Party-To-Go’ Apple Arcade Review – No Maracas, No Life – TouchArcade

Samba de Amigo lastly obtained its first correct sequel on consoles with the discharge of Samba de Amigo: Celebration Central. To associate with it, there’s additionally this Apple Arcade sport, titled Samba de Amigo: Celebration-To-Go (). Given the heavy on-line and multiplayer focus of lots of the modes within the console model, Celebration-To-Go can’t simply comply with within the dance steps of its fellow. For higher or worse, it is a totally different kind of beast regardless of sharing the look, person interface, unlockables, and a lot of the soundtrack with its console counterpart. Wait, “for higher or worse”? This can be a evaluation! Let’s decide which of the 2 it’s!

What’s Samba de Amigo? Effectively, it’s a rhythm sport that was initially launched in arcades in 1999 and on the Dreamcast within the 12 months 2000. This places it comparatively early in the entire rhythm sport increase, particularly when ones that used plastic devices. SEGA is at all times just a few years too early to the celebration, and it’s by no means a superb factor for them. On this case, the plastic devices have been maracas, they usually have been a whole lot of enjoyable. You needed to maintain them at one among three heights and shake alongside to the beat. Generally you would need to make poses, too. Nice enjoyable within the arcade and at house, particularly when you have spectators there to snicker at you. The soundtrack leaned Latin, however had loads of traditional SEGA tunes and pop hits to spherical issues out. It even had a canopy of A-Ha’s Take On Me by ska band Reel Huge Fish! Ska! It’s like punk, however with horns and completely happy!

Whereas the sport had a cult following, that was actually all it was capable of handle. A part of that got here right down to its house model being on the Dreamcast, a part of that got here from the price of the maracas, and a part of that was simply rudeness. It’s a superb sport, folks. It obtained a Wii port a number of years later, however the Wii remotes simply couldn’t sub for the maracas. Additionally, it had Mambo Quantity 5 on the soundtrack. In 2008. That’s flying too near the solar, SEGA. This port was developed by Gearbox, the makers of Duke Nukem Without end and Brothers in Arms DS. I get the impression it didn’t do very properly, so Amigo went into the vault solely to be allowed out to play in SEGA All-Star video games.

The monkey has been freed, nonetheless. Not only one sport, however two. Form of. Since it is a evaluation of Celebration-To-Go, I’m going to be specializing in it. I reviewed the Swap model of the opposite sport, Celebration Central, within the SwitchArcade Spherical-Up if you wish to examine that. In Celebration-To-Go, you’re given simply two modes to play. First is the Rhythm Recreation mode, the place you simply choose a track to play and the problem you’d prefer to play it at, then have at it. The opposite mode is unique to this Apple Arcade sport. Story Mode takes you thru a bizarre story of Amigo and the Legendary Maraca attempting to carry music again to the Earth. It takes the type of a collection of missions that you simply’ll have to finish. End one and also you’ll get some story and unlock the following. You’ll additionally earn cash and ranges the identical you’ll in Rhythm Recreation mode, and might use them to unlock beauty gadgets for Amigo.

I like this Story Mode so much higher than the StreamiGo mode in Celebration Central. There’s much less track repetition, and it’s much less obscure about what you might want to do to succeed. The story itself is fairly… banal, to be form. It makes use of some first rate FMV cutscenes at times, however for essentially the most half it appears to be going for the vibe of an instantaneous message dialog. Which is okay, besides the characters are normally nose to nose. It’s full of the type of dialogue you simply need to skip via, peppered with the occasional actually good line. Effectively, at the least we now have irrefutable proof the monkey is in a romantic relationship with the puberty-gifted fairy. It’s a enjoyable mode to play via, and I suppose that’s the underside line.

The soundtrack is usually just like Celebration Central, with a pleasant mixture of classics and modern music throughout a wide range of genres. Not many songs from the unique return, and it doesn’t look like the DLC songs from the opposite sport are within the checklist right here. However you do get just a few unique songs together with tracks from PSY and Girl Gaga, and that’s cool. The tunes are positively extra common of their attraction than the primary sport’s soundtrack, however that’s advantageous. It means most individuals ought to have the ability to discover at the least just a few songs they know, and can have the ability to be taught some new ones, too. Win-win.

Samba de Amigo: Celebration-To-Go doesn’t have maracas controllers. It doesn’t try to copy them, and even warns you to not shake or transfer your machine. No, this sport is completely touch-based. The display screen is split into left and proper and three totally different peak ranges. When the ball enters the circle, faucet that facet and peak. When it tells you to pose, put your fingers in the appropriate place. When it tells you to swing the maracas forwards and backwards, slide your fingers forwards and backwards. It’s actually extra correct than the maracas or any movement controls can be, however it isn’t as enjoyable. I additionally discover a number of the sliding motions and instructions to be a bit unintuitive to tug off with contact controls. It looks like SEGA simply tried to cram in every part Celebration Central does gameplay-wise into Celebration-To-Go, however not all of it really works as a result of differing enter technique.

Nonetheless, setting apart what it isn’t, Samba de Amigo: Celebration-To-Go is a good sufficient rhythm sport with actually robust manufacturing values for essentially the most half. It’s not fairly nearly as good as Apple Arcade stablemate Taiko no Tatsujin, however the music is nice, the gameplay mechanics are pretty simple to know, and between the Story Mode and unlockables you actually have so much to do. At occasions it looks like one thing cobbled along with bits of one other sport, which it in all probability has been, however it typically feels prefer it’s doing its personal factor too. Oh, and in case you’re questioning, there’s controller help right here. It really works just like the button controls in Celebration Central, mapping the positions to the sticks and buttons. I wouldn’t advise it.

I believe the Story Mode and further tunes in Samba de Amigo: Celebration-To-Go make it price attempting out for followers of the collection even when they’ve already grabbed Celebration Central, however there’s no query this sport loses one thing the additional it strikes away from the grace of the maracas controllers. Should you don’t care about that, and there’s an excellent probability you don’t, the one factor you really want to fret about right here is that the calls for of the word charts appear extra tuned for console play than contact. You’ll have to actually twist your fingers at occasions. In any other case, it’s a good sport for its style with a strong checklist of tracks to faucet alongside to. Nothing exceptional, however ok.