Who is Garfield if he doesn’t speak?
Growing up Sunday newspaper comics were always a highlight for me, it was the precursor to what would end up being a day spent at church; a black church mind you which meant we were there all day. So like an old man savoring a cup of early morning ‘joe, young Terrence loved his Sunday comics in the newspaper. My absolute favorite was and still is Jim Davis’ lazy, lasagna loving, Monday hatin’ orange cat Garfield. Garfield’s whole vibe appealed to me, the way he slept in and picked on Odie his dog buddy and Nermal his annoying cousin. I understood this as I too have a younger brother that I wanted to mail to a different country just like Garfield would try to do to Nermal. I’m a big fan; so, I was excited to check out the new Garfield Lasagna Party game from Microids.
The best way to sum up Garfield Lasagna Party is to compare it to the game that it seeks to emulate and that would be Mario Party. In Lasagna Party players will navigate a board game style world and compete in a collection of minigames to amass the most Lasagna. Games like this live and die by their minigames and while Lasagna Party has some enjoyable ones to be found in the collection of 30 games, often the games themselves are a bore. Some of the better ones are the Hot Potato style of game where players must try and get rid of a bomb but are hampered by randomly opening and closing doors.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch
Price I’d Pay: $11.99
There is one where players will need to trace lines with a paint brush, this one is more about accuracy than speed as the winner will be decided by whomever is more accurate. One of the worst ones though was a snowball fight where players aren’t given clear directions. This is one of the big things that Lasagna Party would’ve benefited from; and that’s having a tutorial before each minigame like the later Mario Party games do. Just dropping players into an experience where they must mash buttons to figure out what does what isn’t enjoyable.
The board game overworld is also an area of concern for Lasagna Party. Players will only have one board to explore, there are no other options in the game and no way to customize or change the board and environment itself. Like any other board games players will roll dice to move their selected character through a winding path full of various challenges and things, the normal board game type stuff. This all sounds great but in execution is an excruciatingly slow process. Each player can use an item to trip up their competition, so time is allotted for them to choose and lock it in. Then the dice roll in a long animation, lastly the character takes their time strolling the board like the Monopoly man eyeing a new property. Then finally a minigame can be played, now multiply all that by 4 and you end up with a game that can last for a really long time; and there is NO way to skip or hasten all these extra flourishes.
But for me, Lasagna Party’s greatest sin is not having the characters voiced. Garfield, Odie, Nermal and Arlene are all present in the game and NONE of them utter a word. How, you can take Garfield the cat, who is arguably most famous for his cynicism and make him mute is beyond me. He’s basically just an obese, lazy orange cat at that point and we can see those running around outside all the time. It just boggles my mind, but im sure it had to do with budget; but all that aside the music is freaking awesome. The track (because there is only one it seems like) features the most badass flute solo I’ve ever heard, im pretty sure it was done by #FluteGuy from the 2022 Game Awards show because man when it comes on, I sit the controller down and vibe.
Garfield Lasagna Party isn’t a broken mess of a game, it’s just a tad below average and that’s with me being a HUGE fan of the source material.
Having only a handful of enjoyable minigames means players will end up playing the ones they dislike more, and the horribly paced board game component makes the journey getting to those minigames feel like a slog and then to not have GARFIELD VOICED IS JUS- let me calm down. Even at the ‘value’ price of $39.99 this feels overpriced, if you are a huge Garfield fan wait for a deep sale before picking this one up.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
