Mario Party 8

Mario Party 8 Review
Boldly stepping onto the Wii without Online Play. A Mistake?

As an owner of all 7 previous Mario Partys, it would be difficult to defend this writer's biased opinion of the series, but ever since Mario and friends started playing minigames and stealing coins nearly a decade ago a classic game was made. And with the ups and downs of the series (to be fair...mostly downs) its fan base stuck with it.

Now this Mario Party starts strong following in the footsteps of Mario Party 6 with levels that all have their own gimmicks and don't rely on random star locations. Instead the levels each have their own way for players to earn stars. There has been split reactions to this formula change, especially when levels have uninspired mechanics...such as reaching the end of the board to get a free star. Not much challenge in that.

Luckily, the other levels are a little more inspired, with a ghost invested castle a la luigi's mansion, and a chaotic train ride. But one thing that will be noticed is the mediocre graphics and sound of this game, and the lack of detail that was put into the levels. The music on the levels is hardly inspired at all, and even at its best is hardly catchy. This game doesn't run in 16:9 widescreen mode, which makes this the first nintendo published game that doesn't, in fact the developers seemed to eschew focus on graphics in this game and the boards and menus rarely utilize the wii's true potential. Sure, nintendo has made their point clear that gameplay is more important than graphics, but in a series where the basic gameplay has already been set in stone for 8 years, why was so little detail spent on the design.

But looking past the graphics, the board game part of the series is still slow as molasses. And many exciting game altering spaces and events have been taken out, including Boo stealing coins, and fortune spaces that change all. Also active events like jumping for coins while riding a dolphin or riding a train aren't present. This just makes the actual board game fundamental more sluggish and aggrivating. But, luckily the board has many loops and hooks that keep players on their toes, even if the player doesn't have to work for it. Honestly though, the levels have enough surprises that playing each level a couple of times is still exciting and competitive, but after those times, it may be difficult to play some of the courses. And unfortunatly therea are only 5 courses available at the start and 1 unlockable course. And here's the clincher: you have to beat the single player mode to unlock the course...uggh.

So the game comes down to the minigames. The savior of the entire series, and yet this game only comes with 65 new minigames...definitly a step backwards. However, most of these minigames are entertaining, even if a few of them seem inappropriate (i.e. the two minigames whose controls are more your wii up and down as fast as possible). Many critics have claimed these minigames to be uninspired, and they may be correct, but they sure as hell are entertaining and fun, even if it the game follows the wiimote trite by requiring just a flip of the wiimote left and right or to the side. Sadly, most of the courses award so many coins and stars that minigames seem to feel insignifact in some cases.

BOTTOM LINE

This game awards luck a lot more than it awards ability, which for younger children may seem enjoyable, but for the older crowd where their testoterone is pumping and they are looking for a win in anything, it may seem irksome that the game is based mostly on luck.

Everyone knows that Mario Party is made for more than 1 person, and as a single player game this one screws up horribly again. But it is another entertaining multiplayer addition to the series that fans of the series should enjoy even if the gameplay hasn't changed much.

Just a tip Nintendo, if the next Mario Party doesn't have online play then you probably should order less pizza, because no one will be showing up.