Nowadays throwing a big scale birthday party for your little one may turn out to be a real hassle especially during this recession period. Fret not! There is still hope for parents to throw kids their dream theme party without burning a hole in their pocket. The solution comes in the form of a game called Wii Birthday Party Bash which is one of the latest offerings to hit the Nintendo Wii. Published by 2K Play which is a subsidiary of 2K Games, the acclaimed party title is developed by CatDaddy games. The game first made its announcement in the first week of May and released with pomp and show on July 14, 2009.
Birthday Party Bash came to us beautifully packaged resembling an actual birthday present complete with ribbons and wrapping paper. The contents it housed were much more than just the game box and the game. No, there were more party items than we bargained for. We had oodles of fun with the party poppers, rattle, streamers, party whistle, mask and even a golden birthday crown for that special boy or girl.
The actual game came along with special Wii customizable birthday invites, a Duncan Hines coupon and a booklet which provides you with all the instructions on how go about with the game. It also doubles as a party planner manual complete with planning tips and yummy recipes. This game is ideal for mums and dads as it would spare them the time and money that would normally be spent on party games. They can instead solely concentrate on the food, decorations and presents.
The Birthday Party Bash game is great fun for children who are between the years 6 and 12. Up to 12 children or adults can play this title. Although the console can only comply with 4 remotes, the party-goers can take turns at the Wii remote. The game is also programmed to run the whole show by itself. Parents have to simply insert the disc and let the game take care of the rest. Three options are given to users namely Custom Party, Quick Party and Free Play.
Parents can create a whole birthday party from the Custom Party option. From the Save/Load screen, users can load a saved game or just create a new one. One minus point is besides the customization changes, all other progress throughout that particular party will not be saved. The save ability can be however useful when party-throwers have to preset their customizations before the hustle and bustle of the big day.
Little boys and girls can choose from 20 different themes which would really appeal to the birthday child. These fun themes include sports, music magical forest, pirate, glamour, princess, stuffed animals, construction, monsters and army men. The themes comprise of their own special features and items based on the chosen theme. For example, when we chose the Stuffed animals theme, the whole room in the game was filled with decorations and balloons in the form of stuffed animals complete with teddy bear and rabbit shaped chairs and accessories.
The birthday child also gets to see his or her name in the spotlight. The room features a huge Happy Birthday banner with the kid’s name on it. Even a spitting image of them can be acquired by choosing from the available six character types. The faces, clothes and shape can all be mixed and matched to obtain the best results. There are even four grown-up characters from which adults can opt for. There is a party summary section where players can alter the theme, number of party goers and how many Wii remotes are in use.
Birthday Party Bash lets all the 12 players get their fair share of the gaming action and fun. Each child can play the games under their own customized name and character as it appears on the screen. Each game can only be played between four participants. The gamers start out with an empty party hall. The place gets filled only after the mini games are played. After each game, the players earn a piece of birthday decoration. As the game progresses, the hall gets full of streamers, balloons, banners, chairs and even a decorated cake. When the party room is stacked with goodies, everyone can gather round and sing the Happy Birthday song, Karaoke style! The words of the popular song can be followed at the bottom of the screen.
The Quick Party mode is very similar to the Custom Party mode. Like the name suggests, this mode is ideal for setting up a quick party without really having much customizations involved. This allows anyone to take part in the game as many times as they like. It was fun making teams according to the colors and playing in that order. All we had to do was pick a theme, choose the number of remotes, set up the random characters and start vying for the Best team recognition trophy.
Players need not be disheartened if they drop out of a game early. Another feature that we found cool was the Friendly Diversion. This enables any player who is out of the game early to feel like he or she is still part of all the action. They can cheer the other players on by moving their Wii remote up and down or side to side. When doing so, their character will appear on screen with a different action. This way the player can egg on friends who take part in the game. One outstanding feature that was incorporated into the game was the dancing. The given characters each have their own signature move. If they win a particular game, they do a little jig while standing on the winning pedestal.
Free Play is a mode that comprises of all 22 games which can be played in any random order as many times as desired, throughout the year. There are some popular and traditional games that people normally play during a birthday party. Do you’ll remember just how much fun popping balloons were, how enjoyable it was to run around and get the chair instead of the other kids in musical chairs or being blindfolded to tail the donkey? Well, all this and more can be experienced once again in this mode. All the games cleverly exploit the motion-sensing capabilities and personal speakers of the Wii remote. Players can shake, move, wave and use the buttons to play various games that will make participants feel like they are at the heart of all the excitement.
The Sack Race lets people hop their way to the finish line. The participants must shake their Wiimote up and down to make the onscreen character hop to advance and avoid obstacles. But we’re sure that the Wii remote won’t be the only thing that makes a jumping gesture. In Birthday Blowout, candles can be blown out not with your mouth but with your remote instead! Kids can play exterminator as they have to capture those annoying critters in the Bug Catcher game. Opening presents has always been a fun experience. Now with Present Frenzy, kids can go on an unwrapping spree to unveil different presents ranging from guitar to trophies and even skunks! No blind fold needed for Pin the Tail. The donkey will be hidden from sight on the screen and players have to rely on their hearing skills to find the ass and tail him.
The Hat Mixer, Hot Potato, Copy Cat, Slingshot Splash, Laser Gremlin, Duncan Hines Cake Stacker and Puzzle Racer were some of the games we found cool. Titles like Musical Chairs, Scribble, Balloon Popper, Ro Sham Bo and Pinata Blast really brought out the children in us. Some of the more challenging games were Music Mania, Red Light Green Light, Candle Ball and Guess What. The Extra section comprised of three trailers where we got a sneak peek into a few games from 2K. These included trailers like The Bigs 2, Carnival Minigolf and Carnival Games.
The Final Word: Wii Birthday Party Bash is a fun game which can be played with the whole family, including those 5-year olds who just longingly stare at you while you take out Zombies in Resident Evil. The maneuvering for some games may just prove to be a little challenging for kids but most of them are fun simple titles that can be played with anyone, even grandma. So while getting a piece of all the action, have a piece of birthday cake too!
Graphics: 7.1/10.
Environments: 7.3/10.
Gameplay: 8.2/10.
Music: 9.5/10.
Overall (not an average): 8.3/10.