Party Animals- the adorable brawler

Party Animals

Fans of Gangbeasts rejoice! Party Animals is a brawler that takes what works in GB and adds even more ways to play!

Recreate Games are the masterminds behind yet another version of gang beasts with Party Animals. Gang Beasts, for those of you that are unaware, is a game where players control semi-ragdoll characters and pummel the crap out of each other. The goal of most games is to simply remove the other players from the playing field. The matches are chaotic and I have cramped from laughing in more games than I have watching the late George Carlin. Recreate have taken almost identical mechanics, added play modes AND actual weapons.

There is something satisfying about smashing a partially chewed lollypop across the face of your foes. The other weapons are enjoyable to use like the shovel or the taser but the lollypop just feels best. There isn’t a story overall, you simply play an adorable animal with ragdoll physics in various game modes. Modes include fueling a train, keeping warm by the fire or fighting on the roof of a stealth fighter jet. That’s just to start! Visually the game is absolutely stunning with one of the cleanest physics engines I’ve ever seen! The controls are more advanced with additional abilities like a single button for climbing where in Gang Beasts it required both triggers working together (for Xbox).

For my son, the game puts too much emphasis on the minigames but does the brawling perfectly. Personally I loved the minigames AND the brawling. Party Animals is the new GOLD STANDARD.

Exploding Kittens bring us a new form of charades

Exploding Kittens

Exploding Kittens has created their own take on a gaming classic, Charades, with On A Scale Of One To T-Rex.

Any time Exploding Kittens releases a game we look forward to it. Consistently their titles are among our family’s favorites so when they shared this with us we were more than excited. With Charades players try to get others to guess what they are pretending to be. I have always been terrible at this as most of the connections I make to different people or things most people weren’t making. You also can’t use any words to give hints either. On A Scale Of One To T-Rex flips some of these rules on their head.

With this game it doesn’t matter who knows what you are trying to act out, what matters is how intensely you do it. If you and another player have the same intensity level then you get points. On top of that the players all do theirs at the same time. When doing this in a large group can make things pretty loud quickly. Being the father of three things tend to get loud but that is where the problem with this game was for us. Two of my children have sensory issues and the volume of the game became too much for them.

For a party game this can be quite fun, just need to make sure anyone with sensory issues aren’t around while you play, it can get a bit overwhelming for them.

Secret Neighbor Party Game by Arcane Wonders

Secret Neighbor

Secret Neighbor Party Game by Arcane Wonders is here to make your next party deceitful!

Video game players have known about the naughty Neighbor for many years from TinyBuild, but did they know there is now a party card game? Thanks to a partnership with Arcane Wonders the Secret Neighbor Party Game is here. Arcane Wonders sent us a review copy to enjoy with the family and friends. With a global pandemic playing a game with the family is much easier than with friends or both.

In the Hello Neighbor franchise players try to avoid the Neighbor and sneak around his property, trying to uncover just what dark deeds he is up to. In the party game players take the roles of either the Neighbors or the kids. As kids you must manipulate others to get the keys. If they use all of the keys to unlock the basement then the kids win.

While attempting to procure the keys kids must collect cards in triplicate in order to use their powers. Secretly though Neighbors will be posing as children to undermine their efforts or steal the keys for themselves. If a Neighbor gets the key and the majority votes to use them and they refuse to do so then the Neighbors win.

The game was more fun than I expected. Party games have a tendency to feel tedious but the game was fluid, easy to pick up and everyone found it enjoyable.