Rabbids: Party of Legends

Genre: Party Game

Players: 1-4 Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)

Game Company Bad Behavior Profile Page: UbiSoft

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Review:

Rabbids: Party of Legends, released on Nintendo Switch in 2022 is a family-friendly Party Game in the long-running Rabbids franchise starring the titular screaming rabbit-like creatures. While the Rabbids have previously been seen on Nintendo Switch in the mash-up Strategy-RPG Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, but for their first solo outing on Nintendo Switch, it is fitting that they return to their Party Game roots, albeit with a twist – as the first game developed by UbiSoft’s Chinese Chengdu branch, Party of Legends bears a theme loosely based on Chinese myth and legend – specifically, the legendary tale The Journey West.

Of course, given that this is a Rabbids game, this game’s take on the classic Chinese tale is far from a faithful and straightforward adaptation of the story – it literally begins with the Rabbids accidentally traveling to the era in their time-traveling washing machine. But as I played with Jenn, who grew up hearing this story, she repeatedly giggled at all the fun little references it makes to the story throughout.

The presentation in this game uses cartoony 3D visuals for its characters and backgrounds, with some pretty good animation all around that gives its characters a lot of personality. Everything is presented with a silly, cartoony take on its ancient Chinese theme, and the visuals are backed by a soundtrack that seems like a similarly whimsical take on traditional Chinese music. Overall, this game succeeds in presenting something that’s fun and appealing while still being unique and original.

Players control the game using a single Joy-con each, with different games having you hold the Joy-Con differently. Some minigames use the analog stick, some use a single button, and some have a combination of a button and the analog stick, but most of the minigames make use of the Joy-Cons’ gyroscopic motion control in some way or another.

Unfortunately, I really found the motion-control to be hit or miss. Sometimes you pointed at the screen controlling a cursor, which lags terribly behind your own movements. Sometimes you’re asked to do certain gestures, with the game doing a poor job of detecting these accurately. Sometimes you need to time your gestures, with the game often missing your movements. While a few minigames manage to make this work, for the most part every time I saw an upcoming minigame used motion controls, I groaned inwardly.

Of course, that leads to another issue – before each minigame, the game’s pace gets dragged down to a crawl as the game makes sure everyone is holding their Joy-Con properly, then making sure everyone knows how the minigame works. While I understand that some preparation is needed for players to adjust to each minigame, the way Party of Legends handles this is absurdly frustrating in how it bogs everything down. For comparison, Super Mario Party lets players practice playing the minigame itself before starting the actual minigame proper, ensuring new players have a chance to figure things out without boring the other players.

However, if there’s one place where Party of Legends really drops the ball, it’s in the number of minigames. Where Super Mario Party offered players 100 minigames, Rabbids: Party of Legends has only 50, which seems absolutely absurd for a full-priced game. Needless to say, it won’t take you very long before you start repeating minigames.

In the end, Rabbids: Party of Legends has a lot going for it – it has a great theme paired with an appealing presentation, and the minigames that do work are really enjoyable. Unfortunately, these fun minigames are too few and far between a load of motion-controlled garbage, bogged down by dreadfully slow pacing, and greatly limited by a lack of minigame variety. There’s some enjoyment to be had here, but most players are better sticking with Super Mario Party.

tl;dr – Rabbids: Party of Legends is a family-friendly Party Game featuring the screaming rabbit-like rabbids in a silly, cartoony version of ancient China. The presentation here is great, but the minigames themselves are overloaded with terrible motion controls and poor pacing, and with only 50 minigames, it’ll get repetitive pretty quickly. This game has moments of fun, but most players are better off getting a Mario Party game instead.

Grade: C-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2022 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Funniest Game

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