English
Gamereactor
reviews
Go Vacation

Go Vacation

Don't mind if we do...

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field
HQ

We absolutely adore party games where we're able to pass the controller back and forth and have fun a whole evening in the company of some good friends. Nintendo is usually best in class on this, and never have they had a console more suitable for multiplayer than Switch. Nevertheless, it has taken an unexpectedly long time to deliver on this front and other than a re-release of Mario Kart 8, games like WarioWare, Mario Party and others are sorely missed on Switch.

Go Vacation has been released and hopes to sort this curious omission, a new version of a Wii game didn't exactly set the world on fire seven years ago. Well, seven years ago is a long time and Bandai Namco has had plenty of time to improve the game, which as at least in theory has a good premise. A lot of relaxed events to enjoy with a bunch of couch buddies with the inspiration taken from various vacation activities.

It's not a singular holiday destination either, but there's variety here. There are vacation spots located in the big city (City), the coast (Marine), the winter (Snow) and the mountains (Mountain) with lots of mini-games found in each location. The idea is to walk around these four mini-worlds and explore and unlock games to play. It's definitely not difficult and the setup is a little different from what we're used to, but it absolutely works, although it's not a great deal of fun to talk to NPC characters in order to get started as your friends have gathered in the couch looking on impatiently. Unlocking them before you invite your friends over for a session would be our suggestion. In addition, there are lots of secrets that vaguely remind us of a primitive role-playing game, like earning experience points to level up your character.

This is an ad:

At this point, we are used to Wii U games being released to Switch, but one thing that strikes us with Go Vacation is that it's actually an HD edition of a Wii game. That's right, the Wii is back! A console that was not exactly known for its graphical fidelity when it was new. This means simple graphics and basically Mii-like avatars. Certainly, it's been polished up somewhat, but this game won't win any awards for its visuals and it reeks of a tiny budget.

Go VacationGo Vacation

Over 50 mini-games have been crammed into Go Vacation, with a handful of them being fairly advanced. The majority, however, are mini-games in the worst way imaginable and lack both finesse and depth. Usually, just a simple push of a button and a little bit of control is all it takes, which means that there is no prestige in winning. Because it's a Wii game basically, it's also possible to play with motion controls. Although Joy-Cons is much more precise and the events are simple, we're quickly reminded of why we hate it when the press of the A button is replaced with shaking a Wii-mote. There really is no control here and it is doubtful if anyone but the youngest of children will enjoy this.

The friends we gathered to give Go Vacation a good try quickly grew impatient as we played mini-game after mini-game. A few times, we did play the events more than once (the tennis and table hockey are among the better ones, for example), but that's about it entertainment wise. The initial expectation of having fun while we play with and against each other gave way for impatience and boredom. Is there an actual fun event coming anytime soon? After half of the mini-games had been sampled, we arrived at the conclusion that things wouldn't get any better. Go Vacation is not a terrible game, but it's phenomenally mediocre.

This is an ad:

It goes down as a missed opportunity as the concept is so insanely good. A lot of fun events in established sports - as well as less established ones such as pie throwing and water pistols - and multiplayer in all of them. With over 50 events, it would be fine if only half were good, but that's not the case here. We count to maybe five that we consider fun but the rest feel trivial and pointless. Why has Bandai Namco not reduced the number of mini-games to 20 and put more focus on these instead?

Go VacationGo Vacation

We're also constantly reminded that it's a Wii game originally. The graphics are so primitive that a friend asked without any irony if the original came out on Nintendo 64 as we revealed that it was an HD release of an older game.

The best part of Go Vacation is strangely enough to play alone and just explore the Kawaii Island, the location where the game is taking place. You can go hiking, go for a ride, buy a house and go skateboarding - amongst other things. This hub world is therefore very well-developed, which is the opposite of the sports that make up the actual gameplay. No, unfortunately, this really isn't good enough and the wait for a really good local multiplayer game with mini-games for Switch goes on. We're hopeful Super Mario Party will sort us out later this year.

HQ
Go VacationGo Vacation
05 Gamereactor UK
5 / 10
+
Over 50 events, Fun game world, Charming design.
-
Extremely primitive gameplay, Aged visuals.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

Related texts

0
Go VacationScore

Go Vacation

REVIEW. Written by Jonas Mäki

"The best part of Go Vacation is strangely enough to play alone and just explore the Kawaii Island, where the game is taking place."



Loading next content