Mario Party 6

"Take the best parts of the last two Mario Party games and what do you have? MP6 baby!"

More mini games, more characters, 5 boards available with a 6th unlockable, and a bonus microphone. Well three out of four ain't bad. Mario Party is a polarizing series because either you have the friends to play with or you don't. For newcomers to the series the game plays like a video board game. You hit a dice block to move spaces and various things happen during your travels and where you land can affect the game greatly. At the end of all 4 players turn, a mini game is played and the winner gets ten coins. Coins buy orbs for use on the board and coins also buy stars. If you have the most stars at the end of the game you're the winner. Game length can be set anywhere from 10 to 50 turns. A 20 turn game averages just under an hour in MP6 (for me at least).

GAMEPLAY - 10

A riot with 4 players. Still fun with 2 or 3 players. Playing by yourself? Hopefully not often but the single player experience in MP6 has changed for the better. It is called Solo Mode this year and instead of playing a regular party mode style game with 4 CPU characters you just pick a CPU character as a partner for any 2v2 or 3v1 challenges. You then pick from a few specially designed boards that have a start and end. Your goal in Solo mode is to land on the final space thus earning a rare mini game that is only unlockable through Solo mode. Any mini game you win in Solo mode will be unlocked for Party Mode if it hasn't already been.

Party Mode is where its at though. You start with a choice of 5 boards each with their own twist. Two are traditional "get to the star space" Mario Party boards, the others have different rules such as Snowflake Lake where there is a single space you pass to buy a star and if you got the coins you can get up to five at once! Bonuses this time are given for mini games won, ? spaces landed on, and orbs used. Hoarding coins won't win you a star in MP6 which is a welcome change.

Items, capsules, the debate raged on in the message boards as to which is a better system. Orbs are what they're called this year. You either pick up a random orb while traveling the board or you can buy one at a shop. Instead of costing coins to use as in MP5, orbs are free to use and always contain at least one coin. You could spend 5 on an orb and it could give you 8 back when you use it! Plus when you possess an orb you are prompted at the beginning of your turn. No more forgetting you had that mushroom until after you hit the dice block!

The day/night system which harkens back all the way to Simons Quest on the NES has been implemented in MP6. Every three turns the day turns to night and vice versa. Certain areas of the board may not be accessible during different times and on the previously mentioned Snowflake Lake it affects the cost of the star! You really have to plan your turns in advance and use some good ol strategery if you want to win.

Battle games are now randomly played instead of end of turn mini games which can cause a lot of chaos. Duels are back this time also. You can battle for coins or stars or put up 40 coins versus an opponents star.

Mini games are the reason to play Mario Party games. There are about 80 this time and they really put the Mario in Mario Party. Lots of them involve classic platform style running and jumping with controls anybody can get used to. You'll play some mini games and realize you've done similar tasks in other Nintendo games! Luck based games and button mashers are few and far between. The microphone is used in certain 3v1 games but its not necessary to use and you'll grow tired of it. Honestly this is the best mini game collection out of all the Mario Party games.

GRAPHICS - 7

Bright and colorful. Boards resemble pop up books. The graphics aren't that much improved from MP5 or even MP4 but they work fine. Its the little things that matter. When you start a mini game all the players stand on a piece of what looks like a coin so its easy to tell who is on teams or if its a free for all. Mini games look (and play) different from day to night also. The game looks cartoony and it fits.

SOUND - 3

Ugh. Step your game up Nintendo. I know this is supposed to be a light hearted affair but the music is just horrible. Mini game music is much better than the board music. Characters barely make noise except to proclaim they're the winner. And while the game includes a microphone, you'll never hear your voice come through the speakers.

REPLAY VALUE - 10

Do you have friends? Do you have 4 controllers? If you answered no then you need to get both of the above and Mario Party 6. There is more than enough to keep even jaded Mario Partiers interested. There is a star bank in this game. All the stars collected during Party Mode or Solo Mode are deposited in the Star Bank. From there you can purchase goodies like a new board, a new character, taunts, and all kinds of secrets and games.

OVERALL - 8 (not an average of the above scores!)

While the microphone is one of Nintendo's useless peripherals they're pushing, this game is outstanding. The mic games are nothing you couldn't control with a regular Cube controller and the one player mic games are slower to react than the U.S. Congress. The mic would have been at home in a karaoke game or imagine this... a Star Fox game where you're telling Slippy to cover you or warning Falco that you're gonna shoot him down if he flies in front of you again. You really owe it to yourself to trade in MP5 if you own it to get this game. But as always, rent first!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/04