It’s been a wealth of riches for Disney fans in the past couple of weeks. It all began last month with the release of the highly-anticipated Disney Classic Games: Aladdin And The Lion King, while the Disney+ streaming service finally went live this week. However, one other Disney-related release that might have slipped through the cracks for many gamers is Disney Tsum Tsum Festival; a new party game that features playable versions of the cuddly plush toys. While control issues keep Disney Tsum Tsum Festival from living up to the level of other couch party games such as Mario Party or The Jackbox Party Pack, it offers enough fun moments to enjoy with family members and friends of all ages, especially if they are Disney fans.
I’ll Make A Tsum Out Of You
There’s no story to be told in Disney Tsum Tsum Festival, but there really doesn’t need to be. You’re here to party at the festival, and you’ll definitely do so with all of the mini-games available. Most of the mini-games feature similar ways to play, including local party mode, mini-game specific challenges, high-score challenges, and mission modes to earn bonus coins that can be used to earn new Tsums. Most games can also be played as traditional versus modes or as co-op. An online mode exists for the games, but - at least in my attempts of playing online - the matchmaking process was never successful, regardless of the mini-game I tried to play.
The only way to play Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is either in docked or tabletop mode, which is understandable considering that a single Joy-Con is all players need to play. The only exception to this is the Tsum Tsum Puzzle mini-game, which requires the game to be undocked and played using a vertical Switch screen. This felt pretty annoying at first. That is until I became instantly addicted to the matching mini-game. The addictive nature of the game was also felt with the Lost Treasure Push mini-game, which is a throwback to the arcade days in which coins were earned by launching and pushing other coins to make them fall. I realized I had lost track of time after spending more than 20-minutes playing the mini-game.
The other mini-games are fun enough, though they certainly feel intended for younger gamers. The overall controls are also just fine enough to get by. They weren’t exactly super-refined, especially in the case of Tsum Tsum Mania, which is a space shooter that really fails in its use of the Joy-Con to aim and shoot.
Up where they walk. Up where they run. Up where they stay all day with the Tsums.
As has been stated, Disney Tsum Tsum Festival does just enough to make it worth playing. That said, if this was a game that didn’t feature Tsum-versions of beloved Disney characters, it probably wouldn’t be worth a second glance. The “Disney factor” very much plays a part in its success. It was fun to not only collect and play as my favorite characters, but there was also a genuine feeling that I was actually part of a fun Disney festival. Each mini-game featured audiences made up of every Disney Tsum Tsum character you could think of. Iconic villains partied right along with heroes. Had the audience been comprised of other nameless, less famous characters, I can’t imagine that the experience would have been nearly as fun.
The Disney factor is also obviously reflected in its price of $50. Even though there are multiple ways of playing each mini-game, Disney Tsum Tsum Festival feels pretty light overall in terms of its content. Hopefully, the game will eventually get more mini-games in the form of future DLC.
Disney Tsum Tsum Festival may not be the go-to party game option on a Friday night, but it’s a solid enough game for families with younger gamers. Disney fans will also enjoy the game simply because of the cute Tsum versions of their favorite Disney characters.
A Switch copy of Disney Tsum Tsum Festival was purchased by TheGamer for this review. Disney Tsum Tsum Festival is now available on the Nintendo Switch.
