Samba de Amigo: Party Central Review: Sambastic!

When Samba de Amigo first launched on the Dreamcast back in 1999, it had the air of being ahead of its time. While it wasn’t the first rhythm game on the market, it was mechanically primed for the more active controllers of the Wii and beyond with whimsically timeless aesthetics. And although fans of the franchise haven’t seen a release since the Wii in 2008, there’s still a lot of love to this day for the maraca-shaking monkey and his equally colorful companions. Now, 15 years later, Samba de Amigo: Party Central comes to the Nintendo Switch, cleverly turning the console’s joy-cons as maracas so players can shake, shake, shake some more-a to… well, Shake, Shake, Shake Senora. Among others. But definitely that song at least.

To quickly sum, Samba de Amigo: Party Central features 40+ songs (at launch, DLC promised later) spanning 5 playable modes allowing up to 8 players to shake, battle, and roll against each other. Samba de Amigo: Party Central also has an in-game currency system (earned by doing well in songs) that players can use to customize Samba the monkey with eccentric costumes (no IRL money, just game money). As “party” is literally in the name of the game, it should stand to reason that the multiplayer options are poppin’; however, if you don’t have a player two nearby or cannot play online, don’t worry — the single-player campaign is entertaining in its own right.

The modes in Samba de Amigo: Party Central are pretty simple: Rhythm Game, which is your standard freeplay of the songs at your leisure (with 4 different difficulties), Online, where you play the aforementioned mode with up to four others, as well as World Party, Party for Two, and StreamiGo. World Party is an elimination-style setup akin to Fall Guys, where players will go up against others shaking it to three different songs while sabotaging their competitors with items. StreamiGo is the single-player campaign where players will visit the streams of familiar Samba characters and dance with — or against — them as they hit certain goals and rake in the followers and views. Party for Two is the couch co-op mode featuring 4 different games: Rhythm Game (like the freeplay but 2 players), Love Checker (measure your mate potential with a synchronization level), Showdown (Battle where loser is subjected to a random roulette), and Mini Rhythm Games (roulette-based challenges). Safe to say there’s a lot to explore in Samba de Amigo: Party Central!

Samba de Amigo: Party Central’s gameplay is dependent on player preference: button mode, which uses a traditional controller, or shake mode, which utilizes the joy-con’s movement ability. Having played both, I will say that button mode allows for more precision play while shake mode is more immersive (and, therefore, arguably more fun), so I recommend plenty of Rhythm Game (freeplay) practice on shake mode to get the swing of things before waltzing into World Party. I’m hesitant to say the shake controls are bad if only because rhythm games take time to learn their little intricacies before mastery (looking at you, home DDR pads), but I found them to be a wee bit unintuitive (mostly on the downward shake). If you struggle at first, just be patient and it’ll come to you after a few songs — Runaway (U&I) by Galantis is particularly good for practice.

Speaking of songs, one of the most important aspects of any rhythm game is its tracklist, and I have to say that Samba de Amigo: Party Central stayed true to its original form. Unlike the change in musical selection direction the Taiko franchise experienced (i.e., fewer popular songs from English-speaking artists), Samba de Amigo: Party Central features more mainstream music found on North American airwaves like its predecessor. Some familiar songs return, such as “Macarena”, “La Bamba”, and “The Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida),” and plenty of new tracks have been added, such as “Just Dance”, “Tik Tok”, and “Pompeii”. Here’s the base game tracklist:

Make Way (Legendary) — Aloe Blacc
Break Free (ft. Zedd) — Ariana Grande
Pompeii — Bastille
You Give Love a Bad Name — Bon Jovi
I Really Like You — Carly Rae Jepsen
Payback (ft. Icona Pop) — Cheat Codes
Karma Chameleon — Culture Club
Let You Go (ft. Kareen Lomax) — Diplo & TSHA
Good Feeling — Flo Rida
Runaway (U&I) — Galantis
I Will Survive (Eric Kupper Mix Extended) — Gloria Gaynor
I Love It (ft. Charli XCX) — Icona Pop
Centerfold — Gelis Band
Bang Bang — Jessie J, Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj
Sucker — Jonas Brothers
Move Your Feet — Junior Senior
Tik Tok — Ke$ha
Just Dance — Lady Gaga
Moves Like Jagger (ft. Christina Aguilera — Maroon 5
You & Me — Marshmello
Panama — Matteo
Pa’lla — Max Pizzolante
Plastic Hearts — Miley Cyrus
I Won’t Let You Down — OK Go
Good Time — Owl City
Let’s Take a Shot — Pitbull
Shake Senora (ft. T-Pain & Sean Paul)
The Cup of Life (La Copa de la Vida) — Ricky Martin
XS — Rina Sawayama
Bom Bom — Sam and the Womp
Get Busy — Soolja
Azukita — Steve Aoki, Daddy Yankee, Play-N-Skillz, Elvis Crespo
Escape From the City — Sonic Adventures 2
Fist Bump — Sonic Forces
La Bamba — Cover
Macarena — Cover
Fugue in G Minor — Classic
Chosen Mask — SEGA
Let’s Find it and Shake It — SEGA
Scent of Your Sweet Love — SEGA
VAMOS A CARNAVAL — SEGA
Wedding March — SEGA

One of Samba de Amigo: Party Central‘s charms is its roulette system, where players will be subjected to a roulette mid-game that basically throws a monkey wrench into things (pun unintended but delightful). Depending on player’s luck (or lack thereof), the song can either slow down, speed up, slow down and then speed up, or put the breaks on the movement while transporting players to an area where they’ll need to run quickly or swing at incoming baseballs. It’s quite the deviation from other rhythm games in that it literally breaks your concentration mid-way through the song, but it’s not entirely unwelcome either; in fact, the baseball and running portions momentarily remove you from the game, but you keep your combo, so if it happens near the end of a particularly daunting song it can end up saving you once it drops you back in to play a final note before ending with a perfect score. Which… nice!

I don’t really have many complaints for Samba de Amigo: Party Central, as it once again provides that cute and quirky rhythmic gameplay that the franchise is famous for. I will say that some quality-of-life updates could be implemented, such as adding a countdown timer when unpausing (at least on easy mode), but Samba de Amigo: Party Central has otherwise achieved success in its goal of providing a rhythm-based party game. I think the only thing that would turn off players is a purely subjective point, which is music choice; otherwise, I’m confident Samba de Amigo: Party Central will provide hours upon hours of entertainment just as the previous iterations did a decade or two prior.

Samba de Amigo: Party Central is an easy sell for Samba De Amigo fans, but it’s also a must-buy for anyone who enjoys rhythm games. It’s got that fast-paced quirky gameplay to keep novelty-seekers on their toes with a tracklist that pretty much anyone will find familiar. Its single-player campaign is challenging while its multiplayer mode amuses — especially that World Party mode where the last monkey standing takes all. Whether you’re a long-time fan of the franchise or testing out your maracas for the first time, Samba de Amigo: Party Central will keep you shaking for hours.

Final Verdict: 4/5

Available on: Meta Quest, Apple Arcade, Switch (Reviewed); Publisher: Sega; Developer: Sega; Players: 1 – 2 (local), 2 – 8 (online); Released: August 29, 2023; MSRP: $39.99

Full disclosure: This review is based on a copy of Samba de Amigo: Party Central provided by the publisher.