Mario Party 4

"Great fun with 4 friends, but falls short without"

It's the last turn. Mario has 2 stars, so has Peach. The other 2 are languishing somewhere else. Mario is right in front of a star, but unfortunately for him, Peach is going first. She uses a hammer to make him big, and Mario can't get the star. Suddenly Mario hears the cries of the person controlling Peach as the one controlling Mario hammers him, but all in good fun of course. Welcome to Mario Party.


Mario Party is basically a digital board game, with mini-games tacked on. The mini-games are really actually the reason people play this game, moving around the board, buying items and the lot is really boring most of the time. Mini-games are where Mario Party gets its extreme fun, and in this forth installment of the popular series, the mini-games are totally new, and as usual, great fun.
Single player, unfortunately is poor. Playing with computer AI is not fun at all. It is just a poor excuse for unlocking new stuff. If you have no friends to play with, don't get MP4.

Expected in this series, story is nothing special. It is just there because it has to. Wow! It's your birthday, and some smart people have decided just giving you your presents would be by far TOO easy. Instead, you'll have to win the presents in the various boards that the people have set up for you. Bleh.

As I mentioned, Mario Party is much like a digital, interactive board game. You pick a character, decide who goes first and so starts the game. You'll collect coins, which are used to buy stars, items and generally do everything. Without coins, you won't be able to win the game, so they are extremely important. Collecting stars is the main objective, collect the most and you'll win. At the end of each game, bonus stars are given out to the person with the most coins, the one who won the most mini-games, the one who isn't extremely bored at the end of this, and so on, so even if you're lacking behind at the end of a game, you'll still have a chance of winning. For those who decide to actually base the game on skill, this can be turned off.


With the coins, you can buy items, of which there are a wide variety of. Some include the Mega and Mini Mushroom, which, obviously, turn you big and small respectively. Becoming big crushes people and allows you to go further than usual, but you skip all board events, which also includes getting stars, so this isn't really useful all the time. Becoming small on the other hand is one of the most useful abilities of the game. You'll be able to go to specific doors while you are shrunk, and these usually lead to stars.


Spaces on the board aren't just limited to +3 and -3 coins. There are many many other unique spaces, including the ever so important boo spaces, where you can steal coins and stars, of course, at a price. These usually make or break a game, so saving up coins to steal people's stars usually is one of the most important things to do in each game. There are also many Bowser spaces, and after that, you'll usually find your coin purse 30 coins lighter, not voluntarily of course.

Mini-games are the most fun aspects of the Mario Party series, and there are 50 ALL-NEW mini-games in MP4. Yeah, about 20 are rehashes of old ones, but the real new ones are mostly excellent. Winning mini-games gives you 10 coins, and is usually the only place you'll really get rich. Other than the general free-for-all style mini-games where everyone is against everyone else, there are also mostly less-fun 2-v-2 and 3-on-1 games. The control in these mini-games are usually simple, and nothing you will have trouble remembering. Some games are simple as well, like the game where your objective is to mash the A button as fast as you can. Wow. Highlights include the 2-vs-2 game where you're in a dungeon, and you'll have to work together with your partner to blow up a hot air balloon, rotate platforms and jump through pipes, and the the numerous 3-on-1 games where the single-player has to run away from giant robots and water-squirters. Pure fun.

However, Mario Party has 1 glaring flaw. It is only fun with 3 friends. When playing multi-player, it is one of the most fun party games ever, but when by yourself, the game really is bad. There is totally no fun when playing against computer AI, as they are either crap or godly. Part of the fun of the multi-play is talking trash to your opponents, laughing at them when they land on bowser spaces and generally communicating. Against the computer, what can you do? Scream ''I whooped you in that mini-game!'' at the TV screen? Waiting for your friends to finish their turns in multi-player is boring enough, but waiting for computers is pure rubbish. If MP4 had online play it might have a much higher score, but without any friends over, you'd be better off playing Super Smash Brothers Melee and collecting trophies. At least the mini-games are merely ok when playing single-player. If you're a hermit or have no friends, don't get this game.

The graphics in MP4 are excellent. The water effects are only rivaled by Super Mario Sunshine, which of course needs it. Character models look great, as usual, but with higher resolution than previous installments, for obvious reasons. The boards are nicely-detailed, and the backgrounds in the mini-games are good as well. Great all-around.

Sound is nothing special again in this game. The only highlight is pressing L repeatedly to hear your character make a spastic sound which sounds really stupid, maybe even constipated. It annoys your opponent a lot, though. Music is merely average at best, nothing special, you won't be humming this game's tunes, thats for sure.

Replay in this game depends on your friends, again. If you have 3 friends or more who like MP, you'll get endless replay value and fun out of this title, but single-player is boring so you'll won't be playing by yourself much. The duel boards from MP3 have been removed, so the only thing to do in single-player is just go through the maps you'll have infinitely more fun with in multi-player. Why bother?

Overall, Mario Party 4 is a great multi-player game, one of the best. But single-player, it falls short. If you have friends (or hey, even siblings) who are interested in video games, get this, and save it for when they come over. Don't bother playing this by yourself, unless you want to practise the mini-games. If Nintendo had implemented online play into this game, or made the single-player more attractive, it could be much better. But without the necessary improvements from MP3, it falls short. Get if you have 3 friends, if not, don't.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/06/02, Updated 12/06/02