Mario Party

"The original is not the best, but it's damn close"

The Mario Party series has seen multitudes of games released (almost) every year since the original Mario Party was released by Nintendo and Hudson in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. Since it's release we have seen the wonderful sequels, more mini-games, better boards more characters. We've seen features come and go; games welcomed and shunned, cheers of happiness and pillow throwing of frustration. You've gotten three stars in one turn; but you've lost fourty coins in previous turns, you've wondered whether it's luck or skill that pulls or leaves you just short of the line. But some of you wonder what the original was like. It was good.

STORY 8/10

The story for Mario Party is that one day; the six playable characters; Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong begin to argue about who is the superstar among then, after argiung about their strength, brains and heroism they eventually decide (after Toad lectures them) to have a competition in six worlds which are all experiencing problems to see who can solve the problems and reign supreme as the ultimate superstar. The result for us? Four player Mario Madness!

GRAPHICS 9/10

The graphics for Mario Party are surpisingly good for a Nintendo 64 game, textures run well, things look smooth, the clouds in Mario's Rainbow Castle look fluffy, Peach's Birthday Cake looks scrumptious and there are many more good features for the game's visuals. The mini games are no exception, they run smoothly, so the fastest part of the game is not ruined by shoddy visuals. In a nutshell the graphics are surprisingly good and great to watch.

MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS 7/10

The audio component of the original Mario Party is passable. The sound quality in itself is remarkable, with the sound not being muffled or out of sync with the rest of the game, and the music is quite appropriate for the mini games and boards. The character voices are also appropriate for their characters, so there's no squeaky voiced little boys doing the voice for Donkey Kong or anything like that. The problem with the audio is the sound effects can get very, very, VERY annoying, listening to Peach fly away time and time again is just asking for ear cancer and listening to Bob-ombs in Wario's Battle canyon shoot around three squillion times a game is SO ANNOYING!!!!!! Despite the annoyances of character voices the sound (especially the mini game music) is quite possibly the best in the series.

GAMEPLAY 9/10

The gameplay has made this game what it is; made this series what it is, and it is unique fun, and everlasting. The game works in a system where players roll a die and move the allocated spaces onto squares which make different events happen which can effect different players in different ways, different game boards also help or hinder your style of play or tenacity. At the end of each turn a minigame is played; and boy are they fun, you can do anything from bike pedalling bumping people whilst on giant balls, runnign, jumping, rowing EVERYTHING! The diversity of the mini games is fantastic; so no two mini games feel the same. The only miniscule setback is your controllers will be ruined by this game; but a ruined controller is an enjoyed controller. The rumours that the game relies on luck rather than skill are false in my opinion, and whilst you may be sent straight to bowser because of misfortune; the mini games' importance towards coin flow mean that skill is very important in this game. Overall the gameplay is definetley worth throwing a party for.

CONTROLLER USAGE AND FUNCTION 6/10

The controller usage is probably the worst feature of this game because some mini games (usually involving rotating the control stick) are sure fire ways to destroy your controller and are usually impossible to complete anyway. The button pressing is fine, but some of the controls feel laggy occasssionally as well as the Nintendo 64's abominal controller design not helping any movements.

MULTIPLAYER 10/10

Why don't you ask me how well fish swim? The multiplayer function of a party game has to be exceptional and Mario Party takes that to a whole new level. Playing with your friends allows you to work better as a team in 2 vs. 2 and 1 vs. 3 mini games and for some reason losing is certainly not as frustrating as it is in single player. Another untrue rumour is that the Single Player is boring compared to the multiplayer; and whilst multiplayer is far better (it's a party game duh) the Single player is fantastic as well. You know it's a good Nintendo party game when you can get 3 friends who are PlayStation freaks to play for hours (and even convince one to get a 64!)

OVERALL 8/10

The first Mario Party game is one of the all time greats for the Nintendo 64, the start of one of the great series in video gaming and is a fantastic game by itself (and by yourself as well!) It is definetley worth buying, enjoying and most importantly playing long into the night.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion I have a few things to say; the game is worth buying; renting won't satisfy you. I give this game an eight and rank this game #5 in the series. Thank you Hudson and Nintendo

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/05/07

Game Release: Mario Party (US, 02/08/99)