Over the years, I have slowly started to move away from Mario Party, so much so that even though I bought the last one, to this day, I have never inserted it into any Switch console. This comes down to my being tired of the same rules and restrictions that have been in place since the original game and while the new mini-games are often fun, they are not enough to keep me playing. So, when Lego Party! was revealed, I was given a little hope that maybe someone might alter the party game landscape and move things forward and having now played the game, I have reason to be hopeful.

First up, Lego Party! might sound like Mario Party and play like how Mario Party plays, but this is not a 1 to 1 clone of that series, just with Lego attached. This is made clear from the moment you jump in, where you select your character and then are welcomed to the set of a TV game show, yes, the entire game takes place as if you were on a game show. This comes complete with commentators and unlike sports games, they have more to say than just nice job. The game actually has more than 13,000 lines from the hosts, with SMG Studios saying you might play the same game a few times, but might not hear the same line in each run. Paige and Ted are your hosts and they have a lot of personality, which helps makes their lines about players not trying or losing a golden brick feel less like insults and more like commiseration messages.

But you don’t pick up a game like Lego Party! for the hosts, or at least I hope you don’t. Instead, you pick it up for the party and the mini-games contained within, or at least I would. The game offers a few ways to enjoy those games, either on their own, via a curated set of playlists or in the Challenge Zone. This is the main mode and is the same as jumping onto a board in Mario Party, here you move around the board, land on spaces and then after everyone has a had a turn, jump into a mini-game. Where things change drastically is that, in Mario Party the roll of a dice at the start of the game determines the players positions for the rest of the game, here it is your standings at the end of each mini-game that matter. That means if you keep getting 1st place in the mini-games, you will always be first to roll at the start of the next round. This little meta game within the game could honestly be something special, more so if you have a group of really competitive mates to play with.

Now the core of the Challenge Zone plays like standard Mario Party, you roll and get a number and then move that count around the board. Along the way you might pass a shop, visit a thief or pass by a Golden Brick seller. There are both good spaces and bad spaces to land on and when the game gets to the last few rounds, the rewards and punishments are doubled. There are also spaces that can just have comedic effects, like a turkey being shot out of a volcano, or a pirate’s booty being thrown across the board. Those are ones that I got to see as we played on the Pirate themed map, which is joined by Ninjago, Space and Theme Park. Pirate is the smallest of the boards and Theme Park is the largest, but you can adjust the round count, so they are shorter or longer.

Now, one of the main reasons to play a party game is for the mini-games, it is why Nintendo has released Mario Party: The Top 100, the games are great. Lego Party! has 60 mini-games and they will vary in theme, and complexity. Something that the developers at SMG Studios wanted to do, was ensure that you only needed minimal buttons to play, now this is not some Luigi wins thing, but rather, you won’t need to grip your controller in weird ways. For Nintendo Switch players, all you need is one single Joy-Con, because no game uses more than a stick and a button, or just the face buttons and some just use a single button. The games that we got to play varied from racing games to unique takes on mini golf and even some Spider-Man cave swinging fun. The controls are explained before each game and just like Mario Party, you can try them before you actually take part.

If the Challenge Zone sounds a little challenging for you, or you just don’t want to commit to a 45-minute game, you can jump into the curated play lists. Here you can undertake a selection of mini-games that are themed, or you can create your own and enjoy them whenever you want. From the moment you start the game up on release day, all the games are unlocked, so you can enjoy all of them, the only thing to unlock are characters and even those are just purely cosmetic. As you play the game, you will level up and each level rewards you with a new minifigure and a bunch of carrots, which are the currency to buy more minifigures. Once you have purchased the giant pink bunny suit, you can then use part of that to give your pirate rabbit legs, or your punk rock character rabbit ears. There are a few restrictions to some characters, mostly those that are proper characters, but otherwise you can go as crazy as you want.

I had a blast playing with Lego Party!, it was great to play with some fellow media folks and just have a great time. What I really liked was that everything felt like Mario Party, but without the thinking that the players are 6. Don’t get me wrong, SMG Studios have made adjustments based on player feedback, so even younger players can enjoy the game, but there are just a lot of thoughtful improvements to everything. Nintendo are often holding onto the past with most of their games, never really innovating and here Lego Party! is doing just that. Will it feel as fun after multiple rounds in the Challenge Zone, who knows, but I can’t wait to find out.

Lego Party! is out on September 30 for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game supports full cross-play, so you can experience the multiplayer fun no matter the platform you have.

If you are wishing to pick the game up for yourself, be sure to check out our Bargain Guide, to ensure you pay only what you need to.