Party Crashers Review

Party Golf was a surprise hit when it released on the Switch eShop in 2017. Providing a new take on the golf genre, it eliminated everything which might make golf boring, with up to sixteen players all playing the same hole simultaneously and offering dozens and dozens of modes which could make the balls sticky, super bouncy or replace them altogether with fruit shapes, for example. That was crazy golf in the best sense, and developer GiantMargarita has continued its party series by following up with Party Crashers.

This is a racing title with a twist: while it features the usual cart-racing tropes of weapons, power-ups and speed boosts, your angle of viewpoint is from above and behind your racer. Rather than winning a race, your primary aim in the game’s core mode is to ensure your rivals don’t manage to make their way through the course in one piece.

Like in Party Golf when the first lucky player managed to get their ball in the hole, when the first player is eliminated in Party Crashers a short countdown will ensue, and whoever has the lead at the end of the countdown will come away with the most points. Whether you’re pushing them off the side of the track or depleting their health by launching several attacks in their direction, it’s about being the last car standing. The task is made more difficult by the fact a beam of death brings up the rear, and any cars too far back will get eviscerated if they are caught up with.

This game has four core modes to gameplay, with only one available from the off. Elimination is the mode which takes the game from the starting grid, and that’s simply about racing and keeping the lead until one of the cars falls from the track. Put in some games on that mode and you’ll soon unlock Race mode (exactly what it says on the tin), as well as the Time Trial and Battle modes. Again, like in Party Golf, you can also tinker with the formula on a more intrinsic level, adding last car standing stipulations to the fray, for example.

The party element of this game means that there’s all kinds of chaos which you’ll have to block from your peripheral vision in order to focus on keeping your car out of trouble. The camera seems to act to make this deliberately tricky – it doesn’t centre on any one vehicle. Think of it as a more frantic version of the RC Car minigame in Super Mario Odyssey – you have to judge each of the car’s turns as if you’re in the car even when you’re viewing it from a slightly unorthodox angle. It is good party fun still – though not quite as fantastic as Party Golf was.