Conga Master Party!

Genre: Arcade / Party Game

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local), 2 Co-Op (Local)

.

Review:

Conga Master Party is a simple, family-friendly Arcade-style game with a fairly unique premise – you are the head of a conga line looking to make your conga line the best conga line ever. To do so, you’ll have to dance your way around others on the dance floor to entice them to join you, avoid obstacles, grab bonuses, and avoid attracting the momentum-killing pigs into your line.

Conga Line Party has a simple pixel art presentation that’s made lively with lots of variety and lively detail. This game’s levels are full of fun little jokes and references, and everything’s moving in a way that adds to the fun nature of the game. For a game about being the life of the party, this game does a great job of infusing its presentation with personality, and it really helps the game’s better qualities to shine. What’s more, this game’s soundtrack full of various high-energy dance tunes is pretty catchy, even if the song loops are so short that they can get a bit repetitive. Of course, repetitive dance music is something of an oxymoron anyway, sooo…

The gameplay here is deceptively simple. You’re simply using the L and R buttons to turn left or right, or pressing both at the same time to speed up. While in most games I despise when they make people move kinda’ like cars, here it makes perfect sense as you’re constantly moving the line forward.

Anyway, as you move around, you attract the attention of partygoers standing close enough to take notice of you. Stick around them long enough to keep their interest and they’ll join your line. As you move around, there’s a “momentum” meter constantly ticking down and refueling whenever you add someone to your line, with a bigger bonus when you nab multiple people in quick succession.

As such, there’s an element of strategy to the game – do I go for that nearby straggler or find a bigger group so I can attract them all at once? What’s more, the longer you keep going, the more this strategy needs to evolve, as the bonuses for new additions becomes smaller, but it becomes easier to attract them since just quickly moving by them will drag your entire line next to them, exposing them to your group for longer. So by the end, you’re not looking for groups to circle around so much as darting from one person to the next in quick succession. Of course, the fact that it’s easier to get new people to join you also means it’s easier to accidentally attract one of those unwanted pigs…

It’s this “easy to learn” gameplay paired with deceptively deep mechanics that makes Conga Master Party surprisingly compelling to play, and in a way trying to rack up combos and beat your old record feels kinda’ like the same sort of fun feeling you get from chaining together combos in a Tony Hawk game.

Having said that, while I appreciate this game’s simplicity, I feel like it may be a bit too simple. Even though each stage has a different layout and presentation, there’s little change in the gameplay throughout the game, and at times it does feel like there could be more going on to shake things up. In addition, there’s a flaw in the game’s design that causes undue frustration – the camera is so zoomed-in that you can’t get a good feel for the layout of the level, nor where the partygoers are, meaning that when you’re making decisions about where to go, it’s often up to lady luck whether you’ll find what you’re looking for there. Maybe you’ll run into a group of people, or just a lone straggler… or no one. This random element detracts from the strategic core of the game, which is disappointing.

However, there is one other truly great thing about this game that I haven’t mentioned yet – the multiplayer. Conga Master Party includes a healthy variety of multiplayer modes (all parodies of various videogames, such as Grand Theft Conga and 1-2-Conga), from one where players simply compete to get the longest line before time runs out, one where you’re each sabotaging each others’ lines to steal people, one where after a brief hunting session you try to bash through the others’ line before they can demolish yours… there’s even a co-op mode where two players try to work at either end of the line to catch as many people as possible. And while not all of these modes are winners (Just Conga’s motion control elements are terrible), for the most part the healthy variety of game modes here ensures this game will remain the life of the party.

What’s more, Conga Master Party does something that’s rare for Switch games – it lets two players share a single Joy-Con, meaning that four players can technically play this game with only the two Joy-Cons that come with the Switch. While this isn’t exactly an ideal way to play the game, I have to give the folks behind the game credit for putting it there as an option for cash-strapped Switch owners who haven’t gotten additional controllers.

One other thing worth mentioning here – the Nintendo Switch version of Conga Master Party has some exclusive multiplayer features, as well as Amiibo support (it adds character costumes), making this the definitive version of the game.

I’ll admit, I was genuinely surprised by Conga Master Party. I was not expecting much, and the game won me over with its charm and its surprisingly deep gameplay, and absolutely bowled me over with its generous assortment of multiplayer options. There are still areas that could be improved, and I think it’s a bit too simple and random to meet its full potential, there’s enough good gameplay and content here that it’s definitely worth a look for anyone wanting a unique Arcade-style game, especially one with some good multiplayer.

tl;dr – Conga Master Party is a family-friendly Arcade-style game that has you moving through partygoers trying to attract people to your conga line. Its simple gameplay and fun presentation hides a surprising amount of strategy in its gameplay, as well as a wealth of multiplayer content, including some exclusive to the Switch version. I wish there were a bit more depth, and the game’s random elements can be a bit frustrating, but overall this is a superb game to pick up if you’re looking for something simple and fun, especially if you want to play with a group.

Grade: B

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}