minigames, it may be worth a look when it goes on sale. But otherwise, you’re probably better off sticking to other Party Games.

tl;dr – Press “A” to Party is a One-Button Arcade-style Party game where players try to see how long they can last in one of six simple one-button minigames. Only two of the included minigames here are particularly fun, and while those two games make for a decent but brief distraction, two worthwhile minigames doesn’t make for a very compelling minigame collection.

Grade: C

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