We’ve played our fair share of this kind of game, from Mario Party to Cake Bash to Carnival Games and others, and we can say with confidence that the games are well into the upper tiers of quality. Generally though, it’s a fantastic inclusion. It would have been great if My Singing Monsters Playground allowed you to reset the practice match. Our six-year old would find herself eliminated and then sucked into the minigame proper, frustrated doubly because she has now failed twice. Since the practice is basically a mirror of the minigame, it’s very possible to be eliminated before you have learned what the game is doing. We should warn that it’s not perfect: some games are elimination-based, so you can be kicked out early and have nothing to do. For our little ones, their fear went out of the window when they could play the minigame, risk-free, before it really mattered. This was invaluable, and it’s to My Singing Monsters Playground’s credit that it adds this. The rules and controls are also presented clearly as you give the game a go. Before a minigame starts, you are put into a kind of lobby, where you can practice. My Singing Monsters Playground does borrow something that Mario Party successfully pioneered, however. Sometimes you just want to play the games. We’re not convinced that one approach is better: Mario Party-style collections tend to feel more substantial and can lead to fun moments, but they can also feel obstructive. My Singing Monsters Playground is in a second group, where the minigames are just played one after the other. One attaches the minigames to a board, as is the case with Mario Party, and you’re rolling dice in a kind of meta-game that spans everything. There tend to be two types of party game collections. But regardless, the hub lets you choose how to play: Free Play, which lets you choose your minigame, Tournament, which offers a sequence of 10, 15 or 20 minigames, and a Solo Gauntlet, which is effectively a survival mode where you keep playing minigames until you lose. If you’ve got a four-player game and a wide area to explore, you want to let everyone have a go. You’re then wandering about a hub where you can choose what you play, and we were a little saddened that only player one had control. If you have a younger family and are worried that this will scare your tykes, then worry not. We were fans of Pompom (tall, broom-like monster with pompoms for hands) and Pango (ice-beaked penguin), but they are all characterful and well-modelled, looking like Muppet cast-offs (in a positive way). You start by choosing your monster, and there are eight from across the series. If you don’t have four friends, computer players will make up the shortfall. This is a game that’s best played with friends on the sofa, as you take part in four-player minigames that split you up into all-against-all, 2-vs-2 and 1-vs-3 match-ups. If you’ve played Mario Party or Carnival Games, you know exactly what is on offer. What My Singing Monsters Playground is, instead, is a collection of party games.
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