Party Hard Switch Review

We’ve previously reviewed Party Hard 2 on PC, and very recently tinyBuild released the original Party Hard on Nintendo Switch. However, how does it stack up and for those new to the franchise, how easy is it?

There’s more than one way to get rid of someone

Let’s get one thing out of the way; despite the pixel art style, this is far from an easy game. The premise of the game is simple; kill everyone on the map without being caught. However, this is a far from simple game. The AI is extremely impressive and if you’re within the sight of one of the NPCs when you commit the crime, they’ll phone the police. In this scenario the only option is to take care of the witness.

This is where an element of strategy comes in. You really need to make sure that you’ve got enough stamina to chase them down before they reach the phone. If you don’t do this then when the police arrive you’ll be automatically targeted for arrest. The only alternative to this is to use the shortcuts around the map and try and take out the remaining guests.

This then adds onto the next layer of strategy; shortcut use. If you use a shortcut far too often then a carpenter that has a striking resemblance to Mario will make an appearance and patch up these areas. That means that you won’t be able to use them again and it will greatly increase your chance of arrest. It is possible, although extremely tough, to out run the police. I’ve only managed to do this once or twice in

As an added bonus, you don’t need to solely involve on your trusty knife to kill the guests. Instead, you can also use your surroundings to your advantage. This really builds upon the element of planning out your next action properly. The items range from fire extinguishers can be left off to setting fire to a room. A more subtle approach is to poison the would be victims, with there being two ways to do this. The first is to sabotage a cooking pot that will slowly but surely poison those that eat from it. The second is to procure a vial of poison when you place a phone call. This one is actually random since when you make a phone call you can be given a wide array of items.

Regardless of the way you poison them, the end result is the same; they’ll stoat around for a short period time before keeling over for good. This always means that you’re able to take out a lot more people than you normally would with say, an explosion. If you’ve already butchered these, then the poison option is a great way to take out a few targets in one go.

Looks and longevity

Graphically, the game does have a retro feel to it and the music does match this theme perfectly. Whilst it does look beautiful, it’s by no means taxing, which is a bonus and the game runs consistently smoothly. The cut scenes that play between the levels are also great, and the voice acting is a nice combination of immersive and cheesy 80s movie vibe. There is nothing complicated about how to play the game, and should you ever forget the controls, these pop up right away on the pause screen. What some people may be taken back by is just how much blood is actually present, given that this is published on a Nintendo platform! It’s fair to say that this is direct port of the PC version, with none of the gore removed.

Given the ways in which you can get rid of the players on the map, it does add a large degree of playability to the game. Coupled with this is the fact that the maps do change slightly between playthoughs with respect to the numbers of NPCs you need to kill, the layout of the map as well as the opportunities available to cause accidents. This means that you really need to understand the mechanics of the game to succeed.

The items you can pick up in the game also changes each time you load up a map. One of the best items is the fresh of change clothes since this instantly stops the police looking for you.

In a nice touch, achievements have been added into the game. This is something of a rarity when it comes to games on a Nintendo platform, so it’s nice to see it appear here. This also adds to the longevity of the game since you will want to try and unlock them all.