Start the Party! Save the World PS3 Review

Publisher – Sony Computer Entertainment Europe – Developer – Supermassive Games– Genre – Party – Players – 1-4 – Age Rating – 3+ – Other console/handheld formats – N/A

The original Start the Party! was one of the launch titles alongside the PlayStation Move motion controller, although it was sadly a little too limited for its own good. Don’t get me wrong, it was a fun mini-game compilation for what it was, but there just wasn’t enough content for it to be plucked off the shelf regularly. This low key sequel does attempt to rectify this.

With its colourful presentation and cartoonish music, the original was obviously aimed squarely at youngsters. This sequel seems to be targeted at a slightly wider demographic, remaining with the colourful presentation but doing away with the annoying music and ostentatious announcer (replaced by someone a lot more subtle). Certainly, older gamers will be able to play this sequel without cringing as much as they may have founded themselves doing when playing the original game.

Start the Party! Save the World once again has the Move controller being a necessity. There’s 20 mini games included, which is quite a step up over the 9 that were a part of the original game. Mini games are pleasingly varied and have you doing everything from saving deep sea divers and dropping them in a boat, protecting astronauts from asteroids by drawing a protective line near to them, building rockets by placing the parts in the correct order, repairing robots, and much more. The good news is that the game makes deft use of Sony’s motion controller, and there’s not one single game that fails to work properly.

Another player can use a DualShock controller to attempt to help or hinder the current player, which is a nice idea.

A number of the games once again make use of augmented reality, in which you’ll see your Move turned into various objects inside your TV screen – everything from a hammer to a fire extinguisher. The game, on the whole, is well presented, with the theme this time being on bright and bold cartoon visuals.

Multiplayer is definitely where the game is at its finest. Here you can take part in short, medium or long party sessions, and there’s also a Quick Fire option in which throws random games at you in one session, with the focus being on quick reactions as you quickly move from one game to the next.

It’s just a shame that developer Supermassive Games hasn’t really done much work in the sense of increasing the amount of options. It’s still not possible to create profiles, meaning you’ll have to take snapshots of yourself each time you play the game, and surely a profile saving this photo as well as your high scores would suit the multiplayer focus. This would all allow you to get the party started that little bit quicker.

For the solo player, the game does save your best scores, and you’re also able to choose which games you want to play in the Free Play mode, which oddly isn’t possible in multiplayer games. The Survival mode also makes a return, in which the objective is to survive as long as possible by keeping on scoring which, in turn, keeps a meter from dropping towards failure, which is certainly good fun. But, as I mentioned above, multiplayer is definitely the best manner in which to spend time with the game.

Start the Party! Save the World, then, is a game that works, making commendable use of Move, and it’s also an improvement over the original game. But, despite the increase in mini game number, it could have still done with a few more options. This is still an enjoyable mini game compilation set at a budget price, but, with a little extra thought, it could have been even more essential.

7/10