Some of you whippersnappers out there never got to experience a proper LAN party, and I’m here to tell you that you missed out. Sure, it’s easier than ever to link up with friends anywhere in the world and play a game together. Back in my day,we had to get a bit more creative and be infinitely more inconvenienced overall.
Despite the logistical issues of getting a dozen desktop computers in one location and successfully linking them together to run amultiplayergame, I truly miss these days. I could eat a whole large pizza without feeling sick for three days afterward.I could drink an entire 2 liter of Mountain Dew and not send my heart into a palpitation frenzy.These truly were magical times.
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LAN Party Adventuresis a game that seems to be geared precisely towards me, and likely several of you too. We are the 30-something-year-old gamers that never gave up the love for the artform despite adulting, taxation, and just general existence getting in our ways.
I played through a short demo of LAN Party Adventures recently, and I gotta say,I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time as I set up a PC that looked just like my family’sgrowing up in a bedroom that was themed exactly how 10-year-old me would’ve preferred everything.
While this is a game about PC setup, cable management, and floppy disks, there’s more under the surface too. LAN Party Adventures also promises to eventually wrap us up in the mystery of our missing friend, Pedro, as the rest of the group manages to help look for him between game sessions.
There’s more here to discuss than you might expect, so let’s get into it. Fo' shizzle. Or something.
A Turn Of The Millennium Nostalgia-Fest
I’m really not sure if I’ve ever tried out a game that catered to my specific nostalgia as strongly as this demo for LAN Party Adventures. Sure, plenty of games still come out these days that areretro throwbacksto the games I loved growing up, but this title really put me right back in my childhood home.
It kicks off with your main character narrating a harrowing story of his PC breaking and having to save and scrounge to earn enough cash for a replacement.The backwards baseball cap, baggy jeans, Adidas jacket, and alternative band t-shirt really tie the whole thing togetherin a way that made me think, “Yeah, this could’ve been me.”
Granted, I am not and have never been a fan of Korn, and this kid is wearing their t-shirt. But we can let that part slide. I’ll send him a Thrice shirt in the mail.
The bedroom you start in is full ofdozensof year 2000 touchstones that are just tweaked and parodied enough to avoid any potential lawsuits while still clearly invoking the trends of my youth.
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Starcraft, Akira, SimCity, Half-Life, Counter-Strike, a Nintendo 64 placed underneath a CRT TV with a VCR on top—it’s all here, and all perfectly setup around the room exactly how I would’ve preferred it as a kid.
There’s even a mug on the desk that reads “Skate or Die!”, which was one of the first NES games I can remember being obsessed with before eventually transitioning toTony Hawkand Skate in my later years.
The desk features a notebook with the famed “S” that every self-respecting 90s kid will remember plastering all over their own school materials, for whatever reason. It’s one of the universe’s biggest mysteries why wealldid this, and LAN Party Adventures knows it.
Despite this demo being super short in actuality,I spent a ton of time just looking around this bedroom and taking screenshots of everything that reminded me of my glory days.Man, did it feel good, while also reminding me that I am kind of… old.
Nostalgia is great and all, but what actuallyisLAN Party Adventures? Allow me to explain.
Setting Things Up
Truthfully, I have yet to experience what’s really going to hopefully make LAN Party Adventures a great actual video game, but the featured gameplay inthe demo certainly piqued my interest.
All of your new PC parts have just come in, so your only task in the demo is to unpack them from their boxes, place everything on your desk, run the proper cables to hook everything up, and get your rig running.
Hilariously, I just built a new PC last week, so this all felt even more meta and fitting for my own personal place in my life right now. How did you know, LEAP Games??
The computer setup process is deeper than you’d expect from any other game. You’ll physically turn around the tower and plug in a power cable, find a plug adapter, then search for enough open outlets to meet your needs. You’ll screw in a VGA table to run between the tower and monitor. You’ll play an Ethernet cable mini-game to connect your PC to your modem.
If you’re like me, after all that, you’ll notice that your cable management is trash, and you’ll do the whole thing again just to get everything looking nice and tidy. Finally, it was time to power up the computer. Butthe work still wasn’t done there.
I then had to grab a floppy disk from my nightstand, pop it into the drive, read a couple instructions manuals, andjump into the PC terminal to type some good, old-fashioned, Y2K-era setup prompts.
After connecting to the internet, I was able to catch up on emails from the dev, my brother, and one of my best friends.Again, LAN Party Adventures hit me right in my soul as I read through an email from my older brother who wanted to play a video game with me that he knew I loved. My real-life brother is five years older and introduced me to games, so this landed with me.
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The only thing thatdidn’twork was when I popped into the web browser and typed in www.askjeeves.com.Maybe that’ll be possible in the full version, though.
That experience was pretty much my whole demo. While I saw just a tiny snippet of the game, I couldn’t deny how charming it was and how interested I became to see what else the game would show me. It sounds like it’ll definitely get even cooler.
Time to Travel Back in Time for More
What I did in the demo was admittedly simple, but it worked as a great setup for what’s to come. Per the information provided from the dev team that you can see on Steam for yourself, LAN Party Adventures also turns into an experience where you’re working to track down a missing friend. The demo laid the breadcrumbs for this perfectly.
I’m pretty excited to see just how complex all of this gets.
It’s unclear just how nefarious and dangerous this missing person quest will become. I’d wager it remains pretty chill and light-hearted based on the vibe of the demo so far, but you never know. I can already see how reading through emails, calling up my friends, and doing some kid-level sleuthing will translate into a great time as I attempt to find my pal Pedro.
The LAN/PC setup mechanic is said to getmuchdeeper too, asyou’ll eventually connect multiple rigs at a video game/comic book store, at school, and in other areas of the house. I’m pretty excited to see just how complex all of this gets, and just how anal-retentive I become about making sure my cable management is top tier.
There’s even a cool sandbox mode in LAN Party Adventures that allows you to set up a room precisely how you want it, featuring a menu full of furniture, PC components, and other props and decorations.
As you can see in the picture above, I took it upon myself to gift myself 10 Nintendo 64s on the floor of my bedroom in sandbox mode. Why? Because Ican, dangit!
Overall, my time already spent with LAN Party Adventures was cozy, nostalgic, unique, and genuinely fun.I will absolutely be checking out the full version when it releases sometime later in 2025.
If you want to keep up with LAN Party Adventures yourself, you cancheck out the Steam pageand wishlist the game now.
LAN Party Adventures
WHERE TO PLAY
Plug in & Play! -Strange things have been happening in our small town lately. Someone is messing with the townsfolk, and now Pedro is missing. All we want to do is hang out, set up LAN parties for some extra cash, and munch on some pizza, but I guess it’s down to us to find out what’s going down and fight back.• Adventure Story: A nostalgia-filled single-player adventure with job-sim features.• 2000s Tech: Connect VGA cables, manage speeds, avoid viruses, and master the command line.• Sandbox Mode: Create LANs in your style.Set up LAN Parties -It’s the year 2000, and you need to set up a series of LAN Parties at different locations. Power screens, connect cables, manage download speeds, and install software and games using dial-up! But watch out for viruses.Unravel the Adventure -A chill yet mysterious story about friends and family told through a mix of comic book cutscenes, emails, phone calls, secret documents, and surfing the web. Every time you set up a new LAN Party, you discover more clues.The Gang Investigates -Use your detective skills to uncover what is going on in your small town and find your missing friend. Dangerous? Maybe. But you have your gang; working together is the best way to save the town.Endless LAN Parties -The weekend never has to end with sandbox mode. Order in some pizza and create as many LAN Parties as you like in your own style.
