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

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

What’s Samba de Amigo? Properly, it’s a rhythm sport that was initially launched in arcades in 1999 and on the Dreamcast within the yr 2000. This places it comparatively early in the entire rhythm sport growth, particularly when taking a look at ones that used plastic devices. SEGA is at all times a couple of years too early to the social gathering, and it’s by no means factor for them. On this case, the plastic devices had been maracas, and so they had been a variety of enjoyable. You needed to maintain them at one in every of three heights and shake alongside to the beat. Typically you would need to make poses, too. Nice enjoyable within the arcade and at house, particularly if in case you have spectators there to chuckle 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 glad!

Whereas the sport had a cult following, that was actually all it was in a position to handle. A part of that got here all the way 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 sport, folks. It acquired 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 Perpetually 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, nevertheless. Not only one sport, however two. Kind of. Since it is a evaluate of Occasion-To-Go, I’m going to be specializing in it. I reviewed the Change model of the opposite sport, Occasion Central, within the SwitchArcade Spherical-Up if you wish to examine that. In Occasion-To-Go, you’re given simply two modes to play. First is the Rhythm Recreation mode, the place you simply choose a tune to play and the problem you’d wish 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 deliver music again to the Earth. It takes the type of a sequence of missions that you simply’ll have to finish. End one and also you’ll get some story and unlock the subsequent. You’ll additionally earn cash and ranges the identical you’ll in Rhythm Recreation mode, and may use them to unlock beauty gadgets for Amigo.

I like this Story Mode loads higher than the StreamiGo mode in Occasion Central. There’s much less tune repetition, and it’s much less obscure about what you have to do to succeed. The story itself is fairly… banal, to be type. It makes use of some first rate FMV cutscenes every now and then, however for probably the most half it appears to be going for the vibe of an immediate message dialog. Which is okay, besides the characters are often head to head. It’s crammed with the type of dialogue you simply wish to skip by way of, peppered with the occasional actually good line. Properly, not less than we now have irrefutable proof the monkey is in a romantic relationship with the puberty-gifted fairy. It’s a enjoyable mode to play by way of, and I suppose that’s the underside line.

The soundtrack is usually much like Occasion Central, with a pleasant mixture of classics and up to date music throughout quite a lot of genres. Not many songs from the unique return, and it doesn’t appear to be the DLC songs from the opposite sport are within the record right here. However you do get a couple of unique songs together with tracks from PSY and Woman Gaga, and that’s cool. The tunes are positively extra normal of their attraction than the primary sport’s soundtrack, however that’s effective. It means most individuals ought to be capable of discover not less than a couple of songs they know, and can be capable of study some new ones, too. Win-win.

Samba de Amigo: Occasion-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 completely different peak ranges. When the ball enters the circle, faucet that aspect 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, but it surely isn’t as enjoyable. I additionally discover a few of the sliding motions and instructions to be a bit unintuitive to drag off with contact controls. It looks like SEGA simply tried to cram in all the things Occasion Central does gameplay-wise into Occasion-To-Go, however not all of it really works because of the differing enter technique.

Nonetheless, setting apart what it isn’t, Samba de Amigo: Occasion-To-Go is an honest sufficient rhythm sport with actually robust manufacturing values for probably 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 straightforward to understand, and between the Story Mode and unlockables you actually have loads to do. At instances it looks like one thing cobbled along with bits of one other sport, which it most likely has been, but it surely typically feels prefer it’s doing its personal factor too. Oh, and in case you’re questioning, there’s controller assist right here. It really works just like the button controls in Occasion Central, mapping the positions to the sticks and buttons. I wouldn’t advise it.

I believe the Story Mode and additional tunes in Samba de Amigo: Occasion-To-Go make it value attempting out for followers of the sequence even when they’ve already grabbed Occasion Central, however there’s no query this sport loses one thing the additional it strikes away from the grace of the maracas controllers. When you don’t care about that, and there’s an excellent likelihood 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 essentially twist your fingers at instances. In any other case, it’s an honest sport for its style with a stable record of tracks to faucet alongside to. Nothing exceptional, however adequate.