"Number 6?! But the series hasn't gotten old yet..."

One of my schoolmates said, “You know a game series is getting old when it gets to number 6.” Maybe, but Mario Party 6 has yet to kill the franchise. In fact, I see it as the best one in the series.

The Story: You have the sun, Brighton, and the moon, Twila, caught in an argument on who is better. Whatever. Can't celestial bodies that have been around for several billion years have more mature arguments? Still, the storyline of a Mario Party game is about as important as the A key four octaves below middle C on a piano (not very important). Anyways, Mario and the gang have decided to party and fill up the Star Bank to settle the feud. And the scene of Mario Party 6 has been set up.

One quick thing about the story: There is a little something called the Miracle Book in the game that gives some mildly hilarious scenes of Mario's friends partying the days away. They do make the “story” somewhat better…

Onward to the gameplay.

The Minigames: The core of any Mario Party is the minigames. This game loads up the disc with even more than previous installations, with over 80 to fiddle around with. You're bound to have your clunkers, of course, and there will be plenty of games that will entertain you for hours upon end. Which ones you like and dislike will differ from person to person, but I personally loved a huge amount of the games, including one to rival previous minigames for Best Minigame Ever. By the way, for those of you who are worried: The number of button mashers and luck games has dropped.

The board game: There are two ways to play. The main way, Party Mode, is the classic Mario Party formula: roll dice, move around board to collect stars. However, to spice things up, the method for collecting them stars varies. One board features the typical moving Star Spot that has repeatedly been in previous games. Another board has you going to a central location to buy up to 5 stars at varying prices. Another board starts all players with 5 stars and each player can hire Chain Chomps to try to steal other players' stars. Fun stuff, and the new ways to collect stars are very nice. Also, the gameplay has been sped up compared to previous games, which makes for a faster-paced game.

Solo Mode is the second way. Instead of a long, drawn-out story-type mission, Solo Mode has been reduced to three linear boards where the spaces are not your typical spaces, but “Minigame Spaces”. In Solo Mode, you play minigames that you haven't unlocked yet for Minigame Mode. If you win the game, you keep the game and get coins. Land on the very last space, and you get a Rare Mini-game! However, go over the edge, and you lose ALL coins and ALL the minigames you have. If you land on the last space or quit before you go over, you keep the coins (which get converted to stars, more on that later) and the minigames you got will be unlocked for Minigame Mode. The great thing about Solo Mode is that it's quick and actually somewhat fun. It's a great way to get a few stars while your friends are finishing up dinner or something.

The extras: These include the infamous Mic Mode and some other stuff. Mic Mode gives you a microphone to wreak havoc in some minigames, including a quiz, a race of sorts, and some minigames that one might find in Party Mode, only with a microphone. The device recognizes words, and although sometimes I'd like it to recognize words better, you can do some fun stuff with it. Example: One game features one player on a microphone while three other players are on a platform divided into several fruit-labeled sections. The player with the mic says a fruit, and all sections except those with the named fruit fall, and the three players must get on the safe platforms. Here, you can do stuff like say “slap” to trigger “apple” or, because the mic only reads while a button on the mic is pressed down, you can yell out several fruits and only hold down the button for one of them. Crazy stuff, but it's not the most important part of the game, and I see it only as a diversion.

There are also some different ways to play minigames, such as the Treetop Bingo where the winner of a game picks a number to mark off on everyone's bingo card and players race to be the first to get a certain number of rows. Once again, they're nice, but merely diversions.

The Star Bank is probably the best addition to this version of the game. Stars you win in Party Mode, Solo Mode, and from other stuff go to this Star Bank, where you can use them to buy extras like a new board, a harder difficulty setting, the Miracle Book and its pages, and character taunts. This is a great incentive to play the game: unlock all the cool stuff. I'd say it works quite well, just like it worked for the very first Mario Party.

Night and day: The day-and-night feature is one of my favorite parts of the game. In Party Mode, the boards change depending on the time of day, which changes every three turns, requiring you to adjust your strategy accordingly. Also, some minigames change completely depending on the time of day. One you might remember if you've played the demos is a game called “What Goes Up…” that features the contestants climbing flying turtles (Paratroopas) and clouds to reach the greatest height during the day, while they try to avoid them and be the first to drop to the ground at night. It's cool, but I think it should've been more extensive: more minigames should have distinct night/day versions, and the board changes should be more pronounced.

Graphics and sound: Graphics are nice, and some minigames really look fascinating during the night. Background music is standard fare; once again, the minigame music can be quite catchy and enjoyable to listen to. Sounds include some new victory speeches for some characters (“Oh, did I win?”-Peach) and a new, higher-pitched roar for Bowser, among the typical sounds of the game.

Multiplayer: As this is a party game, this game is all about bringing over a few friends (or your siblings) and having fun together in Party Mode or Minigame Mode. Playing alone is okay for a while, but eventually you'd want to get at least one other person to join you. The more the better, of course. And the Mario Party series has yet to grow old for multiplayer. Have fun partying!

Re-playability: While playing solo might get old, the multiplayer experience of the game never gets old. And after all that partying with friends, a round of Solo Mode will seem refreshing. As long as you have friends or siblings around, you'll have fun.

Final Comments: Awesome minigames, a cool day-night system, new ways to collect Stars, the Star Bank, and Solo Mode all make this game a step above its predecessors (for me, at least). Easily a 10/10.

If you've liked the others in the series, or you like multiplayer games, this is a must-buy. If you don't do multiplayer often, though, you may be better off renting the game when you do have a huge gathering over, or asking one of your friends to bring a copy.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/07/05