PSP Review: Jungle Party

This is one party you don’t want an invite to…

Jungle Party is a collection of competitive mini-games where you and upto 3 friends play against each other. You can also play solo, but will be put with 3 AI players who are mixed in “skill”. Now a party in the jungle sounds fun, doesn’t it?

So where did it all go wrong? About as soon as I put the game into my PSP, I knew it was going to be dismal. There’s a female announcer who is incredibly annoying to listen to between each event, while the mini-games themselves are very disappointing…and dull. They all require you to use the 4 main buttons, but that’s all you will use. Most of the mini-games ask you to simply tap the buttons that are shown on screen and that’s about it.

Some will require you to hold them down for periods of time to line your sight and release to fire objects in certain mini-games, while others will ask you to hold the button down for a period of time, but release it before it’s too late or lose the points you gathered so far. After each event, you are ranked 1-4 and given…you guessed it, bananas! The player with the most bananas at the end wins and that’s all there is to it.

I didn’t come across a single mini-game that I can say I enjoyed; they are that bad that they wouldn’t even appear on a mini-game collection on Wii or DS. It’s a terrible collection and the narrator will grate on your nerves all the more. The music is also irritating, although obviously suited towards the younger crowd…but still, it’s not challenging and it’s not fun in any way.

The only redeeming feature is the visuals, and even they aren’t anything special to write about. The load times are long and like I said, the controls for the mini-games are always the same and repetitively dull as a result.

The Verdict

Jungle Party is one party that you should avoid. The mini-games are abysmal, the controls are the same for each event and it’s not fun in any regard. Leave it alone.