by At this time of year, we often find ourselves at festive gatherings with people of very different ages and tastes. So what’s the best way to avoid boredom, avoid fights and keep everyone entertained during Christmas? One possible solution is a video game or, more specifically, a party video game. But is it possible to download a dancing, singing or fighting game and immediately involve everyone, young and old?
To find out, I invited a group of friends and their kids to my house to try out five new party games. This is what we discovered…
Just dance 2024 (PlayStation 5nintendo switch, Xbox Series S/X)
Ubisoft’s dance series has been around for over a decade and has a passionate fanbase. Nowadays, it’s up to gamers to download a motion-tracking app and dance with their phones in their flailing hands. Each participant has to log into the game session on their mobile using a six-digit code and, interestingly, unless they have Ubisoft accounts, they all appear with the same username as the game owner, but with numbers added different. It wasn’t immediately obvious how to change this, which made it difficult to determine who was getting the best scores (reader: it was me).
Anyway, the experience of playing was fun and chaotic. You choose a song and follow the actions of the on-screen character, earning points and praise for successful moves. The game comes with 40 songs, ranging from new (Wet Leg, Blackpink and Miley Cyrus) to somewhat classic (Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears and Fall Out Boy). You also get a month’s free access to Ubisoft’s Just Dance+ subscription service, which has dozens more tracks. That should get you through the holiday season.
Some dance floors allow two or four people to dance together. The cute two-player routine for Vampiro by Olivia Rodrigo ends in a long hug, which is a great feature if you like to charge your holiday parties with unexpected romantic tension.
A much appreciated element was the ability to filter the track list by different criteria, including “no skips” or “small space.” Some dances can be performed sitting down, a good option for people with mobility issues. Although my guests would have enjoyed the choice of more rock tracks and the phones needed to be serviced from time to time, we had an entire hour of poorly coordinated fun.
party animals (windows, xbox)
Goofy multiplayer fighting games have been a party staple since the arrival of Gang Beasts in 2014. This cute newcomer pits cute critters like kittens, puppies, and gorillas against each other in arena fights involving up to four players. The creatures can punch each other or pick up objects like frying pans to hit their rivals, but the action is slow and ridiculous, as if drunk sports mascots play-fighting after a few pints at half-time. You can fight in ancient ruins, on the wing of an airplane, and in a laboratory with a black hole that sucks in unsuspecting combatants. It’s full of clever little features, and the kids and teens played all night, crying with laughter as they tripped over each other with baseball bats and plungers.
Let’s sing 2024 (Playstation 4/5, nintendo switch, xbox one, Xbox Series S/X)
Since the demise of Sony’s brilliant SingStar series, this has been the annual karaoke game for most players. It’s easy to set up: you buy the kit with an included USB microphone or download an app that lets you use your phone as a microphone. There are 35 tracks included, but you also get a month’s free access to the VIP subscription service, which adds an ever-growing range of extra numbers. The free selection is fine, with songs from Billie Eilish, BTS and Lizzo, but it’s very They lack classical tunes, meaning older participants may feel a little left out. There are also strange choices: if you’re going to have Disney songs, why include Colors of the Wind from Pocahontas but not Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid or Let it Go from Frozen, for God’s sake? We also had problems with lag: our voices came in fractions of a second after singing, which was not solved by calibrating the microphones.
But this was the hit of the night for those over 20 years old. Almost everyone got up to perform and it was a truly wonderful spectacle. At one point, a friend turned to his wife and said, “This is the most fun I’ve seen you have in 25 years of marriage,” which is either an enthusiastic endorsement of the game or a damning criticism of their relationship. . Let’s go with the first thing.
Volley friends (nintendo switchwindows, xbox)
Created by Turkish indie studio Naisu, this is an incredibly simple version of volleyball for up to four players. You only need to learn one move (press a button to hit the ball), which makes it very accessible for non-gamers. It’s all about timing and positioning, and there are things like problematic ceiling fans, wormholes, and a mischievous ball-stealing ghost to add to the challenge. This was very popular with the younger guests, who loved the strange characters and the fast-paced, unpredictable action, while the older players indulged in tearful memories of Atari’s classic Pong.
Jackbox Party Pack 10 (games station 4/5, smartphone, NintendoSwitch, Windows, Xbox)
The latest in this long-running series of multiplayer trivia games features five events for up to nine players. Once again, each participant uses their mobile phone as a controller, but this is through a website, so there is no need to download an app, and the process is really simple and intuitive – lots of points for developer Jackbox Games.
The rounds are varied, imaginative and often hilarious. Timejinx is a trivia challenge in which players must enter the year in which they believe a series of historical events occurred; these were fairly US-centric, but not impossible for British players. Hypnotorious gives each player a certain trait or personality type, then asks questions that must be answered with the character, and there are others based on text messages and t-shirt design that encourage guests to be more creative. We had the most fun with Dodo Re Mi, a rhythm action game in which each player is assigned an instrument and must play it to the rhythm of a given song. The best part is when the game plays the resulting track and it’s a cacophony of lost beats and howling trombones.
However, in a slightly raucous party atmosphere, it was very difficult to get people to focus on the rules of the games, which were sometimes quite complex. Jackbox is great, but it should be the focal point of your meeting and is best for groups of 10 people or less.
what we learned
If possible, it’s smart to set up two rooms: one for staged party games (i.e. singing and dancing) and one for more traditional video games where people have to concentrate. For games that require smartphone apps, have your guests download them ahead of time and remind them to charge their phones before the big night. Also, make sure you have a backup plan in case your broadband goes out. Monopoly, anyone?
