During the February Nintendo Direct, the first new Samba de Amigo game in over twenty years was announced for the Switch in the form of Party Central. Due out on August 29, this offering will get both a physical and digital release – but it’s not the only Samba de Amigo game on the market. Apple Arcade devices will get a version of the game with exclusive features and songs. The Apple Arcade version features the franchise’s first story mode, and unfortunately the in-store trailer doesn’t show any of it, alongside exclusive songs like “The Edge of Glory” by Lady Gaga, Psy’s “Daddy” and “The Walker” by Fitz and the Tantrums.
There will be over forty songs available, but the inclusion of Lady Gaga is a huge get for the Apple Arcade version as is the exclusive story mode. Time will tell the tale on how big that is to the grand scheme of things. If it’s a series of vaguely-connected events with clip art and dialogue ala the Team Sonic Racing story mode, then it’s no great loss if it isn’t in the Switch version. With the slated goal being for Amigo to return lost music to the world as a whole, it would seem to be a way to have a thin story wrapped around playing through all of the songs. Given the genre, that would make sense and offer up an incentive to play through every song.
With this being an Apple Arcade release playable on mobile and TVOS/iOS devices, it’ll probably be a completely different experience on a phone or iPad than it would be on an Apple TV or Mac/MacBook when not using a controller. This fast-paced style of game isn’t always ideal for a touch interface and it’s possible we’ll see a faux-maraca implemented with the in-device gyroscope. That would be a mighty big risk to take for a mobile game, though, and controller support is probably the best overall way to do things. In theory, if someone was to make some Xinput Bluetooth maracas, then it might be playable via that means as iOS devices support a lot of different controller methods.
The Apple Arcade-exclusive Party to Go launches on August 30 and should control just fine with any external controller – so an Xbox One, Xbox Series, PS4, PS5, or Switch Pro controller should work for it. Personally, the KingKong 2 has become my go-to pad for the Apple Arcade and that’s with it not even being officially supported on an Apple TV, but switching things to Android mode works just fine on an Apple TV. We’ll see how well this version of the game turns out then.
