Umamusume: Pretty Derby Party Dash Review – Not Enough Horsepower

Umamusume. They are born to run. And now die-hard franchise fans globally can run towards the all-new party game, Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash. Cygames has crafted a collection of party-based mini-games, starring a retro style pixel-art cast of new and familiar umamusume (or horse girls), all of which can be played solo or with a few friends. However, charm can only take a game so far, and the fiercest competition found within Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash is against Cygames‘ value proposition.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash is a party action game embedded within the multimedia Umamusume universe, wherein the titular horse girls—these unique girls, denoted by their horse ears and tails, are the reincarnation of past great race horses—use their extraordinary athletic capabilities to compete against each other in a variety of events. The horse girls, and their associated teams, are all chasing fame as they look to come out ahead of the pack and establish themselves as truly remarkable racers. And it’s that simple spirit of competition that drives this somewhat simplistic game.

Horsin’ Around

There are four minigames rounding out the core offering. Hurtling Hurdles sees players race across the academy, swapping lanes to snag items and activate speed boosts all while avoiding pesky obstacles. Blazing Baskets takes the spirit of basketball and infuses it with extremely high jump shots and super-powered balls (and even multiple stacked hoops). It’s a similar story for free-for-all battle royale style Dodgeball Demolition, which pits players against one another as different types of empowered balls are tossed into the fray. Lastly, there’s Gourmet Gauntlet, where teams of two consisting of a server and eater must chow down on colored plates topped with pixelated cuisine.

All of these minigames can be experienced in a few different ways. For solo players, there’s the story mode revolving around the Slapdash Grand Prix, which offers up four different campaigns related to each of the different teams: Cosmos, Freesia, Rose and Lily. On the multiplayer side, there are local and online options to experience the aforementioned minigames. Whereas the story mode features fixed teams for the purpose of the narrative, local and online matches can utilize custom teams that the player composes by unlocking new horse girls—familiar characters, including Special Week, are available for recruitment alongside all-new umamusume, such as Still in Love.

It is here, in the team composition, where the most of Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash‘s depth can be found. Each horse girl comes with her own stats and abilities. This is important because Dodgeball Demolition, for example, is a minigame where Power and Guts are desired attributes. Special Week has an “A” rank in both categories in addition to a deadly ultimate that triggers multiple laser beam-like fastballs from courtside. Unlocking horse girls, through the story mode or through purchase with earnable in-game currencies, Tracen points and Scout Tickets, is a main component of the gameplay loop early on as the desired team makeup is established. Then it becomes putting the lineup to the test against other players.

Participation Trophy

There are other mechanics within the game, like a mood system that negatively affects racer attributes if they aren’t allowed to rest between events, but I never found the impact to be too much of a handicap (especially when a particular horse girl had the most desirable attributes for a given event). And with that, we have really covered most of what there is to know about this party game. Sure, players are given access to a clubhouse, in which they can hang out with other horse girls and decorate using shop items, but it’s fairly slim.

In fact, the best part of the clubhouse is that buying a game console for it unlocks a new mode: Golshi’s Grand Adventure 2. This side-scrolling roguelike was arguably the most fun of the available options in the game. Even taking its inclusion into consideration, I was still able to fully experience every mode well within an hour. Admittedly, that time does not include running all four team stories, so keep that in mind if you’re looking to add an extra hour or so checking out those campaigns (which are primarily differentiated by the narrative sequences between events).

Herein lies the biggest problem facing Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash. It’s a meager collection of four relatively basic minigames (five including Golshi’s Grand Adventure 2), a straightforward party builder, and a scaled-down Sims-like room decorator all for the grand price of $45 for the standard edition. It’s a hefty price tag for a title that has so little to offer. Not only is this a game that will obviously only appeal to hardcore fans in the first place, but it also has to sell that very specific group on the value of replaying a handful uninspired minigames for hours on end. Perhaps there are those that can argue that case, but I simply can’t see the allure at the given price point.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash Review Verdict

Editor’s Note: Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Party Dash was reviewed on PC, and a copy was provided to us for review purposes.