Fungi Forums
Video Games => Video Game Chat => Topic started by: tinkerair on February 27, 2008, 02:06:38 PM
-
What mario party game is your favorite? I like Mario Party 6 for the gamecube, and Mario Party 8 for the Wii.
-
I liked Mario Party 1 the best, mostly for its classic minigames, and also because it was the only one I had.
Who can forget "Grab Bag", "Bash in cash", and "Musical Mushrooms?"
-
Mario Party 5.
-
I only enjoyed the first three games. Fourth game had too much stuff going on, believe it or not, and the other three games I don't ever want to try.
It's a tossup between Mario Party 1 and 2. Mario Party 2 had everyone in cute costumes, presentation was much better, no more thumb-destroying rotate-the-Control-Stick minigames, and Bowser Roulette's the most fun battle minigame I've seen. MP2 should win out. But I favor MP1 for the nostalgia. Bumper Balls started here, Mario Bandstand was the best it's ever been, music generally seemed better (pipe music in particular), and the Minigame Stadium rocked.
Am I the only one who, upon first getting Mario Party, played for hours in the Minigame Stadium before doing a normal game? I just wanted to get straight to the minigames, man.
-
I played the Minigame Island a lot early on, since it unlocked lots of stuff and let me hone my skills on all the mini-games with their special coin quotas. Tug Of War always took a long time to get past, though. It was nice that you could backtrack and save after every mini-game, rather than having to do a bunch of games in a row on a limited number of lives like the Mini-Game Coaster in Mario Party 2.
I also liked how Mario Party 1 used some songs from other Mario games, such as the overworld and underground stage songs from Super Mario Brothers 1 and the Iced Land and Dark Land map songs from Super Mario Brothers 3. I don't think Mario Party 2 used any songs from previous games. But I did like how it fixed the 1-vs.-3 and 2-vs.-2 games to give new coins to the winners rather than take from the losers. But it also has fewer boards than Mario Party 1! But it also has dueling. And Bowser with silly new identities like in the Super Show! And not-quite-Bowser-Junior. And some boring games of luck. Um, oh well.
If you can't tell, I've only played the first two games. I guess that's enough, considering that everyone keeps saying the series jumps the shark after 3.
-
I think there's already a thread for this... but, eh, 5 was pretty cool.
-
Four. It's the only one I own, mostly because it's the only I consider worth owning. Until a Wi-Fi enabled one is released (WTD, MP8??), it's all I need. Even then, who here would rather play Mario Party 9 than Super Smash Bros. Brawl or Mario Kart Wii?
-
Mario Party 5 is my favorite. It had great game modes, awesome music, and the minigames and board maps were fun and creative. When my cousin (he's a big Mario Party fan) comes over, we almost always have at least one Mario Party, and this is the one we play most often.
I have every Mario Party game from 4 up, and my next favorite is 6 because the day/night concept and the Mic were nice additions, and for the new gameplay modes on the boards; they were creative and added some fresh breath after 30-something essentially identical boards from the previous games.
4 and 8 tie for third place; 8 because of the fun minigames with the Wii Remote and creative boards. 4 was a pretty unique one; not in a good or bad way, just unique. I can't really describe it, but it's a game that I like to play by myself rather than with others. I used to play Story Mode on this game for hours on end. The Extra Mode is pretty neat too.
Mario Party 7 was decent, but it's my least favorite. It was basically Mario Party 6 with a roulette slapped on everything. Random Bonus Stars, random chests containing Stars, heck, even random prizes for Duels (and sometimes nothing)! It still has some good things in it though (I liked a lot of the minigames) and it can provide some good fun when you need it. That's what Mario Party is all about, isn't it?
I have Mario Party DS, but I haven't played it very much. From what I've experienced, though, it's looking to be quite good. It's got a solid story and great minigames.
I played Mario Party 1 at a friend's house several years ago. I liked it, but I'd have to play it again to decide what I think of it since I've forgotten most of its features. I played Mario Party 3 for about 10 minutes at a hotel, so I can't judge that one, and I've never even seen Mario Party 2.
-
Am I the only one who, upon first getting Mario Party, played for hours in the Minigame Stadium before doing a normal game? I just wanted to get straight to the minigames, man.
Actually, I believe I played Mini-game Island first which, incidentally, may have sparked my...uh...fangirling over Luigi. Yeah. Or maybe it was just the intro. In any case, MP1 gets mad props but I think I'll say that MP6 is my favorite.
-
Well, I like Mario Party 64 (1-3). The mini-games are fun, the boards are fun, everything. Mario Party GC (4-7), well 4 was very good, the only problem is not too many mini-games, but overall, good. 5, I haven't played it yet, 6 is ok, I didn't like the way they changed alot of the rules, and the bonus stars (especially taking DK away and making a selectable character in Mario Party 5 was a big mistake in my opinion), 7 was also ok. Mario Party Wii (just 8) was pretty good. I don't know, I think I like Mario Party 64 better.
-
Mario Party 27 is my favorite. The removal of the board in favor of pure minigames and the holodeck add-on are pure win.
-
Mario Party 27 is my favorite. The removal of the board in favor of pure minigames and the holodeck add-on are pure win.
yeah, me too, I loved Mario Party 27, remember that part where that thing happened at that place in that game?
-
I've only played 1, 2 and 5. I liked 1 and 2, but 5 was boring. I also hated how story mode could only be played in single player.
-
Mario Party 27 is my favorite. The removal of the board in favor of pure minigames and the holodeck add-on are pure win.
They already did that in Mario Party 13.
-
Time for a small review! I'm gonna start by saying that I have played every single Mario Party in existence. Guess I'm a masochist like the Angry Video Game Nerd. :P Anyway, I must say that I think the 64 Parties are lightyears better than the GCN Parties, so I'll speak my mind on them seperately.
Mario Party 1
My favorite thing about this game is the soundtrack. It was actually very well made and atmospheric for a low budget spin-off title. Second, the mini-games are classic, the game is actually challenging, and overall it has the most features and boards out of any Mario Party. I even like the whole "losers lose coins" aspect of the team mini-games. I'm almost inclined to say it's my favorite of the whole lot if it weren't for the addition of certain other features I really like down the road.
Mario Party 2
This brought along a huge overhaul to the series and it's just the second one. I like the costumes, I like the items and Koopa Bank. I like the new Duel and Battle mini-games, and I like the Baby Bowser -> regular Bowser feature. Keeps 'em on their toes. What I don't like is the lack of extra features outside some hidden mini-games and the fact that there are less boards than MP1. I also thought this game's presentation was less epic than MP1. Seriously, I thought the atmosphere in MP1 could've passed for a new Mario platformer at the time. MP2 sort of set the series up for the "lame-ass board game" label it would be stuck with over time.
Mario Party 3
My favorite MP, and also one of the most ignored. I wish they ended it after this so we could have a nice trilogy going on. Anyway, this game has it all. A crapton of brand new, actually well-designed mini-games, new characters, new items, new and refined board features, and best of all, DUEL MAPS! Honestly, these are almost better than the regular game boards. Now you need strategy to win, and it's more about roving the board than playing the mini-games. All in all, everything is so perfectly fitted together and refined that it makes me sad to see how sloppy some of the other MPs turned out later on. I also like this game's then-new Story Mode. It had some nice twists and made Luigi the default character, thereby propelling him into the spotlight for once. The game's premise and atmosphere once again returned to that epic, "almost a major Mario game" quality that the first MP had. All in all, this is very much my favorite Mario Party of the entire series. The only thing I can think of that's wrong with it are those god-forsaken Game Guy mini-games. Really, those can ruin everything.
I'll be back to go over the GCN Mario Parties later. This is mainly because they suck so bad compared to the 64 Parties that they need to be judged on their own merit.
-
What mario party game is your favorite? I like Mario Party 6 for the gamecube, and Mario Party 8 for the Wii.
I have only played 6 and 8. Mario Party six was fun for me because it was the first time I had ever played a mario party game (no haters!) and I loved it. I only own Mario Party eight, it was a gift for Christmas. And i enjoy the boards on MP8 because theyre really different from each other.
-
Whoah... you quoted yourself!
-
OK....so now it's time for me to voice my opinion on the GCN Parties, which nobody cares about, apparently.
Mario Party 4
This one could easily be the worst. It is the most bland presentation-wise, with a retarded plot (it's your birthday and Bowser wants to ruin it, olol), and a bunch of enemy drones running the boards (they don't hold a candle to the Millenium Star. Just Toad would've been good enough). Those "presents" you get for beating the Story Mode are kind pointless, and nobody wants to play the same [darn] thing eight times over (different presents for every character). The boards are crud compared to the 64 MPs. Those old ones had a funky visual effect with the "polygons running around on prerendered backgrounds" thing, but these board are just metal walkways suspended over badly modeled generic backgrounds, and the way the boards are designed isn't much better: fewer ? spaces with crappy events that do nothing but give you items or coins? No more Koopa Bank? No more locked gates? One-way paths galore?
Another problem comes from the Mini/Mega system. It's a cool thing, but it was way too over-emphasized. The only items you ever get most of the time are mushrooms, and the fact that the Mega Mushroom forces you to skip Stars while all the Mini Mushroom is good for is passing pipe gates (which never have anything useful behind them) doesn't help. I also must mention that the Bank was replaced with a "Lottery Shop" which nobody ever wins at, so that's pointless, and the "Lucky Draw" event at the last five turns also never seems to work. I missed the "character predicts the winner" thing from the first three games! More importantly, why the hell did they decide to make the "Blue and Red spaces coins are doubled" thing be part of a bunch of randomized events? That's not the worst thing ever, but it does seem a bit dumb. The Warp Space was a waste, and the new "Panchinko machine" Fortune Space has nothing on the original Chance Time.
As for the mini-games, there's actually less of them than in MP3 and most of them seem like re-hashed concepts. The Duel Mini-games are now Story Mode boss battles against the hosts. The only good new mini-games are the Bowser Mini-Games, but those had to come at the expense of the standard Bowser Events that used to come up on Bowser Spaces. Now those are lame. Speaking of which, this game's Bowser board is the worst in the entire series. Like the other boards, it's got a bunch of useless events that never ever seem to be encountered. They really skimped out on the game this time. Perhaps the best part of this game is the Extra Room, where all the 1-Player games are, but most of those are crappy or randomized (Doors of Doom FTL) and Beach Volley Folley is hard to unlock and eventually beat. All in all, this might actually be my least favorite game in the series. It really feels like a watered-down version of Mario Party 3, which as you know is my personal favorite. Even the music sounds rehashed. Geez...
Mario Party 5
Well... this one is different, to say the least. My first gripe is the lack of Donkey Kong. That sucks. His new space isn't really worth much anyway. They're just coin-collecting mini-games with a jungle asthetic, and the DK Bonus is more or less just a cheap way to make coins. The fact that there's only one of his space on the board that changes every time only makes in worse. I still liked how you heard his voice every time you crossed the space itself, though. They should've done that for the Bowser spaces (which are also lame because there's now only one of them, but at least "Bowser Bonus" is better than having "Clone Troopas" steal your coins).
In terms of the boards, they're all fairly generic, and I can't say I like the 3Dness they have because there's far too much jumping around going on and the boards tend to be elevated rather than spread out. That seemed lazy to me. What I did like was the capsules, though the space creating, cost to use them, and category devision wasn't too refined this time. At least this feature was fairly clever, though the "All spaces have capsules" thing from the Last 5 Turns clearly indicates their over-emphasis (and now the Blue and Red spaces' coins can be tripled -_-) The ? spaces are even worse and far less emphasized than ever before, which is a shame because I liked those. Still, I think having the Star Spirits be the host was cool, since it ties to Paper Mario a little, even though there's absoultely no references to their job as guardians of the Star Rod or Star Haven or anything like that. In fact, their dialog is bland and the story behind this game isn't exactly up to par: Save this new Dream Depot place from Bowser (what happened to Sub-Con?) and those accursed "Clone Troopas". I'll have you know that the ending really ****ed me off (though none of it was as bad as MP4, thankfully).
The Story Mode itself is ass. Gone is the "campaign through every board, beating rivals" set-up, and in it's place is "beat the red, blue and green 'Clone Troopas' at Mini-Games to make them run out of coins". While this did seem like a good idea, mini-games happen far too often (you play a duel when you meet a "Clone") and the rules for who loses coins are too complicated and sometimes unfair. At least you get to see DK knock the snot out of those annoying "Those who should rightfully be Koopalings" and even Bowser himself once in a while. The last thing I hate about this is the way they tried to speed the game up by having all three "Koopa Wannabes" move at the same time. This resulted in the camera being zoomed out, the boards shrinking in size, and the "Stoopa Kids" moving at a slower pace than if they each went separately. It's hard to keep track of them when they move this way, especially taking into account all the capsule and board events that go on.
The mini-games themselves are in a word: bland. They aren't rehashes, but it seems that by this point they failed to come with anything inventive or exciting. I do rather like some of the settings these mini-games take place in, though. Guess it helps that the game is "dream" themed. One thing that bothered me was the fact that every mini-game seemed to have a time-wasting "opening and closing cutscene" which probably can wind on one's nerves after a while. I also hate how Battle Spaces have been axed in favor of Battle Mini-Games randomly taking the place of an ordinary 4-Player Mini-Game. Those can screw everything up. Bonus Mode was meh. It's got the old volleyball game, along with a new hockey game, but that "Card Party" thing would be decent if it weren't for the fact that the whole [darn] game is based on pure luck. Grr.
Everyone praises Super Duel Mode as the best part of the game, and I'd agree with it if it weren't for the fact that the game controls poorly and isn't engaging in the least. They could've done a lot more with this mode, and I find the end result disappointing except for the creatively designed vehicle parts. I honestly thought something like this would've been better done as a standalone Mario game. At least DK is playable here *sigh*.
My biggest gripe about the game actually has to do with the asthetics. Everything looks sugar-coated and the music is just obnoxiously childish. I know they wanted to go for a dream-like atmosphere, but some parts of this seem like an insult to the entire Mario franchise and it's fans. Though I suppose I have to give the game credit for re-introducing a lot of familiar old Mario enemies as capsules and in mini-games that was a nice touch. In fact, all of these Parties tend to do that and nobody ever give it credit. Come on folks, this was all we had before SMG showed up. Be a little more thankful.
On the whole, I'd say this game is a step-up from MP4 but not by much. There's just too much untapped potential and screaming of "we're falling into shovelware licensed game territory!".
I'll be back later with the better half of the GCN era, which in turn means MP6 and MP7.
-
Whoah... you quoted yourself!
Yes, yes I did. : )
-
Really good reviews, The Chef! Keep it up!
My favorite part of Mario Party 5 is the "hu uh hu uh" sound that the capsule machine makes. Everyone playing always repeated it whenever he did it, every single time.
-
I've only played 4, 5 and 6. 4 was the first Mario Party I played and had some great board designs. Collecting all those presents was fun, but I only got to Wario before getting board (Ugh! Puns!) It also introduced some new innovations and some gewd minigames. And I liked the whole plot idea of celebrating your character's birthday. I rented 5 and 6, and was incredibly disappointed with the lackluster boards, being unable to play as Donkey Kong, and the sucky new power-up systems (rarely was I ever able to claim a space for myself in MP6). All and all, MP4 forever, Bai-buh.
-
Really good reviews, The Chef! Keep it up!
My favorite part of Mario Party 5 is the "hu uh hu uh" sound that the capsule machine makes. Everyone playing always repeated it whenever he did it, every single time.
I found myself doing that a lot, but it didn't make up for that grating background music. Seriously, the endless loop of the theme song from the shoddy Ghostbusters game on the NES is more tolerable than that.
The rest of the reviews will come tomorrow. For now, I'll just point out some general things I noticed about the MP series.
For one, the playable characters carry only half the personalities they're known for. Seriously, they move like robots and repeat the same old phrases for every little thing that goes on. I also find it shameful that these are some of the only games in the series where Mario can't stand up to Bowser. That's just ridiculous. This also factors into why I like MP3 the best. The characters' dialog in the Story Mode evokes the personalities they're known for, even if it is for a brief moment.
Another thing I've noticed is that after MP4, the games got infinitely easier. I mean, I remember back in Mario Party 1 when the computer practically cheated on Hard and getting more than two Stars and 40 coins per game was an admirable feat. Now I find myself picking up multiple Stars in the same turn and ending the game with coin totals numbering in the hundreds. A lot. I know it's not just me getting better because I played all the games in succession once and I can tell you the challenge level on the N64 parties compared with the GCN ones is astronomical. It's like they're taking lessons from the geniuses behind those Barbie games or something.
Lastly, I happen to have my own "dream Party" that aims to fix all the flaws the current Parties seem to have. Trust me, there's a lot of ways this series can be saved, and I don't mean by completely erasing it from existence.