Was there a 9er in there? Did they phone it in from a walkie talkie? Mario Party is back after a five year hiatus with its second title for the Wii console and the 9th edition of the franchise overall. The party got started on March 11th and promised all new mini games, bosses and vehicles. For those of you unfamiliar with the franchise it's a virtual board game that relies on the roll of the dice and mini games to keep the action moving. Think CandyLand meets the Raving Rabbids set in the Mario universe. After nine "different" versions, what new and exciting updates can Nintendo have in store for us that were worth the wait?
What’s New?
After nine “different” versions of a game, it’s hard to come up with too much innovation and stay true to the board game style. This time around Nintendo focused on switching up the rolling of the dice. Instead of players rolling individually, they introduced the concept of one vehicle to cart everyone around the board and each player takes a turn as “captain” and gets to roll. Each time you are captain you have the opportunity to gain or lose stars, hit special spaces or get bonus stars in the mini games. There are also different types of dice you can accumulate and choose each time you roll. The slow dice are back from Mario Party 8 along with others that only allow you to roll certain numbers like 4, 5, 6 or 0 and 1. Stars are also handled different this time around and you are no longer competing with other players for the single star on the board. The format changed to mini-stars which are much more abundant as you traverse the play area.
Boss battles are added to the game which brings probably the newest feeling element. Players have to work together to defeat stage bosses while simultaneously trying to get themselves the most points in the process. There are two boss battles for each stage, one about half way through, who is introduced by Koopa Jr. and then Bowser himself shows up at the end of each board. This did get me to thinking where the heck did Bowser Jr. come from exactly? Is there a Mrs. Koopa? Or did Mario not quite rescue the princess in time in one of his many attempts? I’m not sure the world is ready for the answer to the question of where the Koopa kids came from. *shudder*
The Good
If you enjoyed the Mario Party games of the past this one brings you more of the same kind of fun. There are still tons of the cute Mario characters you’ve grown to love all over the boards and environments. They’ve also finally removed the pesky problem of having to wait for the computer players to roll and allow you the option of just having real players and eliminating the computer ones in party mode. This removes the annoying waiting around and watching factor and makes the games go quicker. The controls are also pretty easy to use and all the mini games I’ve come across are intuitive and quick to pick up. Being a sucker for terrible humor my favorite part of this installment are the names of the mini games. They are riddled with terrible puns like Urn It, Bomb Barge, and Mecha Choice which had me snickering with glee.
This game actually has a ton of ways to play and more than just traditional mini games. There is the classic party mode where you can select to play with 1 to 4 players in the traditional board game mode that’s great for partying with your friends. For lonely folk there is solo mode that has you play versus the computer to win each board and advance through the story and unlock hidden characters Shy Guy and Magikoopa. There is also a mini game mode which has the interesting twist of different wrappers around the games so they kind of become mini-games within a mini-game to make it really meta. Finally the extras menu has its own set of mini games including one called Castle Clearout that’s sort of a cross between Tetris and Dr. Mario. The game also has a Museum where you use your party points to unlock stages, music, vehicles and constellations. Definitely several hours of game play across all these modes before you run into any repetition.
The Bad
Depending on your perspective this first complaint could actually be a good thing. For the most part, Nintendo seems to have removed the motion controls from this version (a sign of things to come for the wiiU?) and switched back to holding the controller sideways old school style. I kind of liked the old way of rolling by shaking the controller instead of just hitting A and it took me a few games to get used to. After each mini game where you hold the controller sideways it pops up a little note to remind you to hold the controller vertically again for rolling and that got super annoying after about the 3rd time. I get it I’m not 5 years old…oh right but the game’s actual target audience probably is.
The mini games in this one while intuitive aren’t really anything new and other than their punny titles weren’t too exciting. They also seemed to mostly rely on the random more than the skill which can be frustrating to those with a competitive streak. The boards and way the dice worked in general also seemed very random so this party is more an exercise in luck than skill. Especially annoying was the game mechanic of having boos or other characters (depending on the board) chase you around and the captain losing half their stars when caught. This quickly changes up the dynamics of the game in a way that doesn’t seem all that fair.
For the competitive people among us, the game has a plethora of statistics to scroll through at the end. There are six different screens ranging from progress graphs to stats on dice rolls so you can compare and contrast yourself to other players. For such a random game, these seemed unnecessary overkill to me. Clearly what every party needs is more facts and figures!
The Verdict
While not a terrible game, I feel like I could have had pretty much the same experience if I just dusted off my copy of Mario Party 8 and saved myself $50. The biggest pro to the purchase was it gave me enough Club Nintendo points to get the old skool Mario t-shirt I’ve been eyeing for a whilw. Plus, it did give my neglected Wii some love. If you’ve got kids or a big group of casual gaming friends to play with, the game is still fun but I don’t think it has lasting power to stay in my game rotation much beyond writing this review. I think it might have been more fun as a portable title as I’d rather play some of the mini games on the go than really sit there and play a whole board. I’d say pick this one up as a rental.
About the Author
Erin is a born and bred Masshole gamer who started at a young age watching her dad play Atari. She currently owns all three major platforms as well as has a home arcade cabinet and 2 pinball machines (Erin has games instead of children). Erin is actually pretty terrible at a lot of video games and continues her trend of watching her husband play games and “managing” him from the comfort of the couch sans controller. Her favorite type of games are point and click adventures, platform, and rhythm which fits nicely with her love of prog rock and live music.
