Let’s really see how well Mario Party 8 fulfilled its position as the first Mario Party to come out on the Wii. The scoring scale is from one to five stars.
Story: **
The Star Carnival
is here, and everyone is in, wanting to play minigames and party boards.
People also participate in the main event, the Star Battle. The winner
is declared the Superstar and wins a year’s worth of candy. Actually, you
win something more than candies, but let’s not spoil secret details of
the story.
It’s not a childish
storyline,
nor is it a serious plot either. Although the storyline is fit for a Mario
Party like this one, its creativity is kind of mundane, in my opinion.
Controls: ****
The controls
in minigames are easy to handle. Some examples are shaking the Wii Remote,
using the control pad to move and press the 2 button to jump, and tilting
the Wii Remote left and right to move or move something. There are no complicated
things in the controls.
The controls while
playing on party boards are simple also, but having to move the tip of
the Wii Remote to a function you want to choose can get irritating, such
as selecting the appropriate buttons to view maps, paths, or your Candies.
Why can’t there just be a couple of buttons that can do all that? It would
save some time rather than moving the Wii Remote to buttons that view maps
and paths. However, this is only a minor complaint, so it only bothers
the score a little.
Gameplay: **
I think this
isn’t a good Mario Party game. There aren’t as many twists, items (candies),
and fun minigames, though you need a bit of a strategy while playing minigames
and playing on party boards while depending on luck.
Modes: **
Five main modes
are Party Tent, Minigame Tent, Extras Zone, Star Battle, and Fun Bazaar,
where you buy prizes, items, and others. There aren’t that many modes,
bringing the score down. The score is based on the individual modes too.
>Party Tent: ***
The party boards
are fun to play in. There are six boards to choose from, and each one is
different from the others.
>Minigame Tent:
***
There is a decent
variety of different modes to select from, each involving playing minigames.
Of course, there is a free-play mode.
>Star Battle Arena:
**
You’ll play against
computer players in this main mode. Star Battles are similar to Duel Battles.
The computer players’ difficulty level rises as you move along the party
boards. The battles can get boring along the way.
>Extras Zone:
**
You’ll play minigames
that aren’t in the Minigame Tent. They are a bit interesting, but there’s
only a few minigames, so this mode gets a slightly-below-average score.
>Fun Bazaar: ***
You can buy lots
of stuff in here using your Carnival Cards. You can even buy minigames
that you haven’t played before, which saves you from frustration of getting
new minigames by playing on party boards. There are many frustrations in
getting new minigames in previous Mario Parties. There are some times when
the wheel chooses some minigames that you have played before among the
ones that haven’t been revealed yet.
Other things in this mode are checking your records, checking out figures you bought in a display or parade, and listening to music.
Party Boards:
****
I think Mario
Party 8 presents us a nice display of party boards. The modes are similar
to the ones from Mario Party 7. In Party mode, you can choose to have Battle
Royale, Tag Battle, or Duel Battle.
The party boards are good in my opinion. The objectives of getting Stars changes across the boards. You may beed to get to the Star spaces and buy Stars for 20 coins, get to the end in order to get a Star, deposit coins to own buildings, go through an ever-changing maze to find the place where the Stars are, or use certain candies to steal stars from players!
A drawback is
that there are only six interesting boards. I would say that there should
be a few more boards than that. During the past Mario Parties I played,
there are only six boards, and one of them must be unlocked in order to
play it. Another drawback is none of the boards’ styles of getting Stars
themselves are original.
Battle Royale/Tag
Battle: ***
The objectives
in these battles are to get more Stars than your opponents. Players can
all fightfor themselves or play on teams. No matter what, there’s always
some disaster going on between players.
Duel Battle: **
The Duel Battle
mode is different from Battle Royale and Tag Battle. It’s a two-player
mode, and the paths on the boards are different. The winning objectives
are different from the two modes. However, the Duel Battle proves a bit
disappointing as some of the boards share the same objectives, and only
two boards have unique objectives.
Spaces: **
Most of the party
board spaces in Mario Party 8 are the same as the previous Mario Parties:
Blue, Red, Green, DK, and Bowser Spaces. The only spaces different are
VS, Challenge, and Lucky Spaces. On VS. Spaces, much like the Duel Space
in Mario Party 6 and 7, you battle against your opponent in a Duel Minigame.
On Challenge Spaces, the player plays a one-player minigame. If he or she
wins, he or she can win coins. On Lucky Spaces, something very lucky will
happen to you, which I will not rather spoil.
The spaces are
decent, but Mario Party 8 barely manages to keep a variety of spaces while
creating spaces that are very much different from the regular ones.
Candies: ***
Items used in
this game are not orbs this time. They’re items that you use on yourself,
called candies. Every candy has a different function. You can use candies
to destroy your opponents or help yourself. There are many different ways
to use candies. The score, however, is dropped by a star since there aren’t
enough candies to satisfy.
Minigames: **
There are 4-player,
1 vs. 3, 2 vs. 2, Duel, Battle, Challenge, and Last minigagmes. There are
also minigames in Extra mode. Mario Party 8’s minigames are a disappointment
as there aren’t that many minigames and many dull minigames share the same
objectives, such as scoring more points than the your opponents by shooting
at targets, and especially racing to the finish. There aren’t as many 1
vs. 3 minigames, which also brings down the score a little.
Music: **
Generally, I
don’t find the music to be that great. The music in minigames and on boards
isn’t spectacular, but it's not so bad either.
Graphics: ***
The graphics
of the characters are fine, but it’s not well textured so it deserves an
average score. The graphics are a lot like they are in previous games from
the Mario series. Some backgrounds, such as a few party boards, are a bit
too colorful. Many colors used give a bit of a problem.
Fun Factor!: **
You won’t be
having much of a good time playing by yourself. But if you play with other
people, you’ll have a better time.
The minigames may bore the players, unless you and the other players are competitive. In that case, it would be fun. But as a whole, most of the minigames are not as enjoyable as some fun minigames in previous Mario Parties. The party boards are somewhat fun to play by yourself. If you’re playing with or against your friends, they would be more enjoyable.
As a whole, the
fun won’t last long.
Replayability:
**
You won’t be
playing this for a long time while still being satisfied. It would last
only for a few days or so.
Overall: **
Slightly below
average. This game is worse than some of the previous Mario Parties. I
don’t recommend buying this game unless you still want to play this game
and don’t care if this game stinks or not.
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