Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Party Dash Review

I have to be honest: when I saw the trailer for Umamusume: Pretty Derby, I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. The title appeared to be a party game that could be played single-player or with friends locally and had a great pixelated art style. So, what exactly is an Umamusume? This is when racing horses and anime idols are combined, so essentially, horse girls. There has already been a mobile game with these characters and multiple seasons of an anime. So these horse girls have already captured both the hearts of anime enthusiasts (with multiple seasons of the show) and horse racing fans and are now making their appearance on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby — Party Dash has a roster of 25 different pixel-art Umamusume to play as, split into four teams, with five members in each group. You are all competing for gold at the Slapdash Grand Prix that is being held at your school. The Grand Prix is made up of four different events:

Blazing Baskets, where each team has one member competing to outmanoeuvre and outsmart the opposing team to get the basketball to score baskets.

Dodgeball Demolition, compete in a four-person free-for-all and turbocharge your throws to hit the players from the other teams. There are three rounds to each match, and your point score for each is added together to determine the winner, so even if you lose one round, you still have a chance to be victorious.

Gourmet Gauntlet, here you will select which of the Umamusume will be the server and which teammate is the eater based on who has the best stats for the task. They have to work together to consume the most dishes possible.

Hurtling Hurdles, which begins on the academy grounds and has you race through the city to complete the loop to bring you back to the starting location.



Each of these games has its own hijinks and wacky rules, so these aren’t your regular sports matches! Once all the events are complete, the team with the highest score will be deemed champion. So there is a chance to be victorious even if you don’t win all four events, which I really appreciated.

There are four teams that have their own separate chapters in story mode that you can play through: Team Cosmos, with members Special Week, Seiun Sky, King Halo, Grass Wonder, and El Condor Pasa. Team Freesia has Silence Suzuka, Air Groove, Matikanefukukitaru, Mejiro Dober, and Mejiro Bright. Team Rose with Tokai Teio, Symboli Rudolf, Tsurumaru Tsuyoshi, Mejiro McQueen, and Gold Ship, then the final group, Team Lily, is made up of members Still In Love, Aston Machan, Sweep Tosho, Vodka, and Daiwa Scarlet. I am not familiar with horse racing, especially in Japan, but it is pretty cool that all the popular competitors are here!

The story mode isn’t the only thing that will keep you busy here; you can also decorate your team’s clubhouse with your favourite furniture, knick-knacks, and even game consoles! To purchase these items, you will need to spend Tracen points that you earn by competing in events and playing through the story. My favourite part is that you can even put a game console in there once you have $500 to spend! Once you are done remodelling, invite the Umamusume roster to come and hang out in your newly decorated clubhouse, where you can play matches together multiplayer locally or online with one to four players. The challenges themselves aren’t very long but will provide a crazy and hectic time for you and your friends!

When you purchase the game console, you don’t only get a cool decoration to display, but you actually unlock a side-scrolling roguelike game called Golshi’s Grand Adventure 2. This side game provides over 20 hours of extra gameplay! So it is definitely worth spending $500 of Tracer points on. In this single-player roguelike title, you play as an Umamusume named Gold Ship. She is on a quest to save her friend from hordes of evil robots that are attacking using water guns, dodgeballs, and any other weapon you can find to survive as long as possible. The longer you stay alive, the stronger the enemies that you will face off against are, though you have a better chance of finding rare loot on your run. You will also find Tracer Points and items like carrots that will replenish your health. While running, you can pick up equipment like tracksuits in multiple colours that are lying on the ground. Once the round is done, you can see what items you collected, and then you can choose which of the items you want to keep, as some can boost or lower your stats. Perks can strengthen Golshis’ weapons or stats, so experiment to find the best combination to maximise your score.

This mini-game is an auto-runner, so the only thing you need to worry about is moving up, down, and jumping to avoid obstacles and enemies in your path. You also don’t have to worry about shooting, as it auto-fires for you, so there is no button mashing here. As you shoot enemies, you collect gems and can select new items or power up your existing ones. Each of the weapons can be levelled up to a maximum of 10 levels. Some of the weapons you pick up include a blade with sweeping melee attacks, a lightning generator that zaps random targets, or, my favourite, the thick laser that shoots a large beam, taking out everything in front of you.

You have a time limit per section of the course, but you can pick up stopwatches to increase the available amount of time. Once you have gone the required distance for this challenge, 1500 m (I think they mean miles, not metres) is the length of the first. Your attempt is done, and you are shown a summary screen that shows the amount of time it took, TP Earned, Fans Earned, Miles Travelled, and bonus for First Clear to get your score. Your rank will rise, and the distance required to advance to the next rank level will be visible. Next, we get to see the equipment that you collected; for me, it's fake glasses that increase your agility and school swimsuit that bumps up your strength. You can keep all or only one. To see all your gear, go to the equipment menu.

The whole game, no matter which mode you are playing in Umamusume: Pretty Derby — Party Dash, has great detailed pixelated visuals that remind me of something from the Super Nintendo. All the different Umamusume that you play as, or against, are vibrant and full of personality, no matter who you select. The music in the game follows suit, and it is upbeat and full of energy that fits well with the fun rivalry between the characters as they compete to be the winners of the Slapdash Grand Prix.

Umamusume: Pretty Derby — Party Dash is a quirky title with a light-hearted story mode and zany multiplayer option to check out with up to four players. Even if you have played other sports titles like dodgeball or basketball games, the challenges here have crazy rules and quirks that make them totally different than those you have played in the past. Hitting an opponent with a massive dodgeball or shooting a basketball that falls through multiple hoops to get a huge score advantage is great. I have to say that one of my favourite parts was playing Golshi’s Grand Adventure 2. This side game was so fun and addictive, and trying to beat your previous score kept me coming back to play more! People who are familiar with this franchise or just of Umamusume in general definitely need to check this game out, or if you are like me and don’t know anything about it going in, you can still have a fun time.