Release Date: October 21, 2002
Developers: Hudson Soft
Publishers: Nintendo
System: GameCube
Rated: E

The first Mario Party for the GameCube arrived in 2002. I will of course rate on a scale from 1-10 and put the =,-, and + to indicate whether it was better, worse, or equal to its prequel, Mario Party 3.

Gameplay: 7
Each board has its own host, including Toad, Goomba, Shy Guy, Koopa, and Boo. Mario Party 4 also contains some characters new to the franchise: Thwomp and Whomp. Klepto, Dolphin, Lakitu, and Star, along with two completely new characters named Genie of the Lamp and Ztar, are included as well. Mario Party 4 retains the Story Mode found in Mario Party 3. The game, as usual, contains a standard party mode in which up to four players play through a board, trying to collect as many Stars as possible. The Star Space appears randomly on the board, and players have to reach it before anyone else. However, the Stars carry a price tag of 20 coins, and player hacw to earn those coins by winning mini-games, which take place at the end of each turn (after all the players have rolled the Dice Block, which will always roll a number from one to ten).

Here are the new features. In story mode, it's just like Mario Party 3, ONLY this time you win presents for every board you win. Then after you win, you get a constellation of your character. In order to get EVERY present, you must beat story mode with EVERY character in the game. You also get additional presents for setting GREAT records on your mini-games. Really there wasn't much added this time. So it's about the same. (=)

Mini-Games: 6
Really wasn't too impressive this time around. Some of the mini-games are boring, like press A repeatedly as fast as you can (there are 3 mini-games like that.) You still have four-player, 1vs3, 2vs2, Battle, and Duel. They took away Game Guy spaces. The newest type of mini-games are Bowser mini-games. If you don't win those, you DON'T lose coins, items, etc. Really I HATE Bowser mini-games, the other ones aren't too good, and this was a BIG minus, but believe me, you'll see that I give Mario Party 4 a lot of bad ratings. (-)

Music: 2
Here's where we start to get VERY bad. The music is absolutely awful. Two points comes from the semi-catchy themes on the Goomba board and Toad board. The mini-game music is terrible. Believe me, you'll cringe at the sound of the music. Let's just stop there... (-)

Characters: 7
The characters are exactly the same: Mario, Luigi, Wario, Yoshi, Waluigi, Daisy, Peach, and Donkey Kong. Nothing added, nothing taken out. Although the board characters are different, that really doesn't add much to the score. (=)

Originality: 3
The 3 comes from Bowser mini-games, trophies, and of course new mini-games in particular. That's it. No new modes, the same characters, same old same old. I think there maybe should have been new characters and a better type of mini-games than Bowser mini-games, which you'll see are terrible. Mario Party 3 added a lot more new stuff than Mario party 2, making this the WORST at originality. (-)

Graphics: 5
Well I'll have to admit the characters don't look bad. The problem is the boards look like N64 graphics. The mini-games don't look much better. Mario Party 3 looked very nice for N64, while Mario Party 4 didn't for GameCube. (-)

Controls: Depends
It depends on what mini-game you're playing. If you've read Mario Party 1-3 Reviews by me, you'll know that I say this every time. I will say though the  mini-games are EASIER to control because I personally like the GameCube control stick better then the N64. (+)

Difficulty: Depends
You know that it depends on what mini-game, so I'm strickly talking about Story Mode. Story mode is way too easy and boring, You'll want to quit because it's TOO boring. Not too hard. Basically, it wasn't challenging enough, it was just like a daily routine to play all the boards and win every one of them. (-)

Items: 8
Well I got to give it credit here. Ok, the items are the same as last time: Magic Lamp, Mushroom, Golden Mushroom, Chest, etc. Except for two new ones: Mini and Mega Mushrooms. The mega of course makes you huge. It gives you two dice blocks and you go around stomping on your foes taking their coins. Mini Mushrooms let you take mini-hole shortcuts and play mini-mini-games (which are played during board time for extra coins) These two new items make the game a LOT better as far as items goes, which means Mario Party 3 is crushed in this category. (+)

Secrets: 2
One board is all you'll unlock, and oh yeah, you'll unlock a SPECIAL trophy for getting every single trophy. Anyway, what about new mini-games? What about  new characters? What about a new mode? Did they even think? I didn't THINK so. So this was worse because at least Mario Party 3 let you unlock new mini-games. (-)

Boards:
Toad's Midway Madness -(8)- One thing I forgot to mention is lottery shops on boards where you take your chances on tickets. Anyway, this board is for beginners and is one of my favorites.

Shy Guy's Jungle Jam -(6)- This is my worst in the game because it is SO boring and plain. Anyway, it's ok, I guess.

Boo's Haunted Bash -(8)- Remember I lo0ve horror music and boards. Gotta love this one!

Goomba's Greedy Gala -(10)- The best board in the game. Very unique. You'll see how it is, and I love the music on this board (despite the other music).

Koopa's Seaside Soiree -(7)- A decent board with a few flaws, mainly the banana traps.

AND 1 SECRET BOARD

Overall Board Grade: 8
Could've been more. (-)

Overall: 6
The worst Mario Party yet. Not unique, not too great mini-games, and could've been better for the GameCube. Anyway, it was a lot worse then Mario Party 3. I'd  recommend this to anyone who doesn't have this, but I wouldn't buy it, maybe  borrow or get it for free somehow. Well maybe 5 is better... (-)