Light Fingers

Genre: Board Game / Party Game / 3D Platformer

Players: 1-4 Co-Op / Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Light Fingers, released on Nintendo Switch in 2018, is a game that combines elements of Board Games, Party Games, and 3D Platformers in a presentation that has players taking the role of daring thieves playing avatars of themselves in a mechanical game to prove their skills to a master thief.

The presentation here has a mix of good and bad. On the one hand, the way the game is presented as being on an intricate 3D mechanical contraption is really appealing, and the game’s acoustic music does a great job of highlighting the fun but mysterious nature of the clockwork contraption. On the other hand, the framerate, resolution, character detail are all pretty low, meaning the technical side of things here isn’t quite pulling the same weight as the artistic side.

There are two game modes to play here – Board Campaign and Dungeon Rush, but the meat of this game is going to be found in the Board Campaign mode. Here, 2-4 players will take turns rolling and moving their character to spaces on a game board and uncovering their contents, with the goal of being the first to collect enough bags of “loot” to please the master thief (think Mario Party’s stars). Players will find all sorts of surprises on any new square they step on, including shops to buy permanent upgrades or single-use cards (or steal loot from), guard towers where guards will be dispatched from to hunt down the thieves, forests to hide in, and dungeons to raid for coins and loot.

Unlike Mario Party, this game doesn’t feature minigames, but instead when players enter a dungeon or challenge each other on the same square, they enter a Platforming obstacle course that’s one of the more disappointing parts of this game. In theory, this is a magnificent idea – one player tackles the obstacle course, while the other players manipulate objects in the environment to try to trip them up and cause them to fail. In practice, many of these traps are completely avoidable, making it feel like you have less utility if you’re one of the players trying to trip up the one running the course. And on the other hand, the player running the course has to contend with some pretty terrible platforming made worse by a camera that makes it difficult at times to tell where you are in relation to platforms and hazards. Sadly, players will likely find the difficult platforming to be a far greater challenge than the other players.

While these platforming sections are a huge let-down, the rest of the Board Campaign mode is fun, playing cat and mouse with guards, hunting down loot and trying to stay ahead of the competition, and each square you uncover offers the chance for fun surprises. However, the pacing is a bit slow, which bogs down an otherwise fun experience.

Oh, and I mentioned Dungeon Rush earlier. That is the only single-player and co-op portion of the game… and it’s just a series of those terrible platforming stages one after another. So… yeah, probably not something you’ll want to spend much time with.

In the end, Light Fingers has a lot of good things going for it. The Board Game and Party Game stuff here is solid, if a bit slow-paced, and it has a great concept with a unique presentation. It’s just a shame that the technical side of the game is underwhelming and the Platforming portion of the game is such a huge disappointment. Still, if you’re looking for a Party Game to add to your collection that’s a little different, Light Fingers may be worth a look.

tl;dr – Light Fingers is a game that combines elements of Board Games, Party Games, and Platformers, with players taking the role of a thief trying to prove his skills in a clockwork simulation. Unfortunately, while the Board Game and Party Game elements are solid (if a bit slow-paced), the Platforming is pretty bad. On balance, those looking for a unique Party Game may still want to give this a try, though.

Grade: C+

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