Mine is a Mario Party household. Over the years, my wife and child have enjoyed many nights of minigame-fueled board game chaos. Things always got heated, especially as we taught our young one to handle things not going his way. The grown-ups needed a refresher on those lessons as well, let’s be honest. Even so, we’ve always come back to that series and had a blast.
So, it made sense that when LEGO Party! came across my desk, we made a weekend of it. I’ve come away from the experience with the dreaded mixed feelings—a combination of being impressed with the overall presentation while not loving the nuts-and-bolts gameplay nearly as much as Nintendo’s competition.
### Assignment Understood
LEGO Party! is built (heh) immaculately. I’ve read about how the developers put everything together with real LEGO pieces in mind, and it shows. Each setpiece, board gimmick, giant creature, and UI element has a verisimilitude not unlike the recent LEGO movies. If you told me you could build everything in LEGO Party! in real life, I’d believe it.
This is one of many factors that show a tangible heap of thought put into every corner of this game. Nothing about the experience feels cheap, like a publisher or rights-holder demanded a Mario Party ripoff on a tight and underfunded schedule. Everything about the game feels like a genuine, considered effort!
The writing can be a little corny, with a pair of game show hosts doing color commentary nearly every moment, but it fits the vibe. Occasionally, either my wife and I or one of the two children joining us would laugh. It never really nailed the whole group, but the effort was there.
### Minigame Mishaps
Speaking of the group, I think it was pretty unanimous that something was missing from the minigames. They were often silly and surprisingly creative, but that creativity came at a cost. There’s a rigidity to them—from the controls to the scoring—that often sapped the energy from the room.
The youngest didn’t seem to have much fun at all, while everyone else struggled more than expected. The smoothness and approachability typically found in Mario Party were definitely overlooked here. I also noticed that even on easy, the CPU characters were very good at some of the more finicky games, such that I’ve officially declared LEGO Party! to have Sonic Shuffle energy.
To be clear for those of you who’ve actually played Sonic Shuffle, it’s not nearly as bad, but the feeling is strong enough for the association. Some of the minigames were hard, some were difficult to understand, and some were just unintuitive. I wouldn’t use “janky” to describe anything we encountered, but as the veteran gamer of the squad, I felt like I had to be locked in or else.
### A Brisk Pace and Distinct Boards
Interestingly enough, while the minigames were a rough spot, they weren’t a dealbreaker. While Mario Party games can drag, LEGO Party! moves at a brisk pace. There are only a small handful of boards, but each one has a distinct design, theme, and set of gimmicks that roll out over the course of a game.
There’s enough happening—from an alien that attacks the space-themed board to a set of mythical monsters you can fight on the Ninjago board—that minigames don’t feel nearly as crucial to the game as they do in Mario Party. I noticed this mattered more than I may have assumed if I was playing by myself, which gave me some bonus food for thought.
### Collecting Minifigs Is Always Fun
What would otherwise feel like a bog-standard contemporary video game progression system also stood out here, melding well with the LEGO setting. There’s an individual player level track, and one for each board. You get XP for playing, and each level gives you either a new minifig or carrots (which you use to buy, uh, new minifigs).
That sounds basic (and it is), but what’s one of the best parts of LEGO? New minifigs! Not only does that mean the roster is constantly expanding, but you also get new parts you can use to make your own custom minifigs. It’s a simple but effective engine for adding reasons to come back, even if the number of boards is relatively small.
Each time we cleared a board, the kids wanted to spend those carrots and see if the unlocks came with usable parts. Proof’s in the pudding on that one.
### Will I Come Back to LEGO Party! Over Time?
In this case, it’s not up to me—it’s up to the folks I played with. I will say that’s part because these are the people I play party games with, and part because I probably won’t suggest it myself.
LEGO Party! is a fine enough virtual board game, and is a particular standout in the ways it uses that LEGO license to the fullest. From the look and feel of the experience to the themes and ideas in minigames, the developers thought of damn near every way you could possibly think to incorporate LEGO into a Mario Party competitor.
What holds it back is both how closely it adheres to the Mario Party formula, and how rough and unfriendly the minigames can be from a gameplay perspective, especially for younger or less experienced players. It’s a cute romp, but not all the way there yet.
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LEGO Party! is available on September 30, 2025, for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. A Nintendo Switch code was provided by the publisher for this review.
https://www.shacknews.com/article/146140/lego-party-review-score
