Game:Â Potion Party
Genre:Â Puzzle, Arcade, Multiplayer, Party
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam & PS4)
Developers | Publishers: Top Hat Studios
Age Rating: US E | EU 3+
Price: US $9.99 | UK £8.99 | EU € 9,99
Release Date: April 8th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Top Hat Studios.
Have you ever wanted to run your own alchemy shop? Well, now you can, with the release of Potion Party on the Nintendo Switch.
Make Potions
The idea with Potion Party is to make and sell potions to your customers as quickly as possible to earn gold and grow your humble Portion shop. This is a fast action party game for up to four players. If you are like me and haven’t any gaming mates there is also a single-player mode for you to play.
There isn’t a tutorial but you can read the “How to Play” info the game provides in picture form and it tells you all you need to know. When you start your shop, it will be empty and run down. It’s your task to add furniture, tools, and decorations to the store. Bit by bit, your shop will improve and provide more ways to create various potions. Each new stage introduces new items to use and challenges to overcome across roughly 5-10 hours of gameplay.
Unlock Characters
As you play you can unlock up to 12 different fantasy characters in the game. Each character has a unique special ability that makes them valuable for certain tasks. These abilities can also be levelled up to become stronger. For example, Grifryt is best for brewing the potions as he can make them much faster than other characters. Or you can unlock Zeph who is a speedy all-rounder that can zoom from A to B to help out in the shop.
There are different sizes and colours of potions to brew. You do this by using water to grow exotic fruits, you pick the fruits and place them in the mortar and pestle to crush them into powder. You add the powder and water to the brewing machine and after a short while you have the finished potion. If the customers want a different coloured potion, say if they want a green potion, just mix yellow and a blue. If they are looking for a black potion then you need to prepare some coal by burning exotic fruit in the furnace, which turns it into coal and adding it to the potion.
Keep Customers Sweet
Customers come and go in Potion Party and when I wasn’t actively helping a customer, I used the downtime to my advantage by pre-producing some potions and storing them in the storage area. The next time a customer needed a potion, then sometimes I already had one at hand. You can make candy that you can give to customers that need to wait a little longer to extend their waiting time. This also keeps them sweet (pun intended) while they wait!
It’s great fun scurrying about your potion shop mixing and brewing potions, but you do have to stay on your toes to keep up with the game. Thinking ahead and brewing some potions is a big help in succeeding and completing the level.
Beware the Intruders
But it’s not all sweetness and light in Potion Party as you should be aware of the monsters. Monsters such as slimes, ghosts and thieves of different types will invade your store and try to stop your business. Each of them needs to be handled differently to get rid of them. To remove a slime you place some of the same coloured powder on the slime and poof, it disintegrates. When ghosts appear they float across the screen and if you touch one, the controls are reversed. And a bucket of water thrown at a thief will make them disappear
You can upgrade your alchemy shop with the gold you earn. Add more mortar and pestles or add in more flower pots so you can grow more fruits.
Co-op Mode and More
Brew potions together with up to 4 friends in co-op mode, or play against them in versus mode to crown the best alchemist in the group. I did manage to talk my non-gaming partner into playing Potion Party in the couch co-op mode and couch versus mode we had a laugh and a lot of fun.
Couch-Coop multiplayer with up to 4 players is also available to play, unfortunately, I couldn’t try that out. Maybe online multiplayer could be added at a later update, as I think that would be a great addition to the game. I would imagine that Potion Party would be very chaotic with four players but also very entertaining.
Visuals and Controls
Potion Party is bright and colourful with its retro looks and vibrant art style. The soundtrack is catchy and somehow it fits in with the pixelated graphics just perfectly.
Controlling your character in Potion Party couldn’t be easier as it’s just one button and one analogue stick. The game runs well on the Nintendo Switch, I didn’t see framerate problems as the game runs smoothly.
Conclusion
I’ve had an entertaining time reviewing Potion Party, the game was interesting enough for my non-gaming partner to be drawn into it to want to try and play it. Though it is a relatively short game, with a group of friends you would have a great time playing it. The controls system is accessible to any age group, making Potion Party available for the younger members of the family to be able to join in.
Final Verdict: I Like It A Lot 