"Wait... how did Peach win AGAIN?"

That is the question I am continually asking myself. What happened here? She is in last place throughout the whole entire hour of game play and suddenly turns into an unstoppable foe. I just don't see why this happens. I just purchased this game yesterday and was all excited. "This is ANOTHER Mario Party!" I thought gleefully. I really enjoyed the previous ones, but this seemed to ruin the series. Let me explain...

Visuals: 9/10
The visuals were the best aspect of the game. I really cannot complain about them at all. The water looked real, and the characters were detailed. Enough said.

Game Play: 5/10
Yeah, not too good. The fun level dropped a lot. Sure, the Wii remote controls the game and there is all new boards. That is exactly what I thought as I began to play the game. I really liked the boards, and the mini-games.... at first. Of course, it didn't last too long. The boards turned out to be dull, and easy. They were basically complete copies off of the previous games. For instance, the beach/boardwalk board was very boring, and I found that you needed NO COINS to win. You could win by winning NO MINI-GAMES. WHY DID THEY DO THIS?! The DK Jungle one is just completely old, based on the fact that they had one in almost every game so far, and the new characters are cool, but why are they there?! They have almost nothing to do with the Mario party games. It appears they just threw in any old character that appeared in a few games to spice things up. It didn't work. So, there I am playing my first game of Mario Party 8. I nearly win every mini-game, and they were fun. I was ahead in stars, and I was having fun. But, then I actually started to notice things. Wait... that mini game wasn't even five seconds long.... Why is Peach rolling 10 's every turn? Why do all the other characters get a good candy (item) when I get a bad one? WHY DID I ROLL A TWO FOR THE PAST FIVE TURNS?! It gets dull. Everything going Peach's way, her getting all the good items, getting all the good rolls, landing on all the right spaces. Need I mention the fact that they turned the Capsules into Candies? You can no longer claim spaces by throwing capsules on them. You can only use candies. The candies basically offer the same selection of items as Mario Party 2 offered. Typical, lame, dull items. The boards almost have no point anymore. The "?" Spaces do virtually nothing. In Goomba's Boardwalk, if you land on a "?" Space, a guy throws you literally 2 spaces ahead. (once again, not joking) and DK might shake things up and give you 6 extra coins instead of 5. Nobody has landed on a bowser space yet, and I am still trying to figure out what the heck the "host'' of the game is. There is no day to night change in this game, and Koopa Kid and bowser play almost no role. The game is basically based on entire luck, and is very frustrated. Wait... its not even based on luck!! It's based on what the computer wants you to role... and what item the computer wants to give you. No wonder they win all the time!

Sound 8/10
The sounds and music were nice. I liked the way they incorporated old Mario music and put new twists on it.

Fun Factor 5/10
What is so fun about attempting to play another cliche Mario party? You will find yourself mumbling under your breath, getting angry, and sighing more then you will find yourself smiling or laughing. It's true.

Re-Play Value: 5/10
Why bother? It gets tiring...

Controls: 9/10
The Wii remote is the only thing that saves the game... Without it, I can guarantee that there wouldn't be a 9th party... The controls don't get a 10 because they could have done such more... They could have made different uses of the Wii Remote, and shook things up.

Overall: 6/10
Play the other 7... This game is just boring. It isn't even fun the first time you play each board. I set all my characters on EASY, won every mini-game. Had over 100 coins, and still came in 3rd. This is because everything fell in favor of the computer. The game isn't based on skill at all. The mini-games are now to short to incorporate a strategy, and most are just based on how fast you can shake your hand. Hopefully the next Mario Party invitation will get lost in the mail...

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/07