The party goes to DS! - 7/10
People are generally getting sick of the Mario Party games, because they say each one is basically the same. Id this one any different?
Story
Well, Mario Party games never really has a good story, and this one isn't much different. One night five objects fall from the sky, and one just happens to land near Mario. The next day, Mario tells his friends that it was a "Sky Crystal". Then they receive an invitation to a buffet from Bowser as an apology for being a jerk. Everyone goes to Bowser's castle, and they all get trapped. Then Bowser shrinks everyone down to the size of ants, steals their Sky Crystal, and throws them out. You then travel to back Bowser's castle, helping anyone you meet. It has a rubbish ending too. Good thing it's not a major part of the game. 5/10
How could they fall for THAT?
Graphics
The graphics are pretty good for the DS. Probably because there isn't a whole lot of animation. Still, I call it good. 9/10
Not bad. Not bad at all.
Audio
Well, I don't have much to say about the audio. The voices for the characters sound a little different. Plus, Daisy's voice gets...annoying. Apart from that, no real comment. 7/10
I'm sick of Daisy saying "That's right!"
Gameplay
The basic Mario Party play style is basically the same. Four characters play on a board, and hit dice blocks numbered 1-10 to move. The type of space you land on will determine what happens to you. There's a new space called a Friend Space, which gets you to choose one your opponents and then you and whoever you chose, will get 5 coins each, but they turn into Duel Spaces when it is the last 5 turns. Whoever gets the most stars at the end wins. Another thing, is that all the boards are much smaller then in previous Mario Party games.
If you think 'Played one Mario Party, played them all' you'd probably be right.
The main 1-player feature is the Story mode, which takes you through the story mentioned above. You choose one of the eight characters (Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, Peach, Daisy, Waluigi or Toad) and play on one of the 5 boards. The games only have 10 turns, so they will finish very quickly. If you win, you fight a boss, beat it, get a Sky Crystal, repeat 4 more times, and you have done the story mode.
You get these cutscenes as well.
The multiplayer, as always, is very good. You can have a four player game with only 1 copy of the game, which is good. There is lots of fun to be had in multiplayer, but there's no online, which is a bit disappointing. Maybe next time.
If only you could do this online....
Mario Party's major strength are it's mini-games. There are 74 mini-games this time and most of them, are set in the theme of being tiny. You'll be stroking the stylus across the screen as slide down the rail of a stair case on a leaf. You'll be hanging from a coat hanger, avoiding obstacles etc. There are even some mini-games that require you to blow in the DS's microphone. You can turn them of, thankfully, so people won't think your a nut if you play the game in public. There are also some mini-games from previous Mario Party games as well.
As usual, there's one mini-game that gets you to tap the A button like a lunatic.
Every time you do something, your awarded MP points. Basically what these points do, is reward you with badges and figures of Mario characters. I think this is supposed to motivate you to keep playing it to get all the badges and figures, but you need a ridiculous amount to get them all. There's also "Board Features" which are things found on specific boards. To get them you usually have to do something on that board. Once again, you won't really feel like getting them all. Overall 8/10
You also have to complete Story mode 8 times to get all the character medals and figures
Controls
Well, first, navigating the menu is annoying, because you have to tap everything twice. Now that I got that out of the way, there are the mini-game controls. Most of them use the buttons, rather than the touch screen or microphone. The controls do work well, as you would expect. You do feel, however, that they could've done more with the controls. 8/10
There could've been more mini-games that use the stylus.
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Final Summary
You could just call this the old Mario Party, but on the DS. If you enjoy Mario Party games, then you should enjoy this. If you enjoy mini-game collections, like WarioWare, while it may not be as hectic, you should get some enjoyment out of it. If you think you may enjoy this, but aren't familiar with the Mario Party series, rent it.
Final Score
Story 5/10
Graphics 9/10
Audio 7/10
Gameplay 8/10
Controls 8/10
Final Score: 7/10
Comments: Thanks for reading this review, and I hope you enjoyed it.
Submitted by Majaba
22/03/2008
240
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