Review: Samba de Amigo: Party Central
Samba de Amigo: Party Central is a strange experience. While you’re shaking the Joy-Con to the beat, you’re staring at a monkey’s creepy smile playing his maracas. It’s unsettling, but overall, this game provides a thrilling rhythm-based challenge with a selection of decent songs. It’s just a shame that the game’s Latin-inspired routes take a backseat to a poppier soundtrack.
Samba de Amigo: Party Central (Switch [reviewed], Meta Quest]
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Released: August 29, 2023 (Switch), TBA (Quest)
MSRP: $39.99
If you’ve played Samba de Amigo on Wii, you’ll know the motion controls it employed weren’t the greatest: frankly, they were inaccurate and hard to deal with. Thankfully, Samba de Amigo: Party Central fares far better on Switch. Facing the controllers sideways, you tilt the Joy-Con upwards, downwards, and to the side to input the beats. On easier difficulties, it feels satisfying to pull off as you shake these controllers frantically, yet accurately.
However, higher difficulty settings are where the game lost me, as the transition between a higher note to a lower note is not read that well by the game. If you’re constantly moving around the Joy-Con, there tend to be missed inputs. I found that registering the lower notes at a quickening pace was difficult because it required a full swing down, not just a tiny shake. I also found the sensitivity for sideways motions a bit tricky. The sensitivity for a slight flick to the right or the left is a bit finicky at times. If you’re looking for a higher difficulty of play with motion controls, you may be out of luck.
On the other hand, you can just switch to a controller-based input. In this setup, you’re tilting the analog sticks on the Joy-Con or your
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