"I'll pass on this invitation"

I've been playing the Mario Party series since the first installment. I enjoyed the early N64 games, but by the time they moved on to the Gamecube, I was starting to get really bored with it. I skipped out on the 6th one, because every installment is basically the same old game, with some sort of enhancement to make it better. Last year they came up with a mic. This time they bring Mario Party back the Cube yet again, but other than adding some 8-player minigames, there's nothing new here.

Story: So Mario was going along one of his usual strolls when suddenly Toadsworth comes along and offers to give Mario and his buddies an invitation to go on a cruise around the world. Mario accepts, of course, and brings along Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and other people along (including, for some strange reason, Wario and Waluigi), for the cruise. Only one person wasn't on board, and guess who it was? Bowser, royally ticked at the fact that they didn't invite him even after "all the stuff he did for them" (like kidnap Peach how many times? I lost count.). So Bowser decides to give them a fun vacation. Of course by that, he means no fun at all. I don't see why didn't just blow up the ship, but I forgot this is the King of Koopas we're dealing with here, so instead he decides to just annoy them as much as possible. Lame.

Graphics: Mario Party 7 pretty much looks like Mario Party 6, which doesn't look any better than Mario Party 5. I mean, yeah they look nice, there's nothing wrong with it, but couldn't they just give them any more detail?

Sound: The sound is pretty much what you would expect from a Mario game. You'll hear the same voices over and over again. The music is usually happy and upbeat, but most of it is forgettable.

Gameplay: Alright, now we come to main reason that ruins this party. Let's start with Party Cruise. First, you select a character, or two if your playing teams. They include Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Toad, Toadette, Wario, Waluigi, and Boo from the start. You can also get Dry Bones and Birdo (Donkey Kong is again, not playable, as he has his own space). Then, after you choose your settings, you start to play. Basically, you go around a board, collecting coins, playing minigames, and trying to get as many stars as possible. The player who has the most stars after every turn is played is the winner. Simple, right?

Well, the thing is, this game is heavily based on luck over skill. There are different ways to obtain a star depending on which of the six board you're on. One board is a typical course, making you pay coins for stars. On another board, everyone has stars, and the goal is to steal them. On another board, there are 3 treasure chests, one gives you a star, one gives you coins, and the last one is a bomb that blasts you back to start. Is that your fault? No, you are simply unlucky. This just makes the game more unbearable.

In addition, after every 5 turns, it's Bowser Time, where Bowser shows up and does something bad of course. He may force you lose coins, do something to slow you down, (like destroy a bridge, forcing you to stop), and may even take a star from the one in first place! Fun, huh?

This, and certain spaces can all but ruin you should you get an unfortunate number. Koopa Kid spaces, for example, will cause Koopa Kid to show up and make your life miserable, like swap your coins with another person, which is bad if you have the most coins after winning all those minigames, and you swap them with someone who has little or no coins when they simply don't deserve it. There are also Orbs, that can help or mess you up. Land on a space with Pink Boo, and you lose a star or coins to the person who that space belongs to. How lame. During the last few turns, Bowser makes the person in last place put a new twist to the game, like adding 10 Koopa Kid spaces. At the end of the game there are bonus stars, where Toadsworth gives out bonus stars. The most fair one would be the minigame star, of which belongs to the master of the minigames. Then there are other bonus stars, such as the Shopping star, awarded to the player who bought the most orbs, and Orb star, going to the person using the most orbs. Then there's the Red star, Happening star, and Action star. They should've called them luck stars. Red star is for the person who landed on the most spaces, Happening star is for the person who landed on the most happening spaces, and Action star to the person who moved the most. These are all just random. You have to hope that you moved the most spaces, and you have to be lucky to land on the question spaces, which is sometimes bad. And who would want to land on a Red space, which causes you to lose coins?

There's so much randomness going on that you can have such a huge lead early on, then lose it and get screwed over by some random event during the last few turns. It's very frustrating and unsatisfying when the a player won simply because whoever was in first place were messed up by landing on an unfortunate space.

Then there are the minigames. They're pretty simple, often involving moving the control stick and a single button. There are 4-player, 2 vs 2, 1 vs 3, Duel, Battle, Mic, 8-player, DK, and Bowser minigames. 4-player is every man or woman for himself or herself. 2 vs 2 and 1 vs 3 have a team working together to beat the other team or player. Duel is a one on one game where the winner can steal coins, stars, or if your unlucky (ugh), nothing at all. Battle has each player put in a certain number of coins, and people battling for the most amount. Mic minigames make you use the mic, which returns from Mario Party 6, which is kind of pointless, as I don't see why they couldn't just make us use a button for it.

New to the series are 8-player minigames. Four teams of two battle it out by having each team share a controller. The player on the left uses the control stick and the L shoulder button, while the player on the right uses the C-stck and the R shoulder button. Other than that, it's bascially a 4 player minigame, with more players of course.

There are also DK minigames, which include single and multiplayer games. In the single player versions, the player tries to beat Donkey Kong for coins, or a star, while in the multiplayer ones, each player collect bananas that convert to coins.

And then there are Bowser minigames, which, like DK, include single and multiplayer versions. You have to win the minigame in order to prevent bowser from stealing stuff for you, like coins, or a star. All these can make the difference in the outcome of the game.

Solo cruise is basically the same as party cruise, except there's only two people on a board. The rules are slightly different though, (for example, the first to collect two stars wins, or steal a star from a thief and return it). It's worse than party cruise, and you'll probably only play it once or twice before you go back to that or something.

Minigame Cruise is where you'll play minigames to your heart's content. Only you have to unlock the games in the party cruise first, which is boring. Deluxe cruise is the same as minigame cruise, only with 8-players, and the games are unlocked from the start, so that's a plus.

In the Duty-Free shop, you can swap Cruise Mileage points from playing the game to unlock extra stuff, like souvenirs that you can play with the mic (which is pretty useless), a harder difficulty, hidden characters, and some extra minigames to play. But you have to go through all that board game stuff to earn. Playing minigames can earn you points, but they don't give you much.

Closing:
Turns out 7 isn't a lucky number with Mario Party. It's the same basic concept with nothing new but the 8-player minigames. I know there are some fans of this series, but I simply don't like the luck over skill concept. If you really want a fun multiplayer experience, play Super Smash Bros or something instead, but this party's getting old and boring.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 08/03/07