Common members of various online communities would know that the Mario Party series is quite often the subject of numerous bashings. Undeserved as most of these bashings are, Mario Party 8 is undoubtedly one of the most widely panned. Being both a Mario game and one for the Wii, there was no doubt in mind that it was going to be successful - very successful. In fact, it sold over 4 million copies. It's quite obvious that Nintendo's casual crowd assisted in these sales the most, because reviews of the game... weren't all that good. In fact, it's one of Mario's lowest-reviewed games.
I'm not too sure what critics disliked
so much about the game, but I'm gonna take a guess and say that they're
just getting tired of the same old Mario Party formula. I can't say I disagree,
but I don't think it's the bad game that people say it is...
STORYLINE - 6.2/10
The "Star Carnival" has come to the Mushroom Kingdom. These popular fairgrounds are home to many a competition, mini-games, and prizes. The ringmaster, by the name of MC Ballyhoo, invites Mario and his friends to come to the carnival for yet another party.
One of the main attractions in the Star Carnival is the Star Battle Arena; here, various party-goers compete against each other to go for their sugary, tooth-rotting prize: a year's supply of candy. Mario and his friends enter this contest as well, in hopes that they can get through without any... uninvited visitors...
Quite honestly, I felt a bit stupid
writing that paragraph, the story is so very corny. I mean, I'm not much
of a story person outside of RPGs, so I can tolerate this... But, just
the whole extremely lighthearted idea of the game doesn't make it feel
like you have much going for you. Giving yourself diabetes with all that
candy, mmmm... Sounds fair enough, but I'd like a bit of an epic side to
the story. Could they not have made it some mystical artifact? Or perhaps
they're hiding something...?
GAMEPLAY - 7.1/10
Basic Mario Party fare. Little to nothing has changed since the last Party; you hit your Dice Block, gain coins, buy Stars, and play mini-games. It WAS a good formula, but frankly it started to get old... Quite awhile back it did, actually. So Mario Party 8... really doesn't add anything new. There's the heavy use of the Wiimote during the mini-games and how you have to whip it upwards to hit the Dice Block. The mini-games, I should mention, are one of the stronger selections in the series... or WOULD have been, but the Duel mini-games are easily the weakest in the series, simply due to the fact that they are copies of other mini-games, only adjusted to fit the 2-player competition.
Allow me to give several examples of the mini-games in this paragraph, aye? One example per category, I shall provide. For 4-player mini-games, "Shake It Up" is a very basic one. You shake the Wiimote with as much force as you can muster to make your character shake a can of soda. Upon opening it, the player with the tallest geyser of soda wins. If you end up in a 1-vs-3 game, expect for "Gun the Runner" to pop up at some time. Here, the single player is forced to go through a platforming sequence while the other 3 players try to shoot the loner down. 2-on-2 contains one of my favorites, "Boo-ting Gallery". This game pits 2 teams in a contest to destroy numerous Boos in a co-op first-person shooter style. And for Battle, "Glacial Meltdown" throws players in an icy arena to try to bash the others into the sub-zero waters.
Moving on to the board action, the Candy system could be considered new, but it's really just a replacement for Orbs and Items in the past Mario Parties, only with less variety and more bizarre effects. As an example, Vampire Candy: it may turn your character into a coin-leeching vampire, but that’s just a fancy way of stealing coins - an effect of several items in previous parties. Ummm... Well, there's a new space you can land on, if you're interested. It's the golden, gleaming Lucky Space. In the rare event that you land on this, something very good will happen, such as being transported to areas that would be otherwise inaccessible. Many coins and Stars await you in these havens. I mean, it's pretty unlikely that you'll land on one of these spaces, but if you do, hey, it's pretty cool.
GRAPHICS - 8.2/10
I've heard many remarks about this game not running on 16:9 widescreen, which means there would be an ugly border around the screen. Strangely, such a graphical nuisance did not occur when I was playing. It's probably just my TV. Note that you probably won't be as satisfied with the graphics as the 8.2 implies, but I'm judging through my own eyes here... And through these eyes, the game looks quite pretty. The shades and lighting in particular caught my attention, doing well to affect the environment around them. And it's a refreshing style as well. The graphics of the GameCube Mario Parties got extremely repetitive, and they were very simple in the first place.
A somewhat rough frame rate inhabits
the game's visuals, making some animation look... I don't know how to describe
it. Sloppy, but sophisticated... Those 2 words contradict each other so
I am doubtful there would be a word that combines those 2 factors in to
1. But, er, um... I'm not giving you a really clear picture here, am I...?
Ah, I got it... The game's frame rate is a bit sloppy, but that sometimes
makes it look cool.
MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS - 8.2/10
Again, a pretty basic category for Mario Party. The soundtrack in 8 seems to have a more diverse, playful selection to it. Of course, there really aren't any dark themes to it, but it has just about every kind of cheerful theme you could ask for, my favorite being one called "Feelin' Cyber", which has an obvious techno theme to it. Equally as good, the theme that plays on Shy Guy's Perplex Express is very fancy and fitting, a good track for my favorite board in the game. And there's one more cool theme I particularly like; "Pick the Rules", which plays when you're deciding on your characters, difficulty setting, etc.
Traditional to the series, the game
features a Sound Test for you to listen to all of Mario Party 8's music.
I know it's nothing too notable, but I just love when games have
a Sound Test in them. It's always fun to just go to them and make your
way through all the different tracks; and it's no different in Mario Party
8.
LENGTH AND DIFFICULTY - 6.6/10
Mmmmhm. Same thing as always - try to beat the computer on all the boards in the game to win. This formula... It's an awkward mix between easy and hard. And I'm not very fond of that. Due to the game's heavy reliance on luck, there's really not much of a way to predict whether it will be easy or hard. Of course, the skill required in most mini-games adds ease to the Party - and personally, I'd rather play an easy game than a hard game. (Legend of Zelda games scarred me for life. ;~;)
Of course, the most important thing
to remember in Mario Party is to never give up. Consistently, the game
status can be completely turned around within a mere few turns. Resetting
the game only makes it harder and more tedious; and that's a terrible combination.
Think of it this way; YOU have some power as to how hard the game will
be.
REPLAY VALUE - 8.5/10
Of course, once you've beat the single player mode, you haven't even done half of what the game has to offer. As usual, this Mario Party excels in multiplayer, so it's definitely a lot more fun to play through the boards with some friends. There's also mini-game challenges and everything... Now, the thing is, for people like myself who don't have many friends to play with, the game's appeal wanes. Playing against the computers isn't as fun as playing with friends, and it gets rather dull. There are a few things that solo players can enjoy, though...
In a mode called the Fun Bazaar, there's a shop for you to buy various collectibles. These include new mini-games, music for the Sound Test, character figurines, and more. HOW to buy these items... You must earn yourself some Carnival Cards to spend on all the carnival's goodies. These cards are earned... basically by any means of play. If you complete a game, you get 50 or so Carnival Cards. Beat the Star Battle Arena, you got yourself 200. Play the mini-game mode, you get 1 card per game. The problem with these is that the first 2 take a rather long time to do, and the third one is a very, very slow method of card collecting.
Probably the best way to get Carnival
Cards is by doing the mini-game challenges. Not only are they short, sweet,
and to the point, but you'll get yourself around 30 cards; a handsome reward
considering the amount of mini-games in the challenge. These challenges
are quite fun as well-although, I should save that for the Fun Factor section,
because I hate having to think of things to write for that which aren't
synonymous with the overall section.
FUN FACTOR! - 7.9/10
For a generally lone player, I actually had quite a bit of fun with Mario Party 8. I mean, despite the series' repetition, I do like the formula. Probably because there's so much customization; you can do a long 50-turn game for a good feeling of accomplishment and a whopping load of Carnival Cards, or a quick 10-turn just for kicks. There's the characters to choose, the difficulty, the types of mini-games you want to play, the board selection... You can have everything fit to your desire. I'm being a bit too optimistic here, though - allow me to get to the negative parts.
For the hardcore gamer, the luck-based
formula can get very annoying at times. One may feel the need to reset
the game numerous times in order to get a high number on the Dice Block
to gain an advantage, or to avoid that Bowser Space nearby. Of course,
you can get some sadistic pleasure out of watching a computer fall victim
to one of Bowser's teases; then again, they can affect you as well, making
it somewhat unfair that you're punished for your opponent's bad luck. There's
also some luck-based mini-games, and pretty much the same things apply
to them.
OVERALL - 76/100
Those who have been consistently playing the Mario Party games may find the 8th time around a little hard to digest; every so often, people will grow tired of the same old Mario Party. Those who have been taking a break from the spin-off franchise, however, may find it in their best interest to come back for a while; the new control scheme and refreshing graphics make it more intuitive than the previous Mario Parties that you must've grown so very tired of.
Then again, $50.00 is a little much to pay for a game that falls within the 7 out of 10 range, so you'll probably want to find a good deal on the game if you plan to get it. It may not be the quality of Mario Parties 1, 3, or 4, but it falls about on the borderline of above-average and sub-par; a rather average Mario Party. But you can't complain much about that; if a boring week occurs or you come across a good deal, try Mario Party 8 out. Maybe you should rent it first, but I think you'll grow to like it.
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