Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Ever since Mario Party debuted on the Nintendo 64, we've been receiving a new game in the series on a yearly basis. The last few Mario Party games have all been tiring. Almost rehashes. However, with the Wii, Mario Party has a chance to be a lot of fun again thanks to the Wii-Remote. Unfortunately, it isn't all its cracked up to be. The Wii-Remote controls work, but they feel like a last minute tack on, and ultimately some of the mini-games just aren't all that fun. Finally, there are other video games chock full of mini-games that make much better use of the Wii-Remote than Mario Party 8.
The formula for Mario Party really hasn't changed at all over the years. You and your friends (or the computer) will roll the die, move around the board at the end of each round of rolls you'll be thrown into a mini-game.
The mini-games are pretty short. Most of them being around 30 seconds long. Some of them are quite fun and make good use of the wii remote, such as the game where you have to shake up a soda can, or wipe off the chomp. However, there are not a lot of these kinds of mini-games. Most other mini-games don't make as big of an impression with the wii-remote, as most of them consist of you holding the wii remote like a basic gamepad and then tilting it left or right. Take for example, the game where you race on water skis. You don't actually do anything outside of tilting the wii remote left and right to jump ramps. It is in moments like these where the wii remote controls just feel tacked on. And unfortunately, this comes up in quite a few mini games. There are also a lot of mini games that simply have you tilting the Wii-Remote forward and backward. Again, the controls feel tacked on in instances like this.
The biggest slap in the face, however, is that there are a myriad of mini-games that don't use the wii-remotes motion sensor controls at all and you'll hold it like a gamepad, and play with it like it's a gamepad using the D-Pad to move your character and all. It's also to no credit that these games aren't really all that fun.
To the game's credit, though, when they do make good use of the wii-remote and its motion sensor controls, they really do a bang up job. Such as the mini-game where everyone shoots at the screen while one person dodges. It's just unfortunate that there aren't a lot of mini-games that do so, and instead make you either play the traditional way or just simply tilt the wii remote. There are some fun games here, but the game is populated by more games that really aren't a lot of fun.
As usual, Mario Party games are no fun by yourself. They need to be played with friends and family. Like previous installments, multi-player can be a lot of fun--provided you get a good mini-game. Some of the games are free-for-all but there are also some games where you'll be by yourself against three players, or working together with one other player. Mostly, though, they're free for alls, and playing with a friend is nice just so that you can see who's better. Multi-player has always been a strong aspect of Mario Party and it's no different in number 8. However, much like previous installments, the game is entirely left up to chance. One moment you're in first place, and after the very next roll you're in last. It's annoying sometimes because you really don't have any control. It's all a game based on luck. This is both a good and bad thing. Good because it makes the outcome unpredictable, and once more anyone can play this without any prior experience. It's bad, however, because for some who like to add a little strategy to their gaming, you just can't do it here.
Perhaps the biggest problem facing Mario Party 8 is that it doesn't really present a whole lot of new stuff that wasn't in Mario Party 7. With the game making use of the Wii-Remote, one would expect the experience to be quite different. Instead it's more of the same thing. Especially because there are other games on the Wii that are filled with mini-games that make far better use of the remote (Rayman Raving Rabbids comes to mind). In Mario Party 8 the wii remote controls either feel tacked on or you don't really use them. It's also hard to get past the fact that the mini-games aren't very inventive because of this. Certainly water-skiing is fun, but when you're just tilting left and right throughout the whole thing? You might as well have just put this on the Gamecube and let me tilt the analog stick left and right.
Graphically, it's no surprise that Mario Party 8 isn't the best looking game out there. Mario Party games usually aren't. At least it runs smoothly. There's no slow down or frame rate issues. It really doesn't look any different than any of the Mario Party games on the Gamecube however, and those who have a widescreen television will be disappointed to know that the game won't take up the whole screen, and instead will give you a boarder. Luckily, graphics don't make the game. Mario Party doesn't look bad, it just looks dated.
Mario Party 8 had so much potential. If they'd done more intuitive things with the Wii Remote, this may have been worth a buy. There are other mini-game collections out there that utilize the wii remote much better than this. There will be plenty of gamers out there that will be able to get past the big flaws and just have fun with it, but if you're one who's been playing Mario Party since the beginning, you can't help but admit a change is in order. Unfortunately Mario Party 8 doesn't do much for you.
Pros:
+When the Wii Controls are good, the games are actually quite fun
+Simplistic gameplay; anyone could pick this up and play it with no problems
+There are over 60 mini-games to play
Cons:
-There are far too many mini-games where the wii controls feel tacked on, and these games are pretty boring to play
-There are far too many mini-games that don't make use of the motion sensor controls at all
-There are not a lot of very inventive mini-games
-In short, the game doesn't do much to stand out above previous Mario Party installments. You'd think with the Wii Remote, Mario Party 8 would be something new to experience, but instead it ends up not being that much of a step higher than Mario Party 7
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