Mario Party 4

"Everyone's invited to Mario's latest party!"

The fourth installment of the Mario Party series has arrived, but how does it stack up compared to the others.

In not so many words, it beats them hands down. It eliminates the problems that the other Mario Party games had, such as that cretin Game Guy. It seems he felt his work was done after one game. He will be missed (like a hernia).

The story of the game is that it’s your (character’s) birthday, and Toad and a bunch of other familiar faces have decided to throw a party for you inside a giant Party Cube. Instead of just giving you your presents, though, they’ve made a game of it, and you have to play for them.

This party features over 50 mini-games, almost all of which are new. There’s a returning undesirable from Mario Party 2, but I’ll leave it to you to find out what it is.

Visuals (10/10)

I can’t find anything wrong with how stuff looks in this game. Mario and company look perfect. There are no textured-on faces, and if you look closely, you’ll see that the character models actually have an inside to their mouths! There’s nary a blocky object in sight, if any, and the backgrounds for the boards and mini-games are well done.

Audio (9/10)

The music is standard for Mario Party games. There are some tunes that sound real good, and some that are in so many mini-games they start to get on your nerves. Voices are pretty much the same as they were in the last Mario Party, with the exception of Yoshi, who now has his annoying Yoshi’s Story voice.

Play Control (10/10)

Controls are simple and easy to handle for each mini-game, so very rarely can you truly blame “flawed controls” for losing.

Gameplay (10/10)

If you played any of the other Mario Parties, you know the drill. You roll dice to move around a game board, and play mini-games between turns. Much of the spaces have returned from the other games. There’s the staple blue, red, question, and Bowser spaces, and the good old battle space is still here as well. Chance Time has sort-of returned, but the method for selecting what goes to who has changed, and it’s much more difficult.

New to the board are Mushroom spaces, which give you a type of Mushroom. Instead of the Mushroom and Golden Mushroom of Parties 2 and 3, there are Mushrooms that makes you big or small. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Another new space is the warp space, which will send you directly to a randomly selected player, and is a nice, quick way of getting from here to there. Oh, and speaking of randomly selection, you sort of have a hand in who gets chosen by spinning a roulette. Just hope that you can stick the timing.

Much of the items (or their uses) are still present, along with some new items to help you keep a step ahead of your opponents.

Other new twists include Team Play, which lets two teams of two play on the game boards; and the Custom Mini-Game List, which lets you select which of your unlocked games can be played on the boards. This allows you to cut out the ones that have you throwing fits and keep the ones you like.

Entertainment (8/10)

As can be expected from a Mario Party, things are much better when you play against other players. When playing solo against the computer, you may soon find yourself swearing, as the AI, even on the Easy setting, really likes to cheat. But then, that can be said for any video game.

If you want to unlock everything in this game, you’ll have to play through the Story Mode eight times. That means going through the aggravating casino-themed board eight times. Plus, if you’re like some players, you exit and reload a game whenever the AI does something you didn’t want it to do. Well, returning to a game is made quite annoying by the fact that you can’t skip the really long special effects, including the board intros. This makes Story Mode good only for those who have a lot of patience.

Buy or Rent?

I would recommend buying it if you have at least one other person in your household (or a friend) who likes this series. If not, you’re going to have trouble finding a player (much less three) to play against, and will miss out on the real fun of the game. On the other hand, if you’re going to play solo and have a high tolerance for cheaters, you should probably buy it. In any other case, it’s still worth a rental.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/12/02, Updated 11/12/02