Umamusume Pretty Derby - Party Dash review: Competitive horsing around

Let's be clear, despite being the first international release of Umamusume Pretty Derby, Party Dash is not an introduction to Cygames' multimedia franchise. It's a party game based on the mobile offering that has been quietly taking over Japan’s mobile market. It expects you to have at least a working knowledge of the mobile game or anime and characters. With that out the way, Umamusume Pretty Derby - Party Dash is an excellent but slim package that offers fierce competitive gaming featuring everyone's favorite horse girls.

The key to victory is friendship

Should you not know what Umamusume Pretty Derby is, here’s a quick introduction: In a world similar to ours, racehorses are reborn as Umamusume (lit. translation: horse girls) who enroll in a special academy to follow their dreams of running fast and becoming idols. All the characters are loosely based on famous racehorses down to their design, outfits, and personalities. If you’re not already a fan, Party Dash is not for you. The game expects players to be familiar with the cast and world of Umamusume and wastes no time getting into the thick of it.

Party games like these are usually short on story but Umamusume Pretty Derby - Party Dash uses the background of the Slapdash Grand Prix, a sort of school sports festival to explore character dynamics. Be it Team Freesia’s band of loveable misfits figuring out how to work together, Team Rose's two larger-than-life personalities helping their teammates overcome their insecurities, or Team Cosmos’ members encouraging each other to soar to even greater heights. While each team's campaign will last you about an hour or two, it lets you learn each game mode with the team's respective characters until you have to compete in the Slapdash Grand Prix itself. They're all charming in their own right but come off as short companion pieces at best compared to the rest of the franchise.

Boom goes the dynamite

The contest consists of four game modes, each rather simple on the surface but Arc System Work's expertise in competitive games shines through once again. All four of the games offer some fantastic competitive mayhem thanks to characters bringing different skill sets into each game mode but I wish there was just one or two more game modes to shake things up. The only remedy is the single-player-only Gold Ships Grand Adventure mode, a roguelike that has you run to infinity and beyond while collecting an evergrowing arsenal of weapons and equipment that could've easily been a standalone title.

Obsessed with winning

The whole package can feel a little shallow once you've completed all the campaigns. But once you start digging into aspects such as team building, crank the difficulty of the AI up, or get someone to play against you the true genius of Umamusume Pretty Derby - Party Dash starts to unfold. Each game mode, especially after playing around with the modifiers, offers the same depth you'd usually find in fighting games. But it must be said that this is the kind of game that appeals to the sickos who want to dig into the complex mechanics of competitive eating, basketball with UFOs, or dodgeball with perfect parries.

If you’re a fan of Umamusume Pretty Derby, Party Dash is worth getting. Its cute retro art direction manages to capture the energy and charisma of the franchise even if it's a little lackluster on the surface level. The PC port I played ahead of release ran perfectly fine but being able to use resolutions above 1080p would've been nice. What is here is a great and will delight fans but might not be enough to turn newcomers into Umamusume-believers.

This review is based on a Steam code provided by the publisher. Umamusume Pretty Derby: Party Dash releases on August 29, 2024, on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Timo Reinecke

Contributing Editor

Timo is an avid enjoyer of all things video games hailing from Germany. After being abandoned as a child on the Rolanberry Fields of Final Fantasy XI, he has since developed an undying love for the digital worlds of MMOs. But if you can't find him crafting up a storm in Final Fantasy XIV, you'll probably find him workshopping combos in action/fighting games or being extremely passionate about the latest mobile title.

Outside of gaming, Timo is usually skimming through the Criterion Collection or praying to whatever Eldritch horror that his latest favorite manga doesn't get damaged in shipping. You can find live reactions to all of that on X @ALahftel.