Hands-On Preview: LEGO Party!

When it comes to party games, I tend to not get all that excited. Ultimately, the Mario Party series is the cream of the crop when it comes to this genre. Most of the time, anyone else trying to mimic the king usually falls short. That was not the case with Fictions’ upcoming LEGO Party! Yes, it’s rather formulaic in its execution, but it does what it does very well. In the match I got to play, I found myself smiling and laughing as we made our way around the board. And hey, if you’re not happy about smiling and laughing while you’re playing a party game, well, what else is a party game for?

It was two devs, a fellow games journalist, and myself playing at Summer Game Fest. Fictions tends to be a mobile developer, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from the impression that LEGO Party! makes—it comes across as a game made by experienced designers who have been working on console for years. First off, it looks great; the LEGO aesthetic is perfectly incorporated here. There’s no license to speak of, so don’t expect Darth Vader versus Harry Potter, for instance, but I’m of the opinion that this helps the game, more than anything. The LEGO brand on its own is host to a bunch of goofy, quirky oddballs that are perfect for a party game.

Players compete on a variety of different themed boards to be the one with the most Gold Bricks by the end. Compete in minigames to accumulate Studs, the game’s currency, which can be used for all sorts of things, including buying items, paying LEGO characters to steal from your competitors, and more. An interesting innovation here is the ability to land on spaces where the player chooses what new feature is built, which will have a profound impact on the rest of a given match. That might all sound a tad rote in some respects, but LEGO Party! does enough to make itself stand out from the crowd, especially on the polish side of things. Besides more than looking the part, it also plays the part very, very well.

The game starts things off by determining turn order with a minigame. Winners are ranked first to fourth, and that’s the subsequent order on the game board. This is how each turn plays out from then on—whoever gets first gets to go first, then second, and so on, following every minigame matchup. This adds some extra stakes to the proceedings beyond just trying to get more studs than anyone else. While being first is typically every player’s goal during a competition, in LEGO Party! it will actually factor into strategizing.

For instance, let’s say leading into a minigame round that I’m just a space or two away from a Gold Brick, but one of my opponents is similarly positioned. I would want to get in first place so that when we come back from the minigame, I can swoop on the prize before he can. At the same time, my opponent might be thinking the exact same thing and will also feel extra motivated to win the match, making for some pretty frenzied, competitive face-offs. I really appreciated the extra incentive to succeed that this approach fosters.

There are other smart changes that have been included in LEGO Party! which were influenced by other games in the genre, including a tweak that comes up on the final turn of a match. Normally in Mario Party, for instance, shops serve no purpose on the last turn, as there’s no point in buying items at that point. Thus, those spaces are essentially just a waste of space and majorly disappointing to land on at the end, especially when there might be a lot riding on a good roll of the dice. Thankfully, in LEGO Party! it switches things up by transforming shop spaces into event spaces. It’s little touches like that which show how much thought is going into the game.

Speaking of the minigames, all of the ones I got to try were very fun. There were a couple based on old NES games like Excitebike and R.C. Pro-Am, while others had spins on air hockey and even memory games. One particularly energetic showdown had players frantically trying to block a ball from going into their goals as it continuously sped up. It was all fun, but also very precise and intuitive. There’s even a practice session before matches begin so everyone can acclimate to the controls.

LEGO Party! will be offering crossplay with other platforms when it launches. Keep in mind that play will be restricted to friends, so no matchmaking, but with a game like this, it’s all about hanging with people you know, so that didn’t sound like a dealbreaker to me. The game will launch via the eShop, but there will also be a physical edition for those who want a proper game cartridge. That’s always welcome, especially in this era of Game-Key Cards.

LEGO Party! really offered a good time during this brief preview session, and I genuinely wanted to keep going and try more boards. Alas, it was not meant to be, but the game is slated to hit Nintendo Switch later in 2025. We’ll be sure to give the final build a whirl when it hits store shelves.

Have we piqued your interest with our preview? Tell us your thoughts about LEGO Party! in the comments and on social media!