Sin City- Vegas Party Review

I’ve never quite understood the allure of console gambling titles. Although I’ve played an array of wager-based diversions ranging from Vegas Stakes for the SNES to High Rollers Casino for the PS2, each title swiftly became tedious. Without the thrill of winning actual money, every game seemed like an extended tutorial rather than the adrenaline-fuel rush that genuine gambling can produce. 

I assumed that Storm City Entertainment’s recently released Vegas Party was yet another uninteresting casino simulation. Both the title’s budget price and the back cover description did little to refute this assumption. However, at least one mode of Vegas Party offers an interesting twist on the archetypal gambling game; it’s a shame the disk’s execution isn’t on par with its rousing concept.  

The game presents with three different game modes:  Quickplay allows players to tackle any of the title’s fifteen minigames with up to four participants. Although the requisite roulette tables and blackjack dealers are present, the disk offers a handful of perplexing pursuits- in all my trips to Sin City, I’ve never seen a game of darts on a casino floor. Competition sends gamers sequentially through each of the game’s diversions, as each player hopes to accumulate the largest windfall.

Vegas Party’s most surprising and promising mode is the game’s Race on the Strip, which uses a Mario Party– esque mechanic to offer gamers a reprieve from the monotony of riskless gambling. The variant reimagines the lustrous boulevard as a board game path, as players roll dice to advance to the end of the corridor. Like Mario’s famous franchise, players will land on an assortment of squares, each of which can have an affirmative or detrimental effect on participants.

Once players land on a casino square they can pick one of three mini-games. Each of these diversions is streamlined for quick play- typically the game will determine betting amounts and the number of rounds. Slots tasks players with choosing a payoff line on a machine, while Texas Hold ‘Em requires players to click on cards from a Concentration-like array. Bingo presents a procession of numbered balls that glide across the screen. Gamers must click on the numbers that correspond to the numbers on their card. Like each of the disk’s other amusements, Bingo lacks variety. Participants must always cover every spot on their table; four-corners or horizontal line deviations would have helped keep the mini-game fresh.

Herein lies Vegas Party’s principal problem- the game becomes monotonous before players reach the end of a single game. Although merging a board game with gambling competitions is a concept rife with potential, the title never capitalizes on the possibility. The game could have had a meandering board that required player to make tactical decisions; instead it’s composed of a single linear path. Throughout the Race of the Strip mode, player interaction is kept to a minimum, prohibiting any heated rivalries to develop.

Although Vegas Party’s mini-games suffer from a lack of diversity, the title’s settings are proficiently varied.  The disk contains 17 different casinos, each with an individual motif that recalls authentic venues, from Egyptian to Roman ornamentation. Although the game’s cast borders on the stereotypical (an oafish tourist, gangster rapper, and spoiled heiress make an appearance), they do lend the game a sense of personality. Unfortunately, the game’s sonic accompaniment is woefully repetitive.