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This is a party that you’re not missing out on.
May 28, 2007 | 11:17 AM PSTThe Wii has become a popular choice for casuals and gamers alike looking for that seemingly perfect “party” console – you know the one you can turn on, pop a game into and have entertain just about anyone that decides to join in on the gaming. Games like Wii Sports – the Wii party game king – Rayman Raving Rabbids and WarioWare: Smooth Moves delivered the right kind of easy, accessible but fun mini-games to earn the Wii its party console reputation.
Unfortunately, Mario Party 8, a title we expected would join the ranks of the titles just mentioned, does not. Developer Hudson Soft disappoints with what was expected to be a sure-fire party game delight. A delight the eighth Mario Party is not, as it suffers from a lack of any kinds of true innovation, clunky controls and uninspired mini-games – the result being a forgettable could-have-been-done-on-GameCube release.
Mario Party 8, expectedly, plays a lot like its many predecessors. The title features a single-player mode, but the heart of the game and the most enjoyable aspect of it is its multiplayer modes. Up to four can play, and despite that its appeal is short-lived, the more that play, the merrier. The saying is cliché, but it’s as true as ever here. Whether you’re playing the story mode (AKA single-player) or multiplayer, the crux of the game is the same: you take turns rolling a die and then moving around colorful and surprisingly well-designed game boards, hoping to land on a square with an all-important star. The player with the most stars at the end of each game wins, so collecting stars is the underlying goal. But while wrist flick die-rolling and space-moving board exploring are integral, they’re but just a selfishly small piece of a much bigger and normally tasty pie.
The Mario Party games have always been and will probably and hopefully always be about the mini-games jam-packed within what would otherwise be your grandpa’s ancient board game. After all players have had their turn, everyone takes part in a randomly selected mini-game. The latest Mario Party is, as customary, overflowing with minis to experience, though no matter how many there are, it’s never as fun to play through a mini-game as it is the first time you experience it.
This is, unfortunately, only part of Mario Party 8’s problem. The mini-games this time around are abnormally simple and insipid. Despite the introduction of the Wii-mote – a tool that could have aided in making the best Mario Party of all time – the game’s developer has totally missed the boat. Few minis are visionary, let alone innovative, and as a result, you’re left un-entertained as you wonder “What the hell happened?” We could understand some of the games in Mario Party 8 if they were being shown as tech demos two years before the Wii hit store shelves. But that’s not the case, obviously.
Some of the games use the Wii-mote’s special capabilities while others ignore them in favor of more traditional controls, requiring you to hold the remote sideways. One game comes to mind in which you’re challenged to knock opposing players off a tilting platform. Moving around with the D-pad is less responsive than we’d like during these games, but it’s hard not to blame this on the fact that you’re controlling a 3D game with a D-pad – and inherent but still annoying predicament.
This is a Wii game, so there are mini-games that use the remote’s motion-sensing prowess. These few are pretty standard – point and shoot games, mostly – but they manage to be rather tame, somehow. General slowness, like in one game, where the goal is to shoot a lone opponent trying to scale a stage in front of the rest of the players, is the culprit most the time. Other times, the motion controls – pointing, tilting, shaking – feel noticeably unresponsive. And, no, we’re not saying that because we sometimes lose the “shake-the-soda” mini-game.
Amongst some sloppily designed mini-games are occasional surprises. There are a few that render smiles, in fact. A “Simon Says”-esque mini, for instance, stands out amongst its brethren. The concept is admittedly very simple, but it’s enough to entertain – at least compared to the other mini-games in Mario Party 8, which is quite regrettable.
There are some good minis, and there are some stinkers, but what can best be described as sometimes-poor game design leaks into other facets of the game. For instance, at the beginning of each match, you’re smothered with what can eventually feel like an overload of text. The first few times, the text isn’t a problem, but it is when you go back to replay any game boards you’ve already experienced. Thankfully, the dialogue is pretty limited (it just shouldn’t be there at all, really). Another problem comes in the form of having to watch CPU-controlled character’s turns and not being able to skip them. It’s not game-ending, but the replayability of Mario Party 8 is damaged by these clumsy design choices.
Perhaps the diamond in the rough – good old clichés – are the game boards. The number out of the gate is a little low, but what’s here is particularly imaginative and appealing. You’ll play in a vertical-ized version of Donkey Kong’s Jungle, romp through a dark, haunted and ghostly mansion, walk the streets of a hotel-rich downtown and speed down a train track in – you guessed it – a train. Unfortunately, two of the boards are blatantly linear, featuring just one star to be collected over and over. These maps challenge players to race to the end of the board and get the star before the competition. The races quickly lose their fizz, however, due to the repetition.
Lastly, Mario Party 8 is a title that is all about multiplayer, and yet it does not support online play. Blame it on the yet-to-launch Wii online infrastructure if you will, but the lack of the mode really hurts the game’s lasting appeal, and it might have been smarter to wait and do this game when it could be done right.
Mario Party 8 is a game that is crippled by poor design of its very foundation: lackluster mini-games. This time around, we’re left surprisingly unimpressed and equally un-excited by what is normally the star of the party. Hudson Soft, sadly, has failed to use the Wii-mote in any captivating or remarkable ways, and the Wii remote often hurts the minis more than it helps, thanks to cumbersome, unresponsive controls. Mario Party 8 has problems outside of mini-games, too. Small things – a fake 16:9 widescreen mode that is really nothing more than just 4:3 with a frame, too much text in multiplayer, being forced to re-watch CPU-controlled turns without the option to skip them, no online play – really dampen the experience in more ways than one.
If you read over our review score definition page, you’ll find that 4.0 stands for “below average.” Assigning a score to Mario Party was tough because at times it can be fun, but more often than not, we’re bothered that it’s the least fun we’ve had playing a Mario Party yet.
Just because it’s Mario doesn’t mean it’s a party worth going to.
Unfortunately, Mario Party 8, a title we expected would join the ranks of the titles just mentioned, does not. Developer Hudson Soft disappoints with what was expected to be a sure-fire party game delight. A delight the eighth Mario Party is not, as it suffers from a lack of any kinds of true innovation, clunky controls and uninspired mini-games – the result being a forgettable could-have-been-done-on-GameCube release.
Mario Party 8, expectedly, plays a lot like its many predecessors. The title features a single-player mode, but the heart of the game and the most enjoyable aspect of it is its multiplayer modes. Up to four can play, and despite that its appeal is short-lived, the more that play, the merrier. The saying is cliché, but it’s as true as ever here. Whether you’re playing the story mode (AKA single-player) or multiplayer, the crux of the game is the same: you take turns rolling a die and then moving around colorful and surprisingly well-designed game boards, hoping to land on a square with an all-important star. The player with the most stars at the end of each game wins, so collecting stars is the underlying goal. But while wrist flick die-rolling and space-moving board exploring are integral, they’re but just a selfishly small piece of a much bigger and normally tasty pie.
The Mario Party games have always been and will probably and hopefully always be about the mini-games jam-packed within what would otherwise be your grandpa’s ancient board game. After all players have had their turn, everyone takes part in a randomly selected mini-game. The latest Mario Party is, as customary, overflowing with minis to experience, though no matter how many there are, it’s never as fun to play through a mini-game as it is the first time you experience it.
This is, unfortunately, only part of Mario Party 8’s problem. The mini-games this time around are abnormally simple and insipid. Despite the introduction of the Wii-mote – a tool that could have aided in making the best Mario Party of all time – the game’s developer has totally missed the boat. Few minis are visionary, let alone innovative, and as a result, you’re left un-entertained as you wonder “What the hell happened?” We could understand some of the games in Mario Party 8 if they were being shown as tech demos two years before the Wii hit store shelves. But that’s not the case, obviously.
Some of the games use the Wii-mote’s special capabilities while others ignore them in favor of more traditional controls, requiring you to hold the remote sideways. One game comes to mind in which you’re challenged to knock opposing players off a tilting platform. Moving around with the D-pad is less responsive than we’d like during these games, but it’s hard not to blame this on the fact that you’re controlling a 3D game with a D-pad – and inherent but still annoying predicament.
This is a Wii game, so there are mini-games that use the remote’s motion-sensing prowess. These few are pretty standard – point and shoot games, mostly – but they manage to be rather tame, somehow. General slowness, like in one game, where the goal is to shoot a lone opponent trying to scale a stage in front of the rest of the players, is the culprit most the time. Other times, the motion controls – pointing, tilting, shaking – feel noticeably unresponsive. And, no, we’re not saying that because we sometimes lose the “shake-the-soda” mini-game.
Amongst some sloppily designed mini-games are occasional surprises. There are a few that render smiles, in fact. A “Simon Says”-esque mini, for instance, stands out amongst its brethren. The concept is admittedly very simple, but it’s enough to entertain – at least compared to the other mini-games in Mario Party 8, which is quite regrettable.
There are some good minis, and there are some stinkers, but what can best be described as sometimes-poor game design leaks into other facets of the game. For instance, at the beginning of each match, you’re smothered with what can eventually feel like an overload of text. The first few times, the text isn’t a problem, but it is when you go back to replay any game boards you’ve already experienced. Thankfully, the dialogue is pretty limited (it just shouldn’t be there at all, really). Another problem comes in the form of having to watch CPU-controlled character’s turns and not being able to skip them. It’s not game-ending, but the replayability of Mario Party 8 is damaged by these clumsy design choices.
Perhaps the diamond in the rough – good old clichés – are the game boards. The number out of the gate is a little low, but what’s here is particularly imaginative and appealing. You’ll play in a vertical-ized version of Donkey Kong’s Jungle, romp through a dark, haunted and ghostly mansion, walk the streets of a hotel-rich downtown and speed down a train track in – you guessed it – a train. Unfortunately, two of the boards are blatantly linear, featuring just one star to be collected over and over. These maps challenge players to race to the end of the board and get the star before the competition. The races quickly lose their fizz, however, due to the repetition.
Lastly, Mario Party 8 is a title that is all about multiplayer, and yet it does not support online play. Blame it on the yet-to-launch Wii online infrastructure if you will, but the lack of the mode really hurts the game’s lasting appeal, and it might have been smarter to wait and do this game when it could be done right.
Mario Party 8 is a game that is crippled by poor design of its very foundation: lackluster mini-games. This time around, we’re left surprisingly unimpressed and equally un-excited by what is normally the star of the party. Hudson Soft, sadly, has failed to use the Wii-mote in any captivating or remarkable ways, and the Wii remote often hurts the minis more than it helps, thanks to cumbersome, unresponsive controls. Mario Party 8 has problems outside of mini-games, too. Small things – a fake 16:9 widescreen mode that is really nothing more than just 4:3 with a frame, too much text in multiplayer, being forced to re-watch CPU-controlled turns without the option to skip them, no online play – really dampen the experience in more ways than one.
If you read over our review score definition page, you’ll find that 4.0 stands for “below average.” Assigning a score to Mario Party was tough because at times it can be fun, but more often than not, we’re bothered that it’s the least fun we’ve had playing a Mario Party yet.
Just because it’s Mario doesn’t mean it’s a party worth going to.
November 20, 2009
