Mario Party 7

"The party is getting old."

At this point Nintendo is starting to get washed up. Why? Because they've released their seventh version of Mario Party! Normally I welcome Mario Party with open arms, but unfortunately that is not the case this time around. So let's get into why.

STORY
First off, the story took no effort to make at all. Here it goes. Toadsworth, Peach's assistant, tells Mario he's gonna let them go on vacation aboard this luxury cruise. So he does. And Bowser wants to stop Mario and friends from having fun on this vacation. Wow. Exciting. There is no story mode, nor any motivation to keep you playing. This is the best they could come up with? Good lord...

GRAPHICS
The graphics are decent. Mario games always look fabulous and this one is no exception at all. It's still as cool as it was oh, 4 years ago. They never upgrade the look, but hey if it ain't broke don't fix it. It's unique and colorful and it gets the job done.

SOUND
The audio has some catchy music and generic grunts and moans like before. Mario still goes "whoo hoo" when he gets a star. and Koopa Kid still roars like he did on Mario Party 1. The music is great, but everything else is getting old. Much like this game.

GAMEPLAY
Now that I got the good parts out of the way, it's time bash into Mario Party which is something I never wanted to do. This is the worst of them all. Lucky number seven this isn't. Even the unbearable gameplay of Mario Party 3's story mode cannot top this piece of garbage. Nintendo is just running out of ideas at this point. Like the previous six, this is a board game where you earn coins through mini-games and try to buy stars because the person with the most stars at the end of the game wins. The mini-games look awesome, but in reality they're the same types of games we've played already. Ground Pounding stuff, been there. Pressing buttons in a sequence, done that. This game doesn't feel new.

They had a great solo mode in Mario Party 6. They have it again...only it's not solo at all. You fight a computer player (or a friend) in a one on one board game that requires luck and luck alone to win. Seriously all you do is roll the dice and pray your opponent doesn't beat you to the prize. I hate games that are based on luck mainly because they aren't fun, they're tedious. They have also introduced 8 Player mini-games which are just stupid. Where are you gonna find 7 other people to play this game? More importantly it's setup is awful! It's 4 teams of two. You have to share the controller with your friend in order for him to play as well. Like in one mini-game where all you're doing is running, and one player uses the control stick, while another uses the C-stick. This isn't fun, it's awkward. 8 Player games were not necessary!

They also brought back the microphone, but it's nowhere near as fun as it was to use in #6. All of the microphone games could've easily been used with the controller, proving yet again that Nintendo has run out of ideas. They also change the objectives of the board games this time, only for the worse. One game requires that you buy a chain chomp to steal a star from a wandering thief guy, and then deliver it to the sphinx pyramid on the board. Zuh?! Did you understand that? Cause I didn't! This is a board game stop with the confusing gameplay! All you do in this game is play, so you can unlock random objects that do not help make the game funner. Woo hoo.

With no story, no way to play all the mini-games from the start, forcing you to find them all (unlike what 6's Solo mode helped accomplish), this is a terrible game. I'm so tired of Mario Party now. But that's fine. I could still acknowledge the game if it was well made. But the fact that Nintendo put so little effort into this game is appalling. There are very few mini-games in this disc. Like there's only thirteen 4 player games. Sad? You bet. I was shocked. It's crazy how god awful this game is. I love the music and I love the look of the game, but it is so painful to play.

IN THE END...
Look multiplayer is a great part of the game, but I'd only recommend it to new players. Everyone else who's played this game 6 times already like me...stay the hell away and pick up Mario Party 4 or 6. The party is old, the party is dull. Sorry but I'm not looking forward to the next party's invitation.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/06