Like any good human being with a pulse, I love Nintendo games, but I always worry about few of their franchises having actual competitors that are good enough to make them put in an effort on their subsequent releases. The issue with most Nintendo games is that, when there’s no one to compete with, you don’t have to try, rendering some franchises stale in the process. One such case is Mario Party. Whilst the games are still somewhat good, there’s no denying that they feel quite too similar to one another nowadays, especially when they just decide to re-release legacy titles featuring classic boards and minigames. The reason is simple: no one has ever been able to come up with a party board game as good as it. Until now. Let me introduce you to Lego Party.

Each board is filled with special events, which might scatter golden blocks around the map for free, for instance.

If there is one company that is able to compete with Nintendo in terms of family-friendly appeal and brand awareness, that’s Lego. To the point that Nintendo themselves have realised that, allowing Lego to come up with sets for Mario, Zelda, and even Animal Crossing. You also need to take into account that Lego takes the whole “licensing their image to video games” thing very seriously, with most of their games being, at the very least, decent, some of them actually being bangers. So when a Lego-themed game based on the Mario Party formula of “board game mixed with minigame shenanigans” was announced, I knew there was potential for it to become something special. And it is.

A rhythm-based minigame. Y’all never beating me on this one.

So what makes Lego Party stand out from its source of inspiration? Honestly, it’s the fact it actually follows the formula quite closely that makes it feel fresh, with just enough new ideas added to the mix, in a decent balance between familiar and innovative. A lot of older Mario Party clones tried to deviate too much from the formula in order to stand out, only for them to miss out on the elements that made party games fun in the first place. Lego Party retains the same gameplay loop: walk around a board, collect currency, spend currency on items and the main macguffin that will win you the game, set up traps or land on event spaces, play a minigame in between rounds. Everything that needs to feature in a party game is present, thankfully enough.

Now, for the elements featured solely in Lego Party, of which there are a few. For starters, the minigame is played before the beginning of the round, as the order in which you finish the minigame (1st to 4th) determines the order you will roll the dice in the next round. It makes each minigame feel extra important, and makes Lego Party feel a bit more competitive than its peers. There are no “two versus two” minigames, for instance. All of them pretty much act like a Battle Minigame from an older Mario Party, as there will always be a first, second, third and fourth placed players.

A bunch of items that work just like in Mario Party.

Another interesting factor is that, whilst boards are small at first glance, that’s only because you can upgrade them mid-game. Let me remind you that Lego Party is still, well, a Lego game, so building is still a part of the experience, even if not as impactful as other games in the franchise. Players might reach a point on the board where you’ll be able to choose how to build the next section of the map, complete with new traps and events, depending on the preset you decide on. It’s not a complex thing (you literally just choose between two options), but it adds some extra replayability to the mix, considering the fact the amount of actual boards you can choose from is not particularly ideal.

It’s just a handful of new additions here and there that make Lego Party feel like a worthy competitor to Mario Party. Elsewhere, the game boasts a really strong presentation, even if it’s a bit hampered by the fact it was optimized with the original Switch’s hardware in mind (so far, no talks regarding a Switch 2 port). As a result, it is locked at 30fps. Thankfully, it doesn’t affect the gameplay that much. The visuals, as to be expected from a Lego product, are colorful, cheerful, and surprisingly detailed. I didn’t even bother the sheer ludicrous amount of voice acting present in Lego Party. It never annoyed me, and I can’t believe I’m saying this. The sense of humor just fits well with the Lego vibes, I guess.

Build additional spaces on the board, complete with traps and events.

It might be completely based on Mario Party, but there are enough gameplay elements included in Lego Party to make it feel like an actual proper competitor, and not just a mere clone. To be fair, it actually borrowing a lot of elements from its famous source of inspiration actually made it stand out from the myriad of failed clones released over the past few decades, with just enough of the right innovations added to the mix. It’s a really fun party game, one with a clear emphasis on competition, and also surprisingly fun if you decide to play it by yourself. If you can find other people to play it with you, however, things will become even more chaotic, and as a result, fun.

Lego Party is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Lego Party was provided by the publisher.