Reviewed on:
Nintendo GameCubeThe Good:
New eight-player matches with two players per controller; microphone games are more frequent and voice recognition software has been improved; dozens of unlockable items, including characters and games.The Bad:
Virtually unchanged audio and visual presentation; a few too many mini games feel like take-offs of earlier Mario Party gamesThe Verdict:
Offers little in the way of innovative play, but Hudson's party game formula remains as strong as ever.
REVIEW:
I'm going to be very sad when publisher Nintendo and developer Hudson stop producing Mario Party Games.
Sure, the formula doesn't change much from one game to the next, and the audio and visual presentation hasn't seen significant improvement since the series made its debut on Nintendo64. But, to invoke an expression my grandfather was fond of, big deal, Lucille.
A Mario Party game is basically a board game, and like any board game with multiple editions (think Trivial Pursuit, SceneIt?, or Risk) the difference between each version is simply a matter of content. To that end, each new Mario Party game has plenty of new content in the way of fresh game boards and dozens of original mini games.
More importantly, Mario Party games are the only video games my wife will play with me outside of Tetris.
She was actually excited when I brought home Mario Party 7, grabbing the box from my hands and scrutinizing it, approving of new features such as games that require two people to work as a team holding the same controller, and happy in the fact that, like its predecessor, the latest edition comes with and requires a microphone for several games.
The theme of Mario Party 7 is vacationing. Each board is a different location, and each location has its own theme, such as the urban Neon Heights, the commercial Pyramid Park, and the rural Windmillville.
As usual, players roll a single die to move around the board in an effort to find and buy game winning stars. Some spaces can cause players to lose or gain coins, while others initiate one-off mini-games involving non-player characters, such as Donkey Kong, Koopa Kid, or Bowser.
Each board comes with its own special events and rules. For example, on one board the stars are hidden inside chests, and only one of three chests on the board contains a star at any given time. Another board allows players fortunate enough to run across Chain Chomp to pay him for a ride directly to a star.
Of course the real fun takes place in the mini games. There are over 80 new games in Mario Party 7, and while many of them will feel familiar to veterans of the series — such as endurance games in which you have to keep from falling off a shifting platform; racing game on the ground and in the air; and memory games that see players analyzing and recalling shapes and numbers — there are also plenty of games that feel fairly original, including maze navigation contests, running and jumping challenges, and mad button-mashing events.
The microphone games are more prevalent this time around, and the bugs in voice recognition that plagued Mario Party 6 seem to have been ironed out. My favourite new mic game sees one player calling Mario universe characters by name — including Bullet Bill and Shy Guy — to sic them on his opponents. I also enjoyed a mostly luck-driven game in which players takes turns blowing up a balloon by shouting "bigger!" until one ill-fated player pops it.
The only true innovation this time out is that up to eight players can play at once in teams of two. The two players each hold one half of the controller and have to work together. This team-mechanic brings back the spirit found in earlier Mario Party games that used get rooms full of friends yelling and howling at one another as they played. The only downside is that many of us may find it difficult to gather up enough people to get the most out of the two-players-per-controller experience.
As in previous Mario Party games, there are plenty of modes outside of the main party module. For example, we can go on a 'Solo Cruise' in which we play against the computer or take a 'Mini Game Cruise' to practice up on all of the mini games we've unlocked. And of course there's the game shop, a place where we can go to spend all of the points we earn throughout the game on things like characters, mini games, and even a new board.
So Mario Party 7 is basically just more of the same. But, as I suggested earlier, I think that's all most fans of the series really want or expect out of each new Mario Party; a few new mini games and boards that will keep them and their friends playing for another year. If you're looking for innovation you should hold off for the next Mario Party, which will likely be released for Nintendo's new system next year and will undoubtedly make interesting use of the console's revolutionary gyroscopic controller.
As for me, I'm just happy that Nintendo and Hudson keep giving my wife a reason to occasionally join me in my games room.
