Indie publisher eastasiasoft continues their weekly releases with one of their latest being Boo Party for the Nintendo Switch. This new adventure game comes from developer CosmiKankei who previously released Crawlco Black Knockers. Boo Party once again leans into the fan service material but this adventure game is actually pretty good. Here is my review of the Nintendo Switch version.
Boo Party is a single-player retro adventure game where you play as a boy who has been recruited by a scientist. This scientist tasks you with entering a mansion that is riddled with paranormal disturbances and taking photos of the ghosts and creatures within to bring back as evidence. The core gameplay here entirely revolves around exploring the mansion, talking with the characters within it, and completing side quests for them. Let me say this mansion is actually quite big and will take you some time to fully explore it. Whether you’ll enjoy this game will likely come down to how you play your games. If you’re someone like me who usually stops and talks to every NPC in a game that you see then you’ll likely have no issues with this. If you’re not that type of player then you are going to find issues here.
There is no map in this game and you’ll be doing a lot of backtracking while playing. That means it will be up to you to memorize how to get to and from each area and since there is no fast travel either, you’ll be walking back and forth each time. I didn’t have any issues remembering how to get where but other players might. You also aren’t told who to talk to via any type of indicator so this falls on the players to engage with the characters to discover things. This did bother me somewhat as while I typically will talk to everyone once some characters end up needing things later on that they didn’t when you first talked to them.
The overall goal in the game is to get photos of 12 demon girls all of which will end up needing some quests done for them before you can get the picture. These pictures are where the fan service material come in so if that’s your thing have at it. Beyond doing talking with characters and doing their quests there are some mini-games you an partake in some of which are fun while others are frustrating. I also want to mention that with you talking to so many characters the writing is actually quite funny. The game doesn’t take itself seriously and makes fun of all kinds of things which I enjoyed. When it comes to the visuals, I quite liked them as they reminded me of one of my favorite Sega Genesis games Zombies Ate My Neighbors. The music is also funky and while there isn’t a ton of variety it’s enjoyable anyway.
Boo Party is a fun, casual adventure game but one that has some issues and shouldn’t be played by younger players. The game doesn’t provide guidance in the form of a map or quest indicators and this could turn some players away. I didn’t mind those things too much and quite enjoyed the visuals, music, and funny writing. It’s honestly better than I expected prior to playing it so use your judgement and decide if it sounds like this is a party you would enjoy.
*Boo Party is available on Nintendo Switch. Reviewed on Nintendo Switch. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
Boo Party
$9.99
Pros
- Enjoyable retro adventure game
- Funny writing
- Great SNES era art style and funky soundtrack
Cons
- Lack of guidance for the player
- No fast travel
- Some frustrating mini-games
