Party Animals is about as much fun as I’ve had playing an online multiplayer game…well….ever.

Sure, I adored Fall Guys when it first dropped. I’ve played all the Call of Dutys and a ton of other shooters. I love my Jackbox sessions dearly and have found plenty of fun in other games and their online modes.

But none have made me laugh as much as Party Animals. None have made me play as many games. And most importantly, it’s so relaxing not having to worry about Win/Loss Ratio or K/D Spreads.

Is it perfect? Good lord no. There’s quite a few things wrong with Party Animals. The lack of offline play being a massive one, making an absolute mess of local play. Also how the button prompts rarely work as intended. Some of the levels are just not that great, and the microtransaction element is surprisingly bad.

Honestly, though, I genuinely don’t care about most of those things during a match because I’m laughing so much and having a great time. This is my chill game, my unwind when I’ve had a busy day, or something bad has happened. If I need a pick-me-up, I am coming straight here.

The physics are just ridiculously stupid and are a source of comedy all on their own. You can pick up other animals, throw them in the water, in trash compactors, launch them across the screen in trebuchets. You name it.

But the ragdoll nature of running around, head down, charging at your enemies with a dropkick or a hard punch never gets old. Nor does clinging onto a sinking ship for dear life or trying to save yourself from getting burned in a fire, desperately clinging onto friends, enemies, anything you can get your paws on.

And knocking out your enemies is immensely satisfying.  Just leaving a poor crocodile sprawled out unconscious after a headbutt or even finding yourself pretzled into a corner somewhere. I even found myself staying on the ground longer than needed if it was a particularly good hit. The game just gets it and you’re along for the ride.

The character variety is great too, with various different animals and skins that definitely aren’t supposed to be certain iconic animated characters but also absolutely are. The Garfield look alike is a particular favourite. You also have a lot more animals you can unlock, like a moose and bob the bear.

And they’re all so ridiculously cute. Despite the fact the aim is to beat each other up, this one just never fails to get an audience and get people coo’ing and caa’ing over their characters. The game looks absolutely stunning, has a real AAA quality and polish to it, and it all feels really satisfying to dive into and relaxing to stick around with.

Basically, your objectives change as you move between maps, so it’s not all just a Free-For-All, sometimes you have to work as a team to collect as many sweets as possible or send as many bombs in an enemy base as you can or be the first to fill your steam engine with coal. It keeps the action fresh and different as you move from game to game, and means if you had a particularly bad round last time out, you may want to stick around so you can vote your favourite in next time. The rotation system seems really good for that.

Plus the frantic nature of the game never lets up, it doesn’t stop being fun and it all gets capped off by a completion screen where you have the opportunity to knock one another out one last time as you jump off a podium.

Look, I’m going to keep this short and sweet. Party Animals is on GamePass – the perfect place for it – and whether you have friends or not, you absolutely must dive in.

Like I said, the lack of local multiplayer without an online component is disappointing, there are some microtransactions more expensive than the game already – though we’re already seeing some cool crossovers with other IP like Ori and the Blind Forest – and the controls can be a bit hit and miss at times.

But as soon as you’re in the game, smashing each other over the head with mallets, clinging on for death life while being swung around on a wind turbine and knocking each other out in the most satisfying way since Fight Night, all those concerns just erode away.

This game will get support, it’ll likely patch out those things we dislike, add in more things we love and just continue to be a party favourite for all the family. This one is great and likely a permanent fixture in my house.

Verdict

Party Animals is a ridiculously good time. It tickles every funny bone in your body, looks absolutely gorgeous and offers some of the most fun you can have in a multiplayer game. There are some issues with the game not offering offline local multiplayer, hefty microtransactions and some control issues, but none of it really takes away the fun of just throwing each other around various battlegrounds and knocking each other out after a death-defying dropkick or headbutt. 

Pros

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Party Animals is out now on PC and Xbox Game Pass

Code Kindly Provided by Source Technology for review purposes

Tested on Xbox Series X and PC