Nintendo DS - Mario Party DS Review

Mario Party DS is one of those games which everyone is supposed to love, and I do.

There are five modes to play in: Story Mode, Party Mode, Minigame Mode, and Puzzle Mode.  You usually start out in Story Mode, because you haven't unlocked any minigames yet, and Party Mode is boring.

In Story Mode, you first pick a character that you want to be, and then start right away.  You find yourself on a giant game board like thing, where you have to roll the dice to advance.  To win the game, you have to collect stars, and have more than the other players.  There are about five game boards that you have to finish, and at the end of each, you have to fight and defeat the boss.

Story Mode really isn't that fun, but it's not the only way to unlock minigames.  You can also unlock them through multiplayer games.

The minigames have to be the highlight of this whole thing.   There are probably over fifty, and you can play them in different ways, such as in Rocket Rascals.  That is where every time you beat a mingame, you get a piece of a pathway that leads you to the rocket.  Whoever gets to the rocket first, wins!

By winning mingames, you get points.  These points can get you badges and figurines.  By playing at harder difficulty levels, you can get more points.  Also, to get certain badges and figurines, you'll have to go through Story Mode again with a different character.  So that's a total of eight times for all of the different characters.

As said, the Story Mode isn't really that fun, the minigames are really the best part.  If you already like Mario, you'll probably like this game.  If not, you're still not going to like it with this repetative game!