Light party games recommendations

[ciro64]

Party videogames are a huge social icebreaker for me, if not the biggest one. By "light" I mean games it's pretty convenient to pick up and play, with no complex use of planning, strategy or energy required, even by people who don't play videogames.

Checkerboard Chase

This is a multiplayer minigame from Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards, you attack by unleashing a wave that destroy the blocks in front of you, it's really easy to understand and to create rivalry too.

Bopl Battle



This is a 4 player battle platformer where you play as slimes that can crawl through walls and use between three different powerup slots than can vary from a simple shot to something that manipulates terrain and it's physics. It can lead to some pretty wacky outcomes!

You have to choose what powers you start with they can be swapped by collecting others in the middle of the battle. But I recommend picking "random" for all slots at the beginning for getting to know the game and to embrace the chaos!

The demo is playable and enjoyable in multiplayer, although it comes with less features.

The video in the steam page should give an idea of what the game is like!

 

[nopethumbsdown]

Cliche, but I guess it's worthy mentioning Jackbox Party games and I'd include certain light-puzzle games intended for multiple players, like Among Us, in the the same vibes...

We could argue some of these aren't "light" in that sense, but I generally tend to think that most of the party games are already accessible enough for most people. Like, that one kirby minigame is as complex as some of the stuff we'd find in JBP, but just because this is a "kirby game" (= aesthetics) or a tiny/short-length game (minigame), its complexity or design is not taken seriously.

 

[nopethumbsdown]

I'm actually interested in recs on psx/ps2 light-party games (or minigames)... I'm unaware of any great titles on the genre for those consoles.

 

[nopethumbsdown]

There's also some ports of tabletop games, like Hasbro games, that I find would fall in the category "light-party", but they tend to be less interesting than their physical versions.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

this game is so fucking good, underrated series made by Nintendo. Its unreal we got this sequel from a obscure DS game. I guess the DS copy sold enough to justify a sequel in 10+ years

 

[Yousef]

View attachment 9494
this game is so fucking good, underrated series made by Nintendo. Its unreal we got this sequel from a obscure DS game. I guess the DS copy sold enough to justify a sequel in 10+ years
View attachment 9495

this game is so freaking good

 

[Anim8rDude]

@ciro64 Bopl battle is actually peak, always warm up with a few rounds of it with my friend. We've found our "mains" for powerups & I rock The Sonic Spindash + Size Up Laser + whatever combo.

Nothing beats Monkey Ball 2 minigames though, literally about to play this myself. Monkey Target, Billiards & Bowling are all beginner friendly but high skill ceiling games, could run tournaments of this stuff


Honorable mentions to Rampart too, we just play the SNES (2players), this ones just too fun, you basically make a base out of tetris blocks & then blow eachother up. Apparently the arcade version is 3 players!?

I'm actually interested in recs on psx/ps2 light-party games (or minigames)... I'm unaware of any great titles on the genre for those consoles.

I got you covered bro, this ones a classic for us, basically Warioware but on PSX, 3 players too!

 

[Yousef]

got you covered bro, this ones a classic for us, basically Warioware but on PSX, 3 players too!

Holy moly I’m exceptionally nostalgic for this one. Only played it briefly but left a hell of an impression on me.

 

[nopethumbsdown]

I got you covered bro, this ones a classic for us, basically Warioware but on PSX, 3 players too!
View attachment 9503

Dang, looks good! :0000

 

[Prism Red]

I got you covered bro, this ones a classic for us, basically Warioware but on PSX, 3 players too!
View attachment 9503

Ahhh yes, I got SIX broken controllers from playing this back in the day.
Definitely recommended.