Initial release date: August 29, 2024
Genres: Action game, Casual game, Party
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows
Developers: Cygames, Arc System Works
Publisher: Cygames
Over the years, video games have brought me to a wide range of strange and amazing experiences, but none have matched Umamusume. This anime may appear to be a typical show about schoolgirls competing in sports, but the characters are anything but average. These females are the reincarnated souls of famous and successful race horses (true story). In their new existence, these horse ladies are still intensely competitive and strive to be the greatest racer of all, so they attend schools dedicated to training reincarnated horse females. Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash contains all of your favorite horse girls competing in video game form, and it could be just the party game you’re searching for.
In Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash, the girls have a new goal: to win the Slapdash Grand Prix. This competition is accessible to teams of five girls, however the four events that comprise the Grand Prix are quite unusual. Special Week, Silence Suzuka, and the rest of the gang will have to be the finest competitive eaters, basketball players, and ball dodgers to win the gold.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash includes a variety of modes, but the story mode is likely to be your first choice. This mode chronicles the tale of each of the four Grand Prix teams and is essentially a graphic novel with the occasional minigame to keep things interesting. You’ll learn about the rivalry between the many horse females, hear them debate who is the finest contender for competitive eating, and, if you’re unfamiliar with the series, be completely perplexed by almost everything.
Aside from the visual novel framework, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash’s main course consists of four events in which you will compete. Blazing Baskets is essentially a race to score a set number of points in a free-for-all basketball game, complete with fouls, special powers, and a variety of weird ball kinds and obstacles to overcome. Dodgeball Demolition is a similarly ball-themed but more violent game in which you must eliminate the other girls with cruel throws and well timed catches in order to survive the spherical attack. Both ball events are entertaining, but not very revolutionary.
My favorite event, however, is Gourmet Gauntlet, a battle of the bellies in which you play as the server. Food is thrown all over the floor during this event, and if your diner is given the same colored plates, they will form a combo and eat faster. With four horse girls rushing to get plates and special skills being used nonstop, it’s a highly chaotic and enjoyable time.
However, not all events have the magical X factor, and Hurtling Hurdles is the worst of them all. This basic race has all of the females running on tracks and swapping between them to avoid obstacles. There are lots of chaotic components and special powers to spice things up (as with pretty much all of the events), but it seems clumsy and ultimately annoying to play versus the AI or a friend.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash is a party game that can be played both locally and online. These weird games would probably be a lot of fun with a bunch of friends, but you can also play them with random folks.
Playing events in pretty much any mode will earn you a lot of money and tickets, which you can spend to create a clubhouse and attract some of the horse girls to join your team and dwell there. If you enjoy arranging stuff in a room to make it appear great, you’ll probably appreciate this, but if you don’t, it’s completely irrelevant.
Now, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash’s major party games are mostly acceptable, but I’ll admit that none of them especially piqued my interest. Fortunately, a hero arose when I purchased a gaming system for my virtual clubroom: Golshi’s Grand Adventure 2, a strange hybrid of Vampire Survivors and Excitebike.
As Gold Shop, you must confront waves of adversaries with your auto-firing weapons while avoiding obstacles by switching between four distinct tracks that you will automatically sprint down. By collecting enough experience gems, you can level up and unlock new weapons to equip and enhance, such as a dodge ball that bounces between foes or a drone that keeps nearby lanes under constant gunfire. I’m not sure if I’ll return to play more of Umamusume, but I’ll keep it installed for a few runs of Golshi’s Grand Adventure 2.
I believe it’s fair to describe Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash a bit of a mixed bag of a game, but there’s one issue I haven’t addressed yet. The mini games are really badly explained, so the first few times you play them, you’ll have no idea what you’re doing. It’s strange to almost completely ignore explaining how your game works, and while this becomes less of an issue over time, it’s possible that some people will simply stop playing.
Review Overview
Gameplay – 60%
Controls – 65%
Aesthetics – 70%
Content – 55%
Accessibility – 75%
Value – 60%
Overall Rating – 64%
Decent
Summary: Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash is a fan-centric game that delivers just enough to satisfy its core audience. However, its lack of depth in gameplay and repetitive content may leave others wanting more. The game’s vibrant aesthetics and accessible controls are its strongest points, but they aren’t enough to elevate it beyond a decent experience. While it’s a fun diversion, it may not stand out in the crowded market of anime-inspired games.