Announced in 1998, Nintendo's and Hudson's Manegi partnership has finally come to fruit with the release of their first major coproduction. Mario Party, an interactive board game with a collection of more than 50 mini-games proves that the Big "N" has no problem branching out into unexplored genres. But the game should really come with a warning. It's the ultimate party game for N64 on one hand -- but it can also turn into a grueling experience when less than three players are taking part.
Features
- Six boards based on Mario environments (plus two hidden ones).
- 56 mini-games.
- Six Nintendo characters.
- One- to four-player gameplay.
- Game Save feature to save gameplay progress (Controller Pak not needed).
- Rumble Pak support. Lets players know when it's their turn.
- 256 megabit cartridge.
Gameplay
The core of Mario Party is made up of a simple turn-based board game, played on one of six lovingly designed boards (plus two hidden), ranging from a Donkey Kong jungle board to Mario's castle in the sky. One to four players select from six famous Nintendo mascots (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong) and determine the length of the game by setting a move limit (20, 40 or 60 turns). A 20-turn game usually lasts around 45 minutes to an hour. If there are less than four people present, the computer will fill in for the missing players. The goal of the game is to collect stars and coins and compete in mini-games. At the end of the chosen number of turns, players are rated according to what happened in the game and receive bonus stars. The player with the most stars wins.
After determining the order, players cast the dice, move their characters and land on differently colored squares that cause certain events to happen. A mushroom field could either cause you to gain or a lose a turn, blue fields earn you coins, red ones cost you coins, and Bowser fields cause a (usually bad) event to happen. Players collect stars by winning them in events, stealing them from others (with the help of Big Boo), or by reaching Toad who is waiting somewhere on the board. Certain pathways on the boards are blocked and can only be reached by paying a toll -- that's where the coins come in.
The game features different maps/scenery reminiscent of Nintendo's classic games:
- Donkey's Jungle Adventure
- Peach's Birthday Cake
- Yoshi's Tropical Island
- Wario's Battle Canyon
- Luigi's Engine Room
- Mario's Rainbow Castle
The 2D (pre-rendered) maps are not only different in graphical design, but also feature distinctive traps or gizmos. For example, stepping on certain fields will cause Toad's tower to rotate on Mario's Castle, switching Toad with Bowser. This can have hilarious consequences if one of the players is only a field or so away from getting a star from Toad. While he is waiting for his turn, another player steps on the switch and send the player into the arms of Bowser. Not good. Mario's nemesis can trigger events such as two players exchanging their coins or stars or someone getting beaten up in a mini-game -- but it will most certainly screw the player hoping for a star.
It's on this level of play that Mario Party succeeds. Unlike in most games, where the gameplay experience is created by the player interacting with the game more than anything else, Mario Party is more about interaction between the human players themselves. It's a party game. If the people you're playing with are lame -- or you happen to be playing alone -- you will be bored because you're watching stuff happen on screen more than you're actually interacting with the game. While this isn't a problem when you're playing with friends, watching the computer use its coins to purchase stars or causing events and the like isn't very exciting. But then again, the board isn't the main attraction -- it's all about the mini-games.
After each player moved, the game switches to a random mini-game that either pits 1 vs 3, 2 vs 2, or 4 vs. a common enemy. Many of the games are based on the good, old Decathlon formula: Press buttons rapidly or jiggle the joystick to win. Others require limited Mario 64 style navigation, jumping on heads, and hip drops. One such game, Bumper Balls, is based on the battle level in Hudson's B-Daman title. Each player balances on top of a giant rubber ball and tries to knock the others off a floating platform. Another game teams up two players to race in a split-screen bob sled racer, another one is based on "Concentration", yet another uses the old "Simon Says" routine, and so on.
Needless to say that most of these mini-games are great fun when playing with four players. To keep things from getting repetitive, Mario Party contains a whopping 56 mini-games, some simple in both graphics and gameplay, others surprisingly polished. There is even a separate game mode, the Mini-Game House, that features mini-game challenges only, and a neat little "shop" feature that enables players to exchange money earned in the board game mode for special items (new blocks that can impact gameplay), sound tests, and the like.
Overall, Mario Party's biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. The game is excellent with three or four players, but only the mini-game challenge will hold a single player's attention. In the end, it's still a very basic board game that relies heavily on luck, but it's so damn entertaining with multiple players that it manages to stand out from the heaps of uninspired interactive board games out there.
Graphics
Graphically, Mario Party can't deny its Hudson roots. While the polygonal Nintendo characters are recognizable and the mini-games have that same colorful look as the worlds in Super Mario 64 and co, it seems to lack that final Nintendo polish. Some of the 3D events, such as the bob sled run are very basic and flat looking in presentation, whereas others, such as the Ghost Guess, impress with almost frightening lighting effects and interesting backdrops. The boards, which sport the same prerendered look as Yoshi's Story or Donkey Kong Country are nicely decorated. Each represents the world they're based on to a tee and feature many characters and elements Mario fans will recognize from the franchise. It's a nice looking board game that doesn't deny that its primary target audience is kids.
Sound
Nintendo's composers have created some of the most memorable melodies for the Mario series. Thankfully, some of the themes have found their way into Mario Party as well. Remember the cave theme from Mario Brothers? It's here, along with tons of new little jingles and melodies. Technically, they're nothing special (the tunes all use the standard Nintendo sound banks from 1996), but the music accompanies the events well. Sound effects and voices are also vintage Nintendo stuff, with the typical Mario hollers, DK's "banana banana" and Yoshi's... whatever it is Yoshi does. Kids will dig all the different effects and probably drive everyone nuts with the "parrot" voice test feature in the options menu. Our personal vote for most annoying voice: "Miss!"
The Verdict
Warning: If you love your controllers, have your friends bring theirs when they come over to play this game. The endurance and button mashing contests are the ultimate test for Nintendo's controllers. Expect plenty of "white dust" around the analog stick...
Mario Party is one of those rare games that has to be played by three or four people to be fun. The "board gameplay" and the mini-games are all fairly simplistic and although gamers with fast fingers will quickly figure out how to win the events, the game's outcome is ultimately determined by luck. You could be leading with three stars over your opponents, but all it takes is for you to land on a Bowser space or your friends to use a ghost and 50 coins -- and you could end up last. This random nature may turn off some gamers who want to win games based on skill, but it will make the game all the more fun for kids and drunk college students. Seriously, Mario Party is an excellent party game for four people and we suggest everyone out there with three friends should own it (unless your three friends own it). But be prepared to spend at least an hour for a game and do a lot of waiting for the other players. Had the overall speed of gameplay been faster (especially when playing against computer players), Mario Party would have scored higher in our final review score. Still, this is probably one of the best "virtual board games" I have ever played and the inclusion of the many mini-games makes this one of the few ones that couldn't have been done better outside of a game console.
