Samba de Amigo: Party Central Tips
Focus On Moving Your Wrists, Not Your Arms
When you first play Samba de Amigo, you’ll likely feel compelled to move your arms to mirror the on-screen targets. While that approach is not entirely wrong, it will rob you of accuracy. It would be best if you focused on the position of your wrists and how it affects your Joy-Con.
Think of ZL and ZR as the heads of your maracas. It’s important to aim the head of the maraca in the correct direction when you shake it, as follows:
- High targets require you to point the maraca’s head upward.
- Mid targets require you to point the maraca’s head parallel to the floor.
- Low targets require you to point the maraca’s head downward.
So, if you move your arms low to the ground but face the Joy-Con directly forward, they’ll still count as mid-level shakes. This is why small, focused movements stemming from the wrists will give you higher scores than forcefully wailing your arms.
One method that helped us focus our wrist movement was imagining ourselves hitting the rhythm targets with the Joy-Con like one would drumsticks on a drum set.
Check Your Joy-Con Positioning With The On-Screen Maracas
Samba de Amigo: Party Central’s motion controls are impressive compared to other Switch games in the genre (looking at you, Taiko), but they’re not impeccable. It’s helpful to know how the Joy-Con gyroscopes read your movements and where there are discrepancies.
Fortunately, the game has on-screen maracas that mirror the gyroscope’s readings. Before a stage starts, you must aim your Joy-Con up, which you’ll see reflected in the virtual maracas. Then, whenever you’re lost, refer to these guide maracas to see how your wrists direct the controllers.
You may also toggle the maraca guide off via the Options menu if it becomes too distracting.
When using the maraca guide, ensure Amigo equips traditional maracas with wide tops and narrow bottoms. Those lightsaber maracas may look cool, but you won’t be able to tell where the head and the handle of your maracas are. They’ll look like two thin rods. And once you enter a Fever, they’ll turn a uniform gold color, making them even harder to read.
The Roulette Mini Games Are Rhythm-Based
Were you wondering what the deal was with those odd question-mark rhythm balls? Those are Roulette rhythm balls that randomly assign you a minigame midstage. Doing well in the minigame significantly raises your score.
You’ll encounter all sorts of minigames via the Roulette ball. Some minigames add challenge mods to the current gameplay, like increasing the song speed or making the targets look smaller. Then there are the standalone minigames, where you’ll get tasked with hitting baseballs, giving high fives, or another random goal.
Roulette games like the song modifiers are straightforward. After all, challenge modifiers are a standard mechanic in rhythm games. The standalone minigames are harder to read. Take the baseball minigame, for instance. How do you know when to swing the bat? And does your joy-con grip matter?
All the standalone minigames (except for Fast Dash) draw from Samba de Amigo fundamentals. The song’s rhythm dictates the timing for hitting a home run or meeting your friends’ high fives. Games like Pose and High Five test your maraca positioning by giving you specific targets to aim toward.
From this perspective, you’re still playing Samba de Amigo. It’s just that the parameters are a tad different.
What if you don’t want to play the rhythm minigames? In that case, you can toggle the Roulette ball on and off before starting a song in Rhythm Game mode.
