Nintendo Wii - Mario Party 8 Review

I think it's ironic that I'm reviewing yet another Mario game on Viewpoints here especially in the last one I really complained a lot about the weak visuals and lack of depth, eh? OK, I don't want to drop the hammer just yet so I'll give it a chance. Ever since the Mario Party series got its start on the Nintendo 64 it has been selling faster then rubbers at a adult shop. Now the MP franchise makes the jump to the Nintendo Wii here with all new interactive mini games. Are the new editions enough to save this Party?

There is a story here believe it or not but you probably won't care. Mario and his friends arrive at a carnival and they decide to battle one another to see who the best is. Just like other games in the series you select from one of several goofy tables and you have to compete against other computer or human players with dice rolls to earn coins and stars.

The mini games here have always been the main draw of the MP's and there is good news and bad news. First off the good is there a nice variety of short games here that consist of simple forms of bowling, racing, roping, and many more to help break up the tedious map scenes. Like before there is a different assortment of one player, two on two, 3 vs. 1, and 4 player free for alls so the action almost never feels the same with each turn. It doesn't sound like anything has changed but now you use the Wii controls so the games do have you moving around a lot even if some of them are harder to play compared to the GameCube ones. At least they feel different. Sadly, the bad is there are only 50 mini games here and they get old after a few plays.

It doesn't get any better for visuals and sounds either. I don't know what's worse: the lame GameCube-like visuals that aren't even full screen if you have a wide screen TV or the endless amount of text you have to read through because someone was too lazy to hire any vocal talent again?

The fact is it doesn't matter if some irate Canadian reviewer here gets mad at this halfassed sequel because Nintendo knows they can take a huge dump in a white DVD case and people will still buy it if it has the Mario Party name. To be fair part 8 is still a solid game when you have a few friends over and the new mini games are fun to experiment with thanks to the Wii-motes. Sadly, like every other MP game the single player game is as dull as ever and the presentation is weak at best so if you are starting to get sick of these sequels then you're better off just renting this party instead.

Mario Party 8 overall rating: 56/100

For 1 to 4 players
Rated (E) for Everyone
graphics: 4/10
sound: 5/10
gameplay: 6/10
replay: 7/10

StarSoldier1 2007
(Ryan Genno)