Mario Party 8 for the Wii
By: Patrick X. Best |
Sunday July 08, 2007 |
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..a Party of Four |
| Crazy minigames! Board game lunacy! More surprises than you can shake a Wii Remote at! Yes, the Star Carnival has rolled into town, and fourteen of your favorite characters are ready to party! And they can’t wait to test their minigame mettle in the main event: the Star Battle! The winner is crowned the superstar and wins a year’s worth of candy! Who’s going to take top honors at the Star Carnival?! Gamers and Gamettes! The party has begun. Welcome to Mario Party 8 for the Nintendo Wii! Mario and his gang of board game buddies return to stores for another round of fun. Today we assembled a group of college age students both male and female for a round table exploration of the newest long awaited title for the Wii. The first disappointment though, we found quickly: the game is only four players. We were all huge fans of Mario Party 7 for the Gamecube, especially with its eight-player mode. So we simply played musical chairs for the remotes and began play. Mario Party 8 for the Nintendo Wii ESRB: E for Everyone (some mild violence) Rating: 3.0 out of 4 stars Price: $49.99 Players: 4 Welcome to the Star Carnival. Where your Master of Catastrophe MC Ballyhoo and his wacky talking top hat Big Top take you through the explanation of the different big top tents. The five tents you have to choose from are: Party Tent Characters compete on party boards in three kinds of battles: One to Four players Battle Royals 2vs2 Tag Battles 1vs1 Duel Battles Star Battle Arena One player faces off against one opponent on each party board. Minigame Tent Players can enjoy several non-board challenges that draw upon minigames, or simply go straight to the minigames in Free Play Arcade. Extras Zone The area features eight minigames that you won’t see during party-board play. (You can play these games with your Miis.) Fun Bazaar Use the Carnival Cards you earn to unlock minigames and other surprises. You can also view minigame records here. We began by entering the Party Tent. Then we chose our characters: Wario: Played by my loving and caring boss Eric M. Martin (yeah, right!) Daisy: Played by Elaine K. Toad: Played by Sledge Waluigi: Played by Nick B. We decided why not jump ahead a few boards and try Koopa’s Tycoon Town, which has an interesting take on the game. You basically spend your coins by depositing them into a hotel and you then own this hotel and get the star amount they are worth. The star amount starting at one then moving up to two after a twenty-coin deposit, then after fifty it maxes out at three. The minigames seem very basic, almost repetitive. The range goes from minigames that resemble classic Mario Party titles to completely new games that use the Wii Remote to perfection, whether it is balancing on a tight rope, rowing a boat around obstacles, or even the carpenter gauntlet: hammer nails, sawing a log, and painting a board. One of the best games I’ve seen is a tight rope game where you hold your Wii-mote sideways and walk a tightrope by tilting your Wii-Mote forward, controlling your balance beam by tilting sideways. This game is hilarious to watch a drunken man play. Shockingly the drunken man won! The rest flew off very quickly when the wind started to blow and he just took his time. On our first 1 vs. 3 game, Swervin’ Skies, the ultimate disappointment happened when Waluigi was put in a giant plane that shoots rockets against Toad, Daisy, and Wario in three smaller planes with two balloons on each wing. Waluigi was then forced to shoot his opponents down in 30 seconds. With one second left and Wario,(played by our fearless leader Eric M. Martin) his only foe left, Waluigi (played by Nick “Drunky” B.) took Wario out with one fatal shot popping BOTH of his balloons with a “skillful” placement of his rockets making the crowd erupt in cheers and applause. After two hours and 25 long turns the game ends with our champion Eric M. Martin (Wario) taking the golden cup of winning-ness in the Bonus Star awards. And yes, Eric is still a bastard! The change from Orb power-ups to Candies is a little interesting. There are some great ideas behind them. The Bitsize candy was a favorite of the night. Basically, it turns your character into an 8-bit version of yourself for one turn. You hit your dice block and for every space you move you get three coins. Single Player mode is incredibly lacking. Like previous Mario Party titles, the computer cheats. Unlike previous Mario Party titles, there is no advantage to completing the Single Player mode other than unlocking more things at the Fun Bazaar. With the exception of the occasional Duel Minigame, you and a computer player simply alternate turns in an attempt to complete the board. Chalk it up to tedium and make sure to bring a friend. Overall I think the general census was a shoulder shrug for the game. Everyone seemed pleased with it, yet everyone also could see that Nintendo may be running low on mini-game ideas. The use of the Wii-mote is natural but still needs a little work when it comes to the motion ranges. All in all, we had a great time! And, to another internet publication who says “This is a party you’ll want to leave early”, I say, “Maybe it’s a party you weren’t really invited to." Swervin’ Skies
Inspector Spector
Mario Party 8
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