Common Sense Media Review
By Christopher Healy
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Active party game almost lives up to its title.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Ultimate Party Challenge
What's It About?
ULTIMATE PARTY CHALLENGE is a vast cornucopia of floormat-controlled mini games. Meant to be played in a group of four, these games will test players' rhythm, reaction time, coordination, and even math skills. Some of the events include: Sorting different-colored dinosaurs, shooting hoops, slalom skiing, milking cows, racing cars, riding pigs, jumping rope, quick-solving addition problems, chiseling sculptures, and performing skateboard tricks. Players can use coins won in the games to buy new costumes for their avatars.
Is It Any Good?
With so many mini-game collections on sale for the Wii, it's sometimes difficult just to tell them apart, but Ultimate Party Challenge deserves to be noticed, because it really is a standout of the genre, especially for younger players. While the need for a DDR floorpad can be annoying if you don't already have one, the use of the floorpad in playing these games adds a very fun active element not present in other mini-game collections. For games in which all four players compete simultaneously, each is assigned one of the four directional buttons on the floorpad -- and everybody standing together stomping their feet in close proximitiy is actually a whole lot of fun. There's a version of the old schoolyard game Red Light, Green Light, for instance, which is played out marvelously in this manner. The great variety among games also adds a lot of enjoyability to the experience.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the assumption many kids are making that active video gaming can take the play of real exercise. While active gaming is certainly better than sitting on a couch, moving nothing but your thumbs, can it really be enough to maintain good physical fitness? This game shows players how many calories they've burned as a result of playing. When you've just burned, say 0.06 calories, isn't it clear you still need to do more?
Game Details
- Platform : Nintendo Wii
- Pricing structure :
- Available online? : Not available online
- Publisher : Konami
- Release date : December 3, 2009
- Genre : Mini-games
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : August 31, 2016
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