Garfield. Everyone’s favourite Monday hating, lasagna loving, lazy feline is back! But this time, in the form of a new party-based game, Garfield Lasagna Party. Released by Publisher Miroïds and developed by Balio Studio and VetaSoft, this latest game sees Garfield, Odie, Arlene and Nermal battle it out in the great Lasagna Race.
As a kid, I was always excited to pick up the paper and read the famous Garfield comic strip. Short, punchy, and always hilarious. Since its humble beginnings in 1976, Garfield has featured in Television Series, Films, Art Books, and even a Stage Show. In the gaming genre, Garfield has had many incarnations dating way back to the Atari 2600 in 1984. Skip forward to November 2022 and Garfield returns to the gaming world with what I can best describe as a Mario-Party-like board game with mini games throughout. Lasagna Party consists of three game modes, Lasagna Race, Lasagna Challenge, and Lasagna World Tour.
Lasagna Race is essentially a board game with each turn beginning with the roll of a dice. The main objective of the race is to finish the game with the most Lasagna Tokens. There are three difficulty modes and four game duration choices. You have the opportunity to play solo against the AI or have up to 4 players join in the fun.
After each roll, you are given the choice to use an item to give you an added advantage. Not only can you enhance your own chances on your roll, but you can also potentially impede your opponents after theirs. Items include a Banana peel that removes a move from the opponents die, an Eraser that removes the effects of the space you land on, and a Hot dog that adds 2 moves to your own die. There are more items you can obtain throughout the game too.
As you progress around the board, racing against your opponents, you can collect coins that are used to purchase items, spin up random gifts including coins and Lasagna Tokens, and like all classic board games, be sent back a few spaces. After every round of four die rolls, all four players are given the opportunity to battle it out in a mini game for more Lasagna Tokens. Each mini game is chosen at random from a selection of 32 all with a common objective. Come first and get the most Lasagna Tokens as possible. After 10 rounds, the game is over and the player with the most Lasagna Tokens wins. If only you could win some real lasagna by playing this!
The two remaining game modes of Lasagna Challenge and Lasagna World Tour are both based on mini games alone. Challenge mode allows for free play where you can pick any game you want and have a crack at it. Or, if you are a trophy hunter like me, revisit a mini game you did not win during Race mode and come first for that sweet trophy reward! World Tour is a mini-game tournament that allows you to duke it out over 2, 8, 16, or 32 rounds of games. Again, either against the AI or against your friends.
There is much to love about this game from the simple and entertaining gameplay to the animations and the catchy tunes. Whilst I did only play this game against the AI prior to writing this review, I still managed to get some quality game play out of it. Switching up characters, checking out all the mini-games and switching it up again on a harder difficulty gives the game longevity as a solo player.
I can also see how much fun it would be to bring out at a game night amongst family or friends. If anything, I would say it is much easier to follow and more fun that what my experiences have been with Mario Party. The two games are very much alike and if I had the choice between the two, I would pick Garfield Lasagna Party because it is so quick and simple to set up for just as much (if not more) fun!
Garfield Lasagna Party is out now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. You can purchase the game digitally via each platform online store or obtain a physical copy from your local retailer.
A press key was provided on PlayStation 5 for the purpose of this review.