"Wii + Mario Party = THE best multiplayer game one could ask for."

Since more recent years, the Mario Party series has begun to take a turn for the worse...Especially MP7, which offered no more than MP6 did other than 8 player mode and new minigames. That is, until now. MP8 has been a great revival to the series, utilizing the power of the Wii the best they could, although I think they could have utilized their own brains a little better.

Gameplay: 9/10

I've always enjoyed how Mario Party games work. I think perhaps the series is the only series that replicates pretty well a board game. Each turn, you eat some candy, pop one (or maybe more) dice block, and move the number of spaces you rolled. (Up to 10) The object of the game is to have the most stars at the end of the game. Stars are collected in many ways, but most often, there's simply a star space you must pass and maybe pay a certain amount of coins to get it.

Wait, candy? What happened to items/orbs/capsules? Well, candy IS items/blah/etc. Anything from Twice Candy which allows you to roll two dice blocks, to Bowlo Candy which allows you to turn into a bowling ball and steal coins from anyone you pass, to Vampire Candy, which allows you to steal coins from all your opponents!

But BY FAR the best and most series-reviving aspect of this game is the minigames. The Wiimote's motion sensitivity was neither wasted nor overused. Your Wiimote could turn into an oar to paddle to a tiny island with, a baseball bat to hit baseballs with (DUH), a boxing glove to smash the snot out of a Bowser statue, a can of soda that you shake as much as possible to make the biggest soda 'explosion' (most definitely their craziest mini-game!), or a gun to shoot a variety of things with. Plenty of games use the motion sensitivity, but people that like old, button & D-pad action will be please to hear that a nice handful of minigames have you simply holding the Wiimote sideways like a Virtual Console NES game, playing simply with the D-Pad and 1 and 2 buttons.

There's two things that caused me to give gameplay (and overall) a 9 instead of a 10. The first is the boards. There is one, yes only ONE board that has the classic 'get the star by chasing it down and buying it for 20 coins' scheme. All the other boards? Different. From getting to the end of a no-junction board by paying dolphins to skip spaces to get a star free, to buying hotels, they're all different. And some of them quite undesirable!

The second is the speed of the game. It simply goes too slow. I was recently playing Mario Party 3. I took my turn going first, took a 15-second mini-nap, and before I knew it, I was off to another minigame! In Mario Party 8, there's a little lag and unnecessary animations. If you plan on using a candy, I'll be playing my little minigame in Mario Party 3 by the time you finally finish your turn. And you've still got three more computers to wait for! Oh, what fun!

Graphics: I don't care.

I never really have much to say about graphics, but maybe that's because I never really cared enough to give a damn. Oh, you really want a rating? Fine, 8/10. And you want some stupid comment too? It's better than gamecube games by far, and at least the candy animations, while time consuming, don't suck.

Sound: 8/10

I also never really have much to say about sound unless it sucks like a Hoover. And it doesn't. NEXT!

Value: Dependant on number of people available

If you have a 2-3 friends and/or family members who LOVE video games and have around the same skill as you, GET THIS GAME NOW. And if you don't have enough Wiimotes for them all, go get them. Because you and your friends will have countless hours of fun with this game. I know from experience of other Mario Party games, the number of humans playing exponentially increases the fun you get out of it. With just one player, it's just another game...So if you really want a few ratings, here:
If you plan on playing alone: 3/10
If you plan on playing with just one other player: 5/10
If you plan on playing with two or three other players: 7/10
If you plan on playing with two or three other players which all have similar skill levels as you: Somewhere around infinity/10

Overall: 9/10

As usual, the Mario Party series remains a gem among multiplayer games. But Mario Party 8 has revived the series, and can be a fine addition to your no-doubt growing Wii library. And yes, you can definitely expect a Mario Party 9 coming out within about 14 months!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/05/07