Family Party:
30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade
North American cover art
Developer(s)Art Co., Ltd
Publisher(s)D3 Publisher
SeriesSimple series
Platform(s)Wii U
Release
  • PAL: November 30, 2012
  • NA: December 4, 2012
  • JP: December 20, 2012
Genre(s)Party game
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade JPN is a party game released for the Wii U. It was developed by Art Co., Ltd and published by D3 Publisher. The game was released in November 2012 for the PAL region, and in December for North America and Japan. The game was panned by critics.

Gameplay

There are two modes of playing the minigames available: Challenge Mode and Freeplay Mode. Challenge Mode has players compete in five set Wii Remote games based on the world selected at the start, with five randomly chosen Wii U Gamepad games in between. Up to four people (with CPUs to make sure that there are always four players) can play at once to try to beat a set score and unlock more characters and minigames to play in Freeplay Mode. In Freeplay Mode, up to 10 of the minigames can be chosen, regardless of whether they use the Gamepad or the Wii Remotes, to be played in a set order with up to four people (with CPUs to keep the number of players at four, if necessary) with no restrictions or scores to beat.

Despite the title, there are 35 minigames in total. They are spread around five different worlds, with each world having five Wii Remote games and two games that use the Wii U Gamepad.

Reception

Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade received "overwhelming dislike", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic.[12] The game was panned by critics, holding a score of 11/100 on Metacritic, making it the second lowest scored game on the website at the time, behind Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing.[2][13] After Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, which had five critic reviews, was removed from the full list of game scores due to Metacritic increasing the minimum review count for featured games to seven critic reviews. Thus, Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade has since become the number one lowest scoring game on the website.[14]

Criticism targeted its visuals, design, minigames, controls, and voice acting. Kristoffer Nyrén of Eurogamer said that "the feeling of torture arose" before he played the game, specifically criticizing its graphics for being "extremely outdated" and its controls for frequently malfunctioning.[15] Zack Kaplan of the Nintendo World Report said that "it makes a promise it can't keep, assaults your ears with annoying voice acting, and sucks all the fun out of owning a Wii U", scolding its poor controls, minigames (as "devoid of fun"), and irritating voice acting.[16] Anthony Severino of Game Revolution described it as having "absolutely zero redeeming qualities", chiding its gameplay (as "borderline unplayable"), controls, and voice acting.[17] The Official Nintendo Magazine gave it a score of 11%, jokingly concluding the review (written in the style of a diary) with an "ONM Coroner's Report" that read: "Patient suffered a psychotic breakdown while playing this game. No treatment possible."[7]

Accolades

Publication Accolade Year Rank
Official Nintendo Magazine Worst Wii U Games[18] 2013 1
ScrewAttack Worst Wii U Game in 2013, Worst Game of 2013[19] 2013 Won

See also

Notes

^ Known in Japan as Simple Series for Wii U Vol.1: The Family Party (SIMPLEシリーズ for Wii U Vol.1 THE ファミリーパーティー)

References

  1. ^ "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on November 2, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 20 June 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  3. ^ Nyrén, Kristoffer (2012-12-12). "Game Review". Eurogamer.se. Archived from the original on 2013-05-10. Retrieved 2013-06-16.
  4. ^ "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  5. ^ J Reed, Phillip (January 28, 2013). "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". Nintendo Life. Archived from the original on October 3, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  6. ^ Kaplan, Jack (January 5, 2013). "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on November 5, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  7. ^ a b "Family Party Obstacle Arcade: 30 Great Games review". Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on May 31, 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  8. ^ Worley, Seth (July 14, 2013). "Family Party: 30 Great Games - Obstacle Arcade (Video Game Review)". BioGamer Girl Magazine. Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  9. ^ Raby, Mark (17 December 2012). "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". Common Sense Media. Archived from the original on 22 August 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  10. ^ West, Lee (December 13, 2012). "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". Game Reactor (in Danish). Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  11. ^ "Family Party: 30 Great Games - Obstacle Arcade". GamingXP (in German). December 12, 2012. Archived from the original on March 29, 2014. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  12. ^ "Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing Critic Reviews for PC". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 26, 2020. Retrieved July 26, 2020.
  13. ^ "Best Video Games of All Time - Page 191". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 24 November 2021. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
  14. ^ "Best Video Games of All Time". Metacritic. Retrieved 2023-05-24.
  15. ^ Nyrén, Kristoffer. "Recension: Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". Eurogamer (Sweden). Archived from the original on 2015-10-09. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  16. ^ Kaplan, Zack. "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  17. ^ Severino, Anthony. "Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade Review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 31 August 2015.
  18. ^ East, Thomas (February 25, 2013). "Worst Wii U games: 1. Family Party: 30 Great Games - Obstacle Arcade". Official Nintendo Magazine. Archived from the original on 2014-10-08. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
  19. ^ "The Worst Wii U Game in 2013 is... - 2013 SAGYs". ScrewAttack. December 25, 2013. Archived from the original on June 16, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
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