Mario Party 8

"Think better who you're gonna invite next time, Mario."

Well, it's the 8th time Mario is supposed to make us have some fun with his parties. I get nostalgic when I remember all those fun ages when I played with my cousins the three Nintendo 64 versions... Wow... these were so awesome...

But enough of that, Mario Party 8 is a cool game when you play it with someone else... Well, it's better if you play with two o three more people, because even playing with only one more person gets kind of boring sometimes. I played it with my father and my sisters and it was FUN AS HELL, you can laugh HOURS when you see your father pulling a kart up and down like crazy against your sister.

Graphics? There's no doubt this was a secret Gamecube project, but they are still good, specially the water on Goomba's Booty Boardwalk. Smooth graphics, really enjoyable, still, there are some details, like Yoshi's nose, etc. I would give the graphics 7.5/10.

The music: alright, the Mario Party 7 music SUCKED, compared to that game's music, Mario Party 8's music is a masterpiece. The tunes are pretty catchy, the boards theme's are really cool (specially Goomba's Booty Boardwalk's). Still, it's really repetitive, because almost every minigame uses the same theme. I give the music 8/10.

The sound: nice sound effects, but the voices... Yoshi's voice is like a cat's voice and Daisy's voice is annoying. Not to mention McBallyhoo's voice, that it's untakeable. Other voice effects are pretty weak. I give 4/10 to the sound.

Story: let's confront this, Mario Party has never had a cool story, and this isn't the exception, all you have to do is going to the carnival and start your adventures.

The character roster... I would like to know WHAT THE HELL WAS NINTENDO THINKING WHEN THEY ADDED BLOOPER AND HAMMER BRO.!! I mean, they are Bowser's minions, BUT WHY THEY?! I mean, where's Bowser Jr.?! Where are the Koopalings?! I don't pretend them to be in the game, but they would be better characters! It's so awkward to see Blooper trying to shoot or bat, the same goes for Hammer Bro!! About the other characters... I remember those days when Toad was the one who used to sell the stars, Boo was the terror of the other players because he used to steal coins and stars... and now they're selectable characters? Dry Bones? I don't understand why he became so popular lately if he's so annoying, and Birdo... Well, Birdo is X for me, but it would be better if she didn't appear as a Selectable Character. Wait, there's someone missing... WHERE'S DONKEY KONG?! Ohhh now I remember, he's the one who is being used to contrarrest Bowser's actions... not cool as it seems. I never used DK in the older versions but I want him back, without him, the parties have never been the same. I would suggest that all those characters begone, and we had some newcomers like Diddy Kong, Bowser Jr., or even the new princess, Rosalina, oh, and Donkey Kong again. Althought, we still have the classics, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Daisy and Waluigi. And what about the host? That McBallyhoo, I thought it was Chuck Quizmo from the original Paper Mario! And it's not, it's just a weird creature with an annoying voice. Nothing more to say here. I give the character roster 2/10.

The boards: well, these are fun but... but... they're so exhausting! Let's start with the first one, DK'S Treetop Temple, who follows the Mario Party classic style: Search the star and buy it for 20 coins. The board is confusing because it's about hiking a temple, and there are many traps, like monkeys walking on barrels that destroy your coins. The theme for this board is kinda catchy, but still boring. With the next one, Goomba's Booty Boardwalk... let's start with its name, I mean, BOOTY? Thank god it's a kids game! This board is all about getting 10's on the dice and paying to the dolphins to let them take you ahead, because the way you get the stars is arriving to Captain Goomba's place, where he will give you a star... FOR FREE?! What the...?! And all the effort for winning minigames?! Yeah, you guessed right, THEY'RE USELESS. With the next one, King Boo's Haunted Hideaway, well, this probably is the most annoying board EVER, because you have to find that damn ghost in the whole mansion and paying him 10 coins to get a star, then start again. Shy Guy's Perplex Express is fully based on the Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door's Excess Express, I'M SURE OF THAT. Not to mention this is a really easy board, you get like, 2 10's in the dice and you arrive to the star. Then, it comes Koopa's Tycoon Town, well, this one is really funny, but hard to understand for newbies, it's all about buying hotels by investing coins in them, and depending on the hotel, the quantity of stars you get. Finally, Bowser's Warpid Orbit, an unlockable scenario, where you get the stars in the most pathetic way ever, STEALING THEM USING CANDIES. This is definitely not the final stage you're hoping for. I would like that there was more escenarios but well... I give to the scenarios 6.5/10.

Gameplay: really cool, the Wiimote responds perfectly to the moves (except for the "Flip The Chimp" and "Breakneck Circuit" minigames, where the controls are pretty weak). I give to the gameplay 8.5/10.

Apart from all this, I have to say that this game is PURELY BASED ON LUCK, the strategies are completely useless on this game, you can be winning with 90 coins and 2 stars with 2 turns left and in one turn you can be completely ruined, not to mention that is hard as hell getting a high number on the Dice Block, you always get 1, 2... sometimes 3, while the computer always gets 10, 9 and 8. In the last turns, if the computer is losing, they will always get the right number in the dices, the right Candies to win and land in the right space so they can win you in a turn. Other thing, the Candies, why Candies? Where are the classic Items from Mario Party 1, 2 and 3? And the Orbs, well, I don't miss them, because they sucked. Althought, there are few Candies.

Overall, I give this game 7/10. It's very cool if you play it with two or three more people, and it's worth if you constantly invite people to play in your house, if you don't do a favor to yourself and buy Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, because the single-player mode it's boring as hell, it's a torture. In Single-Player Mode a minigame appears when a player lands on a VS Space, and there are like 2 or 3 in the whole scenario, it's really boring, and the most sad thing is that you have to play that mode to complete the game by unlocking Blooper, Hammer Bro., and Bowser's Warpid Orbit. In a resume of everything:

The good:

-Nice music, nice graphics.
-Great gameplay.
-A high quantity of goodies to unlock.

The bad:

-AWFUL Single-Player Mode.
-No 16:7 Screen support.
-Really short minigames.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/08

Game Release: Mario Party 8 (US, 05/29/07)