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is a 2011
party video game Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games.Frankel, Lillia ...
developed and released by
Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...
for the
Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
and
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
. It is the third game in the ''
We Ski ''We Ski'' is a 2008 skiing video game for the Wii developed and published by Namco Bandai Games. It is the first third-party game (and second game behind ''Wii Fit'') released that makes use of the Wii Balance Board. A sequel, ''We Ski & Snowboa ...
'' series. Up to four players can compete against each other in over 50 sport-based
minigames A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...
that take place in four fictional island resorts. Minigames range from outdoor activities such as kayaking and horseback riding, to activities one might find in a city, like
table hockey A table hockey game, also called rod hockey game, stick hockey, bubble hockey, and board hockey, is a game for two players, derived from ice hockey. The game consists of a representation of a hockey rink; the players score goals by hitting a smal ...
and
minigolf Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...
. Different resorts can be accessed using vehicles such as trolleys and bicycles. Players can customize the outfit of their
avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...
and decorate their house with furniture. The game's development began in 2009 and lasted two and a half years. It was first announced at the 2011 Electronic Entertainment Expo as an entry in the ''We Ski'' series; the game was released later that year for the Wii. The game was
ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...
to the Nintendo Switch in 2018 and included new features such as the ability to take photographs. Surveys were held in America, Europe, and Japan to determine which sports and activities should be included in the minigames. Although the resorts were not directly based on real-life locations, producer Kobayashi said
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
was a possible influence for the Marine Resort. ''Go Vacation'' had a mixed reception; critics praised its
multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...
aspects and creativity but criticized its soundtrack, environments, controls, and the quality of the minigames. It was the third-best-selling game in Japan the week of its release, selling 47,209 copies.


Gameplay

''Go Vacation'' is a
party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
and
sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...
video game. Players explore four resorts located on the fictional Kawawii Island: Marine, City, Mountain, and Snow. They start the game in the Marine Resort. More than 50 activities, both competitive and co-operative, are available on the island. These include bungee jumping, ice fishing, scuba diving, miniature golf, tennis, off-road racing, and snowman building. Some minigames require or allow for the use of different controllers and accessories, such as MotionPlus controller or the
Balance Board A balance board is a device used as a circus skill, for recreation, balance training, athletic training, brain development, therapy, musical training and other kinds of personal development. It is a lever similar to a see-saw that the use ...
. Winning some minigames unlocks more challenging modes. The island can be navigated at the player's leisure by walking or riding on vehicles, the type of which depends on the resort, and each resort also has certain places where players can
fast travel Fast travel or teleportation is a video game mechanic used in open world titles that allows a player character to instantaneously travel between previously discovered locations (teleport waypoints or fast travel points) without having to traverse ...
to. In the
Switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
version, players are able to find and take photographs of animals that are scattered across the resorts, and find boxes with rewards in them. The Marine Resort, which contains coves and beaches, is themed around watersports, including beach volleyball, surfing, water gun battles, and Marine bike races. The City Resort, which centers around extreme and leisure sports, is the second and smallest resort. It hosts games such as table hockey, pie-throwing, skating, and minigolf. Players can use skateboards found throughout the resort to ride on skating rails. The third resort, the Snow Resort, focuses on winter sports like ski jumping, snow tubing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, and snowball fighting. The final resort is the Mountain Resort, where players can partake in outdoor activities. It includes forests and locations for rafting, kayaking, exploring, off-road car racing, and
horseback riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...
. It also contains a lake and a shooting park. ''Go Vacation'' can be played using a
Mii A Mii ( ) is a customizable avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles and mobile apps. Miis were first introduced on the Wii console in 2006 and later appeared on the 3DS, Wii U, the Switch, and various apps for smart devices. Miis c ...
or one of 284
avatars Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance ...
divided into eight categories such as "Grandmother", "Grandfather", "Boy", and "Girl". Treasure chests containing outfits for the players' avatars are scattered around the resorts. Players can create a virtual dog and a
non-player character A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...
(NPC) to accompany them as they explore the resorts which, with some exceptions, cannot participate in minigames. Up to four players can play together through local multiplayer. Occasionally, NPCs may ask players to embark upon a small
quest A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of ever ...
, such as getting an item and taking back to them. After playing 20 minigames, players gains access to their own virtual
villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...
s, which can be decorated with furniture or photographs taken during the game. Furniture can be found in the game's world or unlocked using "silver keys" that are obtained after completing minigame goals. Furniture is gained in sets, of which there are 90. Players can alter the exterior of their villas using "gold keys", earned by completing challenges.


Development

''Go Vacation'' was announced at the
2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
Electronic Entertainment Expo E3 (short for Electronic Entertainment Expo or Electronic Entertainment Experience in 2021) is a trade event for the video game industry. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) organizes and presents E3, which many developers, publisher ...
(E3) as the third entry in the ''
We Ski ''We Ski'' is a 2008 skiing video game for the Wii developed and published by Namco Bandai Games. It is the first third-party game (and second game behind ''Wii Fit'') released that makes use of the Wii Balance Board. A sequel, ''We Ski & Snowboa ...
'' series.
Namco Bandai Games is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...
began development of the game in 2009, shortly after the release of ''
We Ski & Snowboard ''We Ski & Snowboard'', known as ''Family Ski: World Ski and Snowboard'' in Japan and ''Family Ski & Snowboard'' in Europe and Korea, is a video game for the Wii. It is a sequel to the 2008 title ''We Ski'' and utilizes the Wii Balance Board. G ...
'' because the developers felt they had not given players a "complete sense" of winter in the previous game. When discussing ways to address this, the developers decided winter alone was not enough; they wanted to depict other seasons. Producer Kenya Kobayashi wanted the game to focus on the experience of going on a resort holiday, rather than strictly focusing on the minigames themselves. Part of the game's development was outsourced to other companies; the rest was done by Namco Bandai Games staff who had previously worked on the ''
Ridge Racer is a racing game, racing video game series developed and published for arcade systems and home game consoles by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. The first game, ''Ridge Racer (1993 video game), Ridge Racer'' (1993), was originally rel ...
'' series. After realizing the word "vacation" is frequently associated with relaxation, Kenya Kobayashi named the game ''Go Vacation'' to clarify that it is a game in which you must be active. The resorts were not directly based on any real-life locations, although Kobayashi said the Marine Resort "might be inspired by things you find in Hawaii". The developers conducted surveys in America, Europe, and Japan to determine what activities to include in the game. The development team included 50 minigames in ''Go Vacation'' because most of the game's contemporaries included only 10 to 15 minigames. Developing the controls for the game's vehicles felt like "second nature" to the development team due to their experience on the ''Ridge Racer'' series. ''Go Vacation'' was first released for the Wii in 2011, however the exact date of release vary depending on region. It released on 11 October in North America, 20 October in Japan, 4 November in Europe, and 17 November in Australia. It was later ported to the Switch. The port released on 27 July 2018 in all regions except for Japan, where it was released on 27 December. The soundtrack of ''Go Vacation'' consists of both original music, as well as instrumental and vocal arrangements of music from past Namco games. Several composers, musicians, and vocal artists worked on the soundtrack for ''Go Vacation'', including Taku Inoue,
Norihiko Hibino is a Japanese video game composer and saxophonist. Biography Hibino was born in Osaka. He graduated from the Osaka University School of Human Sciences in 1996. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1997, he moved to Kansas City to st ...
, Aubrey Ashburn, and Jody Whitesides. ''Go Vacation'' has had two soundtrack albums released. The first, the officially licensed album ''Namco Music Saloon'', was released on 21 December 2012 by Japanese record label Sweep Records, and includes live instrumentation and vocals. The album consists of original arrangements of songs from other Bandai Namco Entertainment titles, including ''Ridge Racer'', ''
Dig Dug is a maze game, maze arcade game developed by Namco in 1981 and released in 1982, distributed in North America by Atari, Inc. The player controls Dig Dug to defeat all enemies per stage, by either inflating them to bursting or crushing them unde ...
'', ''
Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', ''
New Rally-X is a maze chase arcade video game released by Namco in 1981. It is a lightly tweaked version of 1980's ''Rally-X'', with slightly enhanced graphics, easier gameplay, a new soundtrack, and a "Lucky Flag" that gives the player extra points for r ...
'', and '' Kotoba no Puzzle: Mojipittan''. The second, ''GO VACATION BGM Album'', was released by NAMCO SOUNDS digitally on
iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
on 23 March 2013. This album contains original music composed by Taku Inoue for ''Go Vacation''.


Reception

''Go Vacation'' received a mixed reception from critics; both versions of the game received "mixed or average" reviews according to review aggregator
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
. Andy Robertson of ''Wired'' stated the game was one of his "go-to family gaming suggestions", calling it "a real treat".
Jim Sterling James Stephanie Sterling, also known as Jim Sterling, is an English-American freelance video game journalist, critic, pundit, YouTuber, and professional wrestler. Before becoming independent in September 2014, they were the review editor for ...
, writing for ''
Destructoid ''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022. History ' ...
'', argued that "to call it bad would be unfair, but to call it anything better would give it more credit than it deserves". The Wii version of ''Go Vacation'' was the third-best-selling game in Japan during its first week, selling 47,209 copies, behind both '' Macross F: The Wings of Goodbye Hybrid Pack'' and '' Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Impact''. The controls of the Wii version received a mixed reception but those of the Switch were praised. Of the Wii version, ''IGNs Audrey Drake said, "from Marine bikes to roller blades to horses, traversing the island proves engaging in its own right". Sterling took issue with the need to plug and unplug the Nunchuk controllers on the Wii version when swapping between minigames. Nintendo Power's Cody M. said that while exploring the game's open world can be a "joy", but that the motion controls were "awkward" and could cause players attempting to move forward to accidentally change their direction. Mark Reece of ''
Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British mass media company based in Brighton. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and other ...
'' said the minigames were not fun to play due to "a poorly conceived or unintuitive control scheme". Reviewing the Switch version, Daan Koopman of ''Nintendo World Report'' noted that the controls are one of the "biggest improvements over the original". Alessandra Borgonovo of ''IGN Italia'' praised the controls for the roller skates, saying that they were fun to use. On the game's minigames, critics were mostly negative. In his review of the Wii version, Sterling called them "tepid and shallow". Reviewing the Switch version, Koopman criticized the game for not properly informing the player that more activities and modes can be accessed in the individual minigames after the first playthrough of said minigame. ''Nintendo Life'''s Ryan Craddock felt that they are "an undercooked version of things we've seen countless times before." 's praised the amount of minigames available, saying that the
proverb A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
of "quality over quantity" might have lost its meaning with ''Go Vacation''. Reviewing the Wii version, Chris Watters, a writer for ''
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
'', was mostly positive about the minigames, saying that "most are decent", but that some had succumbed to an "awkward camera" or "unresponsive controls". According to Reece, the game's music is "irritating and forgettable in equal measure", and the Wii version's opening theme would "more than likely awaken a strong desire to gouge out your own eardrums". In reviewing the game's soundtrack, Don Kotowski said the vocals in some of the music are "cheesy" and tend to "be a huge distraction that really hampers my enjoyment of the album". He praised the songs "Starry Ocean" and " Break" for their "nice island vibe" and said it was "quite impressive to see how Hibino has elaborated on the simple originals to produce fully-fledged arrangements". Watters criticized one aspect of villas; he said the game does not properly communicate to players how to gain silver and gold keys, which are used to customize villas. Some reviewers, however, praised the customizable villas; Craddock, in his review of the Switch version, compared them to the house customization mechanics of the ''
Animal Crossing is a social simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo. The series was conceptualized and created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami. In ''Animal Crossing'', the player character is a human who lives in a village inhabi ...
'' series. According to Drake, the game's island is "where everyone but yourself is actually a robot", referring to a lack of interaction with NPCs. Sterling criticized the NPCs for their design, calling them "faux anime characters" and "completely charmless". Reece also took issue with the NPCs, writing, "even if you hop onto an ATV and plough into someone at full speed, they'll have very little to say for themselves when they get back on their feet".


References


Notes


External links

*
Official North American website for the original Wii version
{{Authority control 2011 video games Bandai Namco games Nintendo Switch games Open-world video games Party video games Sports video games Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games set on fictional islands Wii Balance Board games Wii games Wii Zapper games Wii Wheel games Wii MotionPlus games Works about vacationing Multiplayer and single-player video games