Tag Archives: Mario Party

Super Mario Party Review

Posted on by
Reply


Mario Party is one of those really long running series that just keeps on going and it’s always impressive. It did hit a bit of a slump for a while there starting with Mario Party 8 but this one is getting on the right track. My main problem with it is just that the control scheme isn’t great. The fact that you can only use the single Joy Con and can’t use any of the actual controllers is rather puzzling to say the least. Why would you even do that? The only explanation I could think of it that maybe it would be slightly easier for 4 people to be in the same room playing buttttt I’m not sold on this because in theory if you had more standard controllers you could use the 2 Joy Cons and two wireless for an instant 4 player session. So yeah that was a little too bad.

When you boot up the game, you get the brief intro cutscene which is pretty much a remake of the first Mario Party at least in terms of the concept. Everyone is fighting to be recognized as the greatest superstar on the planet. To prove this, they will all compete in a bunch of minigames and so that sets the stage for all of the modes. There are a decently large amount of options to be had here outside of the normal party mode and it’s all connected within the hub world. You can quick travel to any area once you have unlocked it as well.

Interestingly the intro movie plays every time you boot up the game but you can skip it so that’s not a big deal. I suppose the first place you will likely go to is Party Mode which is always a safe bet. You are able to set each stage to 10 turns which is nice. That may sound like a given but believe it or not this isn’t the case. After playing through the original Mario Party titles I was reminded that you used to have to choose 15 turns. 10 turns is fairly long anyway so don’t worry about that. There are a ton of unskippable cutscenes on every turn and of course you can’t skip the CPU’s turns so that’s a lot of waiting time anyway. It’s why this is a game that is really meant to be played with friends.

There are 3 main maps and then a 4th one that you unlock by playing the first 3. A key thing to note is that you don’t have to beat these levels, just playing them is enough to unlock everything. By playing the 4th level you unlock a jewel. Gather all of the jewels to unlock the true ending. You do this by completing each mode. So aside from the party mode you also have co-op party mode. I’m not exactly sure what that entails but maybe if it’s a 2 v 2 the whole time, any stars and coins you obtain are merged? That means you need to hope you have a good teammate.

Another mode is music based. All of the minigames that you play in this one are build around timing and rhythm. So feel the beat as best you can and then you will be fine. This mode is the quickest by far and only has 3 levels to play through in order to unlock the gem. This time I think you do have to win but the games are fairly easy so you shouldn’t have a problem. Then there is the water-raft mode. This one feels the most pointless to me so far. Basically everyone is stuck on a boat as you try to maneuver your way to the end. Completing minigames adds more seconds to your timer so just keep on playing and you’ll make it to the end. I think part of what holds this one back is everyone is stuck together anyway so there’s no real competitive aspect to the game. It also feels really hard to lose. There’s just not much to it.

Outside of that you have the classic minigame modes, mini, minigames in Toad World, and you can check out the shop to buy advice. There’s a fairly large variety of content to be found within the game so I give the title a lot of respect there. There were still a lot of question marks within the game by the time I finished it. In terms of minigames, I unlocked nearly all of them, there are just 2 left. A great quality of life update is that the game prioritizes minigames that you haven’t unlocked yet when playing. The curser will intentionally stop on the question marked ones for any area where I was missing a game.

I can’t stress enough what a big deal that is. It saves an incredible amount of time and makes unlocking the games no chore at all. It could be rough in older games if the RNG wasn’t just right. There are also unlockable characters here which feels nostalgic since you don’t get to go through that process nearly as much anymore. Each character has different unlock criteria so I recommend looking that up online. Once you fulfill the criteria, just run around the hub world until you find that character. I ended up unlocking Dry Bones so I have 3 characters left to go through.

In terms of graphics, the game definitely looks nice and modern. I definitely have no issues there, no corners were cut here. Of course without much of a story it’s not like there is much to really test the game with either. For the soundtrack, it’s a bit more forgettable. I can’t say that any of the stage tunes really stood out to me. Fortunately this game really just needs fun minigames in order to succeed and those were good. I may not have been all that thrilled with the Wii tier motion controls running around but the traditional games were fun. There’s a really good soccer game and a lot of fun platforming ones. Running through a maze filled with bananas for example made for a very memorable stage. I certainly won’t forget it any time soon.

Overall, There are enough minigames here to keep you busy. So mix that in with the general replay value and you have a lot of bang for your buck. The fact that the game has a lot of unlockable content here is a pretty good trick to keep you interested for a long while. None of the unlockables are particularly grueling in terms of time to unlock either. So since you’ll be having a good time, it will fly by as you play through the next levels. Throw in the online modes and that’s pretty nice since it’s still a fairly new concept to be able to challenge people online. I’m not sure if it’s quite $60 good, but if you can get a bit of a deal on this game then I definitely recommend buying it.

Overall 7/10

Mario Party 3 Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for the next Mario Party title! The series has definitely come a long way and it’s always fun to take a trip down nostalgia lane with the older ones. Back in the day I played a lot of Mario Party 2 but 3 was sort of the odd man out. Now I could really go through it and see how it stacked up. It’s a fun game as are all of the parties but I would say that it’s not quite at the elite level of some of the latter ones like Mario Party 4 and Mario Party 5. In particular I think there are too many event spaces which do have a tendency to slow up the game somewhat.

I played a classic party match on the snow level. The gimmick here is that there is a snowman who throws a snowball at you and if you don’t time your jump perfectly then you will be sent flying and may even go right past the star you were hoping to be at. It’s a pretty tough one to deal with because the timing does have to be absolutely precise on every level. Mess it up by even the smallest amount and the stage will definitely make you regret it. Also there are a ton of event spaces littered about the stage so no matter what you really end up bumping into them. In my match the space was probably landed on at least 10 times.

It would be nice if the cutscene could be skipped after the first time but I guess because of the jumping that wouldn’t really be possible. As always I do have to say that the computer is incredibly skilled. It’s like you never really stood a chance against that guy. He wins just about all of the minigames and has incredible luck. I’m glad that Nintendo didn’t hold back here but man is it a different feeling than the A.I. nowadays. Although maybe I’m speaking too soon and I’m about to get clobbered when I try Super Mario Party soon. It’s not completely out of the realm of possibility right?

The graphics have aged very well if you ask me. Yeah they’re certainly a bit blockier and more pixelated as you would expect since it has been many years but the art style is magnificent so it just doesn’t matter. There’s one minigame where the characters are in their vehicles so you just see their giant heads popping out and it works extremely well. Meanwhile the soundtrack and sound effects are on point as well.

I haven’t talked much about the gameplay because it’s pretty self explanatory but I will say the most impressive thing here is really just that the game is a lot of fun. At no point are you bored or anything and the flow is pretty good. The minigames have a lot of variety as well. I should warn you that the Z button doesn’t appear to be configured/mapped with the GC controller. Not sure if there’s a way to fix that in the settings but if not there are definitely some unwinnable minigames here so I would keep that in mind. You basically just end up losing which boosts the CPU’s chances of winning matches even more as a result.

There are quite a number of maps in the game, each with their own little quirks so that adds a lot of replay value to the title. It’s also fun unlocking so many new minigames each time. I do think that it could get a little tricky eventually when you’re down to the last ones to unlock with RNG but that is always the case. Just means you have to get in there and keep on playing matches until you’ve obtained them all. A 20 turn match seems to take close to an hour so I wonder how long doing the 50 turn party they suggest would take. I feel like I did get to try that once in Party 4 or 5 but that was so many years ago that I just don’t remember.

Obviously the game has tons of replay value with minigame mode, and all of the other ways to play. You could really keep playing this game forever which is by design and Nintendo definitely aced it there. I would say it does beat Mario Party 1 with ease although to me Mario Party 2 seemed to have the better selection of minigames. I would also take it over a lot of the modern titles that really messed with the rules, these traditional settings are definitely the best way to go.

Overall, Mario Party 3 is definitely a pretty good game. I had fun with it and while you can definitely see some areas that could use a bit of work like all of the interruptions within the party stage and all, it’s still a positive experience in the end. The minigames themselves are a lot of fun and there’s also such a large variety of them. Even party games that would come out many years later like Sonic and the Secret Rings had far less minigames. So this one showed what was possible on a much smaller budget and made it look easy. Nintendo was definitely ahead of the curve. So I would say playing Party 4 is the better bet but if you have the Switch Online then you definitely owe it to yourself to give it a shot. No reason not to play it when you’ve got it in the collection right?

Overall 7/10

Mario Party Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at the game that really started one of the most iconic series of all time. Mario Party is a tried and true tradition in the hearts of many and has been for decades. Not just because of how chaotic the games are but because it showed just how fun a party game can be. It’s also been a difficult genre for any other franchise to pull off despite many games trying to do so. This one has a lot of the fun elements that you are used to in the series while at the same time also lacks some of the polished quality of life features you would be thinking about later on down the road. So it’s pretty fun, but not quite as elite as Mario Party 4.

There is a basic story here as well with all of the heroes fighting among themselves and generally being a little on the petty side. Each one wants to prove that they are the true superstar around here. It’s a noble goal to be sure….heh. Well maybe not that noble but I get why they would really want to appear to be the best. It just makes a lot of sense. Still, there can only be one champion and so they all decide to fight in various party games to prove it. Along the way each world is transformed by your actions which is a nice touch. Can they conquer all of the maps?

The character roster is rather small here. It’s crazy to think that even Daisy wasn’t around yet although that would change soon. There is a decent amount of minigames here but not as much as in later games of course. Fortunately the games here are all rather solid. For example the minigame where you try to bump your opponents off the field while on your ball is a true classic. I really had a blast there and it’s aged incredibly well. I tend to enjoy all of the platformer ones as well and for the most part the games are all pretty good.

There are some that don’t feel very balanced though, particularly the 1 vs 3 games. Either the solo player is incredibly overpowered or has no realistic chance to win. There is rarely a real middleground there. I’m guessing it’s probably the hardest type of game to develop though so I feel for the developers there. One interesting kind of game that you don’t see in the newer ones is the 4 player team up game. There are a few games here where you all actually have to team up and when you win, everyone gets their 10 coins. If one person loses then you all lose.

It’s an interesting idea but I can see why it was scrapped since you’re usually in it for yourself so that would have been a bit of an odd segway. One thing I wouldn’t mind if they had kept is how if you lose a minigame here, you actually lose 5 coins as opposed to not changing. Perhaps they thought it was a bit too harsh but it certainly meant that you did not want to lose. Let me tell you, I lost a lot of the minigames when starting out because it takes a little time to get used to them. The controls are simple enough but it’s the mechanics that get tricky. Like knowing when to time your jump and how far you go.

Mario Party is the master of really quick minigames and so by the time you’ve gotten the controls down, the minigame is over. Definitely not too forgiving in that sense but I think it’s the right move. If a minigame was too long then that would be a true problem. Much more of one than if the minigame was too short after all. Particularly since the shortest amount of turns you can set the games for is 20 instead of 15 here. So even the shortest game can feel rather long by the end of its run.

Where the game shows its age a little is in some of the smaller ways like how you can’t skip the computer’s turn. You have to watch them slowly play the minigames and walk around the board. It’s another reason why it’s good that the minigames are short but even so this slows down the pacing quite a lot. You should not have to sit there and wait while the computer does their thing because there are so many event spaces and extra minigames that they add up considerably. It just feels like too long before you get back to your turn. I was actually able to catch Pokemon and do other stuff while waiting which is always a bad sign.

Meanwhile the graphics are definitely pretty solid though. This is definitely on the higher end for the Nintendo 64 titles. Additionally the soundtrack is definitely on point here as well. A lot of classic tunes to be found here at all times. The level designs are also very distinct which I appreciate. Each stage has their own gimmicks so they feel completely different. Sometimes it can be in annoying ways like the Bob Omb level but you can’t win them all as they say. You know that at least the game was never lazy in the slightest.

Overall, Mario Party is a pretty fun title. The games are on point and it has a very nice feeling to it. Even when you lose you’ll be having a good time here. You’ll probably be a little salted when the RNG goes against you but that’s just how it goes. I do think it’s a little iffy when the computer targets you for a star instead of the guy in 1st….but just play as if all of the computers are against you and you’ll be fine. The game could do with a little less distractions and adding in some of those quality of life features I mentioned but for Nintendo’s first journey into this genre I definitely have to say that they did a good job. They were really creative in thinking up all of these fun minigame ideas.

Overall 7/10

Mario Party Star Rush Review

Posted on by
1


All right do you know what time it is?? It’s Mario Party time!! Yessss…well at least Mario Party used to be a super hype series like that. It really started to fall off slowly but surely as the games went on. Mario Party 4 is where the series peaked but I would say that Parties 5-7 were all still really great. It was in 8 where the cracks started to show and then beyond that into the Wii U era is when things really got fishy. I cut the portable games a little more slack in the sense that they usually don’t have any iffy gimmicks they’re just more limited by what the console can do. Star Rush not having any kind of a story mode is a little shameful though. Cmon you couldn’t give me anything? This one also introduces a gimmick that I’m not a big fan of. The game is saved by having a good amount of modes to play and ultimately it’s a good title.

So in the game the main party mode is something called Toad Scramble. Everyone plays as Toad and the idea here is to defeat 3 bosses in order to end the game. Each boss is holding onto the power star. Now here’s the kicker. No matter who bumps into the boss first, all 4 players are pulled in to enjoy the boss fight. The only disadvantage is that if you are rather far then it will take you a few seconds to join the fight as you see your character flying over. The character to do the most damage earns the star and getting the final hit gets you a lot of point. There are 3 different lengths to the mode so you can do 3 boss fights, 5, or one with an unknown number.

I’m not a big fan of the game trying to force all of this teamwork on you though. Can’t I just get the star myself? You also have to land on the exact space where the star is or you won’t get it. So unlike most of the games where you can keep on going, this means you will sometimes have to keep walking in a circle until you can grab the star. You are able to move backwards for once though which is interesting. You don’t have to just go forward like in the other Party titles. These two gimmicks just feel a little pointless though and don’t add to the experience.

There are no turns in this game so you also don’t get consistent minigames to play. Only happens when people bump into each other on the same square. There’s also a mechanic where you see Mario and friends scattered across the field and can recruit them. They all have different dice blocks and help you out during the fights. This one is an interesting idea at least although I don’t know if it was worth only having Toad as the playable character. Once you have the allies you can switch so they are the ones running on the field so I guess in a way it’s like an alternate way to play as someone else but that just seems a bit convoluted.

I wasn’t a big fan of that mode but there was another mode which was a lot of fun. This was the coin battles. Basically this is a one on one duel with another opponent and you are both put on a track and field course. A minigame will start and they all involve collecting a lot of coins. Each coin collected is one step closer to the goal and the first to 300 coins wins. As you get further into the mode the challenges get tougher and the amount of coins you need becomes larger but I really liked this mode. It was super fast paced and so something was always happening. It was a unique mode while also not feeling like it was just a gimmick that was thrown in at the last second. Oh yeah I definitely enjoyed that quite a lot.

There’s also a rhythm mode which I can’t say that I was expecting. You have to press the buttons in sync when the characters are playing classic Mario songs. It’s a fun test of your reaction times and is just a peaceful mode in general. It’s difficult to lose but it’s also really hard to ace them with an S rank because getting a single great instead of an excellent can be your downfall. Still, that was fun and so I give the game credit for having different modes like this. There is actually a reasonable amount of content for someone even without friends.

For example, there is a level up system here. You can exp for just about every mode like winning a Toad Scramble or a coin battle. Each level up tends to unlock either a new mode or a new character. I wasn’t at the highest level yet so I wouldn’t be surprised if there were even more modes that I hadn’t unlocked yet. It’s a nice feeling knowing that the adventure can still go on further. You can get this game for rather cheap now so it’s something you should really try to have on your radar. You definitely don’t want to miss out on it after all.

The graphics are really solid. It’s not surprising since this is Mario after all but it’s still worth noting. The 3DS does well with all of the characters looking crisp and of course the soundtrack is on point as well. This doesn’t feel low budget which is good. At the end of the day it’s hard to see people picking up this game instead of the home console ones but for the people who do play it, you want the game to be as good as possible.

Overall, Mario Party Star Rush is definitely different but it’s still a fun game. While the party mode may leave some things to be desired, the coin mode has you covered. It’s a lot of fun trying to grab a whole ton of coins and just getting through as quickly as possible. The minigames themselves are also really solid. I didn’t notice any that were really recycled and there were a lot of good ideas here. It does make me think about buying one of the ones that I’m missing one of these days. At this point there are a handful so I should probably start on that. Either way I would actually recommend buying this one. You’ll have a good time with it and won’t be disappointed.

Overall 7/10

Mario Party: The Top 100 Review

Posted on by
Reply


Mario has returned! It’s been a while since I got a Mario game but in my defense, Nintendo doesn’t churn them out nearly as quick as they used to. Back in my day it felt like Mario games would come out every other week. Well, this one’s not known as one of the better Mario Party games and I can see why but I had a good time with it. You just wouldn’t want to have paid opening day prices for it because it is extremely short. You can complete the entire game in 2 hours which is really not very impressive.

There isn’t really a story in this one after all. Instead what happens is you go onto a map where you have to clear each minigame to go forward. There are 4 worlds and around 25 minigames per world. There are 300 stars to collect in total with each level having 3 stars to obtain for coming in first and 4 for boss battles. You can lose every non boss battle minigame and still get to the end of the game so there’s no pressure. That said, I expect you’ll still complete most of these with ease since the game’s not difficult like that. The only exceptions are the luck based games.

But of course now you can see why the game is so short. Most minigames can be completed in around a minute after all since they’re so short. Since you can skip the enemy turns that makes the minigames even shorter. You’ll be breezing past the game like it’s nobody’s business and then there isn’t a whole lot of other things to do. There is free play with the minigames of course and little tournaments you can do with the computers. It just boils down to the fact that you have to like going up against the computer or you will end up getting bored very quickly here. For the most part the Mario Party series are famous because you get to play with others.

That’s really the main draw of the series after all so if you don’t have that then you’re not going to be having fun for nearly as long. Sure enough, I would say that this is the kind of game where you complete it and then you’ll probably never turn it back on again. The games are fun and all so I do enjoy them but there just isn’t a whole lot of reason to play the game unless you just never got a chance to play all of the mainline games. It is cool seeing them grab so many iconic games to play through but there should have been more content here.

This is the game’s biggest weakness. It’s even shorter than Sonic Forces and you definitely don’t want to see that for a Mario title. What I would have done is add a challenge mode so at least for all of the minigames like Booksquirm where it’s about surviving, you could play it on your own and try to get some super high scores. I think that would be the best way to effectively add a lot of single player content to Mario Party real quickly. It may feel like it goes against the spirit of the Mario Party series but what else are you going to do to get around the whole multiplayer angle?

If you ask me, this is just what you gotta do. Still, the game deserves some props for the solid graphics. It looks like a really solid game and they didn’t cheap out on this one. Even if the developers probably knew that this one wasn’t going to be the next big thing, they still put in a lot of effort here. The game would fit in with any of Mario’s other 3DS adventures. Then you’ve got the soundtrack which is catchy enough. You should definitely recognize all of the minigame tunes right away.

It’s all very nostalgic just playing the games again. While they won’t beat the home console counterparts since squishing the minigames into a smaller screen is always tricky, they’re still a lot of fun. I even played a few extra minigames after I cleared all 100 to boost my score up a bit. After all, you can sort of say that collecting the 300 hearts is like completing the post game. I beat the normal campaign with over 250, but I didn’t actually 3 star all of the levels. A part of me was tempted to quickly go and do that just so I could say I’ve made it to the top.

What stopped me here is that some of the minigames are luck based which means it could be a little annoying to try and get the top spot. For the luck based ones I guess you just gotta keep on playing until you’re at the top but something about that didn’t sit right with me. Why include luck games at all here? The ones that are purely luck should not have made the top 100 at all. It feels like a cheap way to extend the play time a bit since you would have to just keep on playing these until you get the 3 stars. Realistically it won’t take too many tries I’m sure but more than I was planning to go through.

Overall, Mario Party will always be a blast and a half to play through. There’s just so much to go through in the series but you can’t really access that with a 3DS port. It’s a fun game but the experience is over way too quick which does end up shaving a star off. If you can get it for a good price then by all means you should check it out, but otherwise I’d say it’s time to give this one a skip. There are a lot of other Mario Party titles to check out which are all considerably better and feel like they give you the complete experience.

Overall 6/10

Mario Party DS Review

Posted on by
Reply


Mario has returned. I’s been a little while since I played my last Mario game so naturally something had to give. I needed to be able to jump back into the Mario groove and really see how the series is doing. Fortunately that was absolutely part of the gameplan. Ebay had a good price on this one so I knew it was time for the plunge.

The story here is fairly basic as you’re likely here for the minigames anyway. Bowser tricks Mario and friends into heading over to his place for some food. They are all desperately hungry so they show up but promptly get cursed into being tiny by Bowser. Bowser’s just in a whole different league thanks to his magical abilities. The only way for the heroes to make a comeback is to find the legendary shards and become large again. It won’t be easy though as Bowser is up to something.

It’s reasonably short as the game only has around 5-6 worlds total. Each world is effectively a mini party mode that lasts for 10 turns. Your goal is to complete the game and come in first place by having the most Power Stars. If you come in second or later then you lose and have to start from scratch. Naturally that is the toughest part here. Mario Party has a lot of luck thrown into the mix after all in addition to skill. You may win a bunch of minigames or even all of them but you can still lose a match due to how that all works out. The computers put me through the wringer here.

So that should help extend the game’s play time a bit. I would say the game is only a few hours long otherwise. Of course one way that can help you with this a bit is the fact that you can reset the game if you have a bad turn. This will help nullify part of the luck factor as you can keep on spinning until things go well. From minigame results to power stars, the power is in your hand now.

Outside of the story you have a lot of other modes of course like minigame mode and local multiplayer. There isn’t really a lack of content here which isn’t surprising since Nintendo always gives you a lot of bang for your buck. In this case all of these extra modes and impressive array of minigames will ensure that you can keep on playing for a long while. At 10 bucks it was quite the steal.

The best minigames here might be the hide and seek one or some of the combat types. For Hide and Seek I like the idea of running around and looking for someone even if it feels like it is heavily favored against the one person who is alone. Dodging everyone for the duration of the match sounds crazy. Of course then you have minigames like with the coins falling where if anything it is really easy for the player to get most of the coins. I’d say it balances out in the end.

As expected the soundtrack is also pretty good. Don’t expect the same level of intensity as in the mainline Mario games but it still has a high energy feel to it. This is all AAA music. The you have the graphics which have aged well on the DS. All of the characters are on point and the backgrounds are good. It would be nice if you could taunt like in the other games but it’s really not a big deal. It’s the kind of thing you notice for a few minutes and then forget about entirely.

Mario Party DS is a rather simple game which is executed well. You could even say that the title would live or die based on the quality of its minigames. A game like this can’t work nearly as well if you don’t have fun games to play. If they were to drag on then that would take the fun away right then and there. A good minigame should be short and to the point which this game really nails down.

Overall, I would say this game is a big step up from the Mario Party for GBA. It’s not quite touching any of the big console ones yet though. There are still a few more portable Mario party games I don’t have yet though so we’ll see if they continue to improve. If you like the Mario Party series then you should definitely get this one. There’s no reason you wouldn’t like the hand held version. Additionally while it may be old, I wouldn’t say it’s out dated or anything like that. You can easily plug and play at any time. Just work on grabbing those unlockables to really fill the game up.

Overall 7/10