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Party Central

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 78 / 99
Date: May 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This past year, the Nintendo Wii has really delivered in making a promise of delivering gameplay that is fun and addictive as the game system delivered. That has been the case with great games that really showed it like Excite Truck and the dramatic The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess. With all that said about great games, mini-game excitement has also delivered too with the return of the Mario Party series. It has been almost 2 years since the franchise had its last game on the Nintendo Gamecube, and worked like a charm by being innovative and fun for all ages. Now, it has finally made its way onto the Wii, but is it worth the wait.

Mario Party 8 for the Nintendo Wii is a wild and addictive game that brings out a simplicity for gamers young and old alike, as you unlock and play over 70 minigames that are easy and fun to play. There are also a few new additions here too, as you can also unlock players including Blooper, the sea squid from the Super Mario Brothers games, and Hammer Brothers, which recently returned in a great set of guest cameos in Super Mario Strikers and Mario Superstar Baseball. The graphics are delightful but the gameplay is definitely what brings the game to its success, as you use the Wii remote to play in games like waving a magic wand and using an energy ball to strike Bowser in a one on one showdown, punching a statue to smitherines with a boxing glove, or using it you are shaking a soda can and creating a gusher in one of the duel minigames. You can also use your Mii characters that you've created from games like Wii Sports and have them play in the Star Carnival and play games like ping pong. The graphics are delightful and the sound carries well throughout each of the boards, but the gameplay really does deliver for new Wii owners as well as die hard Mario fans alike.

All in all, Mario Party 8 is a delightful game that welcomes the party franchise Wii owners well. I loved what the series brought out for so many years, and I know that this edition does a great job as well. Considering there are so many great games coming out for the Nintendo Wii like Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, this one is definitely a wonderful addition to your Wii library.

Graphics: B+

Sound: B

Control: B+

Fun & Enjoyment: B+ for solo players; A- for Multiplayer Action

Overall: B+

Mario Party 8 is a good game. Not a great game.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

(...)

It still has a lot of the same obnoxious problems from the last 7 versions.
-You STILL cannot skip a lot of stuff, including the opening cinematic of ALL mini-games. That gets old rather fast. You also cannot skip viewing computer player traveling on the board, etc. Also, the general pacing of the game is still in the range of 6-7, fast, but not quite fast enough.
-Some of the mini-games are the SAME mini-game from previous versions of Mario Party. This isn't a crime, but there were more than I thought there would be. They usually re-work them to use motion controls, or have a different theme though.
-Random luck games are still alive and well. These types of games tend to drive "good" players up the wall.
-Not as much variety in the game as I had hoped for its Wii debut -- very similar to MP6 & 7.
-The motion controls are not as precise as I would have hoped. If you have played Wii Sports, Wii Play, or Raving Rabbids, you know what I am talking about -- same deal here.

Now that the bad is out of the way, the rest is pretty good. There are 5 main zones in the game to choose from, which is set in a carnival this time around.
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In the Party Tent: you do exactly what you have done in every other MP. Pick characters, set options, choose a board, and play. There are 3 main modes in the main party mode. You can choose "Battle Royale" which is the traditional Mario Party 1-4 player game. "Tag Battle" is the traditional teams setup, and a new mode is "Duel Battle" which is JUST for 1-2 players, and this is where the previous version's versus modes, and play types are all banished now. The Duel Battle mode is a fast paced game, and is MOSTLY just the board game. The only time you play mini-games is when one of you lands on a versus space. If you like the board game more than the mini-games, you will LOVE this mode, if not, you will HATE this mode.

In the regular games, there is also a new type of space called a "Lucky" space, it causes you to generally go to a special area of the board to get a nice bonus (usually with a star) or something special to happen. Also new are coin block spaces, and the fact that the DK spaces share the same space with the Bowser spaces (once a DK space has been landed on it switches to a Bowser space, and vice versa.

Finally "Candy" has replaced "orbs" as power ups. Same basic idea, but now they are only for power ups, no placing them on the board (that I have seen so far anyway). Similar to the power ups in MP4.

The Available boards at start are:
"DK's Treetop Temple" - classic MP board, plays like you would expect it to play.

"Goomba's Booty Boardwalk" - this is a weird board. It is a single pathway to the end. Coins are used to get to the end fast, because the star is free, lots of strategy on this one. The Spring and Whirlwind powers are very useful here.

"King Boo's Haunted Hideaway" - This board is a maze that is always changing, you are looking for the hidden star room in it, this board can be frustrating.

"Shy Guy's Perplex Express" - The board is set on a train that randomizes itself. The path goes through the train, and then back over the top of it.

"Koopa's Tycoon Town" - This board is similar to the Windmill board in MP7, you buy hotels on the board to get their stars. You can steal a hotel from another player by putting more coins into one. The combined coins in a hotel can upgrade it to a 2 or 3 star hotel. Once it is a 3 star hotel an extra 100 coins from the owner can make it impossible to steal (coins are very important on this board!)

Also viewable, but not playable yet is "Bowser's Warped Orbit" which is locked at start
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In the Star Battle Arena: you play through the single player game, similar in theme and design to MP6 & 7. There is the twist of progressive rankings and a ladder of achievement to climb though.
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In the Mini-Game Tent: you can play all of the mini-games you have unlocked, just like in previous versions of the game. The 5 modes you can play in right at the start are:
"Freeplay Arcade" - which is exactly what it says it is (1-4 players).
"Crown Showdown" - locked at first, you need lots of mini-games unlocked to play.
"Flipout Frenzy" - you compete to win 'tiles' on the game board (every tile you own also claims unclaimed tiles to the 4 directions surrounding it) flip as many tiles as you can by winning games (1-4 players).
"Tic-Tac Drop" - basically a game of tic-tac-toe, with the right to move next given to whomever wins the next game.
"Test For The Best" - locked at first, buy from the 'Fun Bazaar.'
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In the Extras Zone: you can trade in "carnival cards" to unlock stuff, similar to the stars in MP6. You get cards for winning games, and playing the various modes. This is also where your Miis can play for you, instead of the MP8 characters. You can use the Miis on the Wii itself, or Miis stored in a wii-mote. Available when you first get the game are 4 games:
"Bowling" - basically like Wii Sports bowling, but with less finesse and control. (1-4 players)
"Trial By Tile" - is a matching game similar to Memory (1-2 players).
"Flagging Rights" - REQUIRES THE NUNCHUCK ATTACHMENT! This is the only game I have seen (so far) that allows or requires it. It is a matching game, you hold up your hands to mimic the prompts on screen. (1-2 players).
"Canyon Cruisers" - Is a motion controlled vehicle racing game. You twist the remote left or right to steer, and use buttons to brake or accelerate. This game requires some seriously cool hands to play, it is difficult (1-2 players).
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In the Fun Bazaar: you unlock stuff, just like in previous versions of MP. The most interesting stuff to unlock is to the immediate right of the main cart you view, this is where you can unlock new modes, new games, and new difficulty levels. This is where you trade in your 'Carnival Cards.'
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Over all, it is a fun game. As with ANY party game with mini-games, it tends to be only as fun as those you are playing with. We have a good group to play with, and we like it. Some of the games are addictingly fun, and we really enjoy, some of them are very cheap, and annoy the heck out of you (as has been the case in every MP.)

Have fun.

Another hit in a great series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: May 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is the 8th installment in the Mario Party series from Nintendo. Like its predecessors, Mario Party 8 features tons of mini-games (some new, some variations on older games) and a board-game style competition for anywhere from 1 to 4 players.

Audience: This game truly has the potential to be one of the select few that is fun for nearly everyone. Gamers and non-gamers alike, of all ages, will find the mini-games very entertaining and the competitive boards a lot of fun! I should also note that the "audience" here is really a multi-player audience--it's much more fun to play with other people than against a computer player.

Graphics: 'Cartoony,' typical Wii graphics. The graphics are actually quite beautiful, though obviously not realistic. Very pleasing to the eye though.

Gameplay: Gameplay is simple and easy to get the hang of. You choose a board, everyone picks a character, and then the fun begins. Like previous Mario Party games the object is to complete some objective on each board (stars or coins or whatever) while competing in various mini-games and activities along the way.

Control: Even non-gamers will find the mini-games pretty easy to get the hang of. The Wii remote is put to good use here--as a lasso, a flashlight, a hammer or mallet, and many other things!

Challenge: The challenge from this game comes mostly in the form of competition from the people you're playing against. It is what you make it, I guess. There is a single-player competitive mode as well, though I haven't gone far enough in it to know if it becomes more difficult as it progresses.

Storyline: Well, there really isn't one. It's just a...well, a party. Hence the title. You do earn carnival cards and can use them to unlock new games and to buy floats for a parade. Not much more to it than that.

Overall: This is a great first Mario Party installment for the Wii. It manages to capitalize on all the Wii's strengths--the unique controllers, the cartoon-like graphics--and should be great fun for quite some time (until Mario Party 9). And unlike some of the Wii release titles this game seems very polished.

just got it, still getting the hang of it

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: May 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

i just got the game last night, as far as i can see the game is pretty good, not as bad as they say it is, the graphics are pretty good, i like the new camera angle as it follows your character closely, some of the mini games might seem like you have played them before in other wii titles, but i have yet to have a game where all four players can play at the same time and not having to share a wiimote (i.e. smooth moves multiplayer) i have yet to try the single player mode though i imagine is as good if not better than the one on mp7. i'm glad they added a single player mode since sometimes you don't have a full house, or you're the first one up on a saturday morning and there is no one awake to join you. i agree with most people that online would have been an awesome thing to add, but making it playable online now, when nintendo hasn't really gotten their online system up and running to its full potential, would just bring up more and more complaints. all in all in the little time i have had to play it (about 2 hrs) i am happy with my purchase. i don't feel robbed, its a great addition to the wii library.

Totally Fun!! Totally a Party!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: May 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've played Mario Party since the very first one came out on the N64. And though the games have always been similar to each other, they always have been fun to play with a party!! MP8 is no different!! The minigames are fun, the added Wii Remote play is a blast, and you can use your Mii's on several of the minigames!! If you are looking for a GREAT multiplayer game, look no further!!

Fun, but somewhat repetitive.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 31, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I know using the Wii controller would mean aiming the top towards the screen and shooting with the A button, but doing that minigame after minigame is a little exhausting.. and some times going through each round seems like it takes a long time.
The game is competitive and fun. My children love it!

Really bad party

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 58 / 111
Date: June 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

NOT WIDESCREEN! I've played every Mario Party. I've enjoyed them up until about 5. That's when they started making big mistakes. This is the worst Mario Party yet. I'll explain why.

First, and most obvious, is the HDTV problem. This game is not in 16:9 widescreen at all. It fools you at first. The first screen and the menu is in full wide screen but the actual game and the mini-games are all in 4:3 format with horrible patterned borders on each side. A very cheap and annoying ploy by Nintendo. The graphics look great, but then when you start playing, it looks worse than Gamecube.

TIP: Change your settings to 4:3 instead of 16:9 on a widescreen TV. Then just change your aspect ratio. This will give you the same game but without the annoying bars. You can still have it in 480p, it just won't be 16:9.

Next is the controls. They are very far from imaginative. It's basically simplified WarioWare. You do very simple tasks to complete a mini-game and most of them are boring and dumb. Some games require movements with the remote that just don't work most of the time. You'll find yourself failing right away most of the time just because of the controls.

Now we have the game boards. They are completely different this time. It's basically a race to see who can roll the biggest numbers. They give coins away like crazy so winning mini-games is almost worthless. I finished one game against the computer on easy and we all had 5 stars. Dumb. I won all the mini-games, yet the computer always had over 50 coins. Most of the boards are stupid and cheap and will just make you mad.

Then we have single player mode. This is way different from party mode but you have to play it to unlock some stuff. The only problem, it's unfair. You play against the computer and they constantly get perfect rolls, tons of money, and tons of candy. I have yet to win the first match after 3 attempts.

The game is unfair, barely fun, annoying, and has tons wrong with it. I was really close to just getting it from gamefly but I love Mario Party so I bought it. If you really want to play it, put it on your list. It's not worth the money in the same way Cooking Mama isn't. For the most part, it doesn't even seem finished.

If you liked Mario Party 6 or 7, you'll feel let down by this one. I feel ripped off with this game.

A Mediocre Party

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 101 / 121
Date: June 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ever since Mario Party debuted on the Nintendo 64, we've been receiving a new game in the series on a yearly basis. The last few Mario Party games have all been tiring. Almost rehashes. However, with the Wii, Mario Party has a chance to be a lot of fun again thanks to the Wii-Remote. Unfortunately, it isn't all its cracked up to be. The Wii-Remote controls work, but they feel like a last minute tack on, and ultimately some of the mini-games just aren't all that fun. Finally, there are other video games chock full of mini-games that make much better use of the Wii-Remote than Mario Party 8.

The formula for Mario Party really hasn't changed at all over the years. You and your friends (or the computer) will roll the die, move around the board at the end of each round of rolls you'll be thrown into a mini-game.

The mini-games are pretty short. Most of them being around 30 seconds long. Some of them are quite fun and make good use of the wii remote, such as the game where you have to shake up a soda can, or wipe off the chomp. However, there are not a lot of these kinds of mini-games. Most other mini-games don't make as big of an impression with the wii-remote, as most of them consist of you holding the wii remote like a basic gamepad and then tilting it left or right. Take for example, the game where you race on water skis. You don't actually do anything outside of tilting the wii remote left and right to jump ramps. It is in moments like these where the wii remote controls just feel tacked on. And unfortunately, this comes up in quite a few mini games. There are also a lot of mini games that simply have you tilting the Wii-Remote forward and backward. Again, the controls feel tacked on in instances like this.

The biggest slap in the face, however, is that there are a myriad of mini-games that don't use the wii-remotes motion sensor controls at all and you'll hold it like a gamepad, and play with it like it's a gamepad using the D-Pad to move your character and all. It's also to no credit that these games aren't really all that fun.

To the game's credit, though, when they do make good use of the wii-remote and its motion sensor controls, they really do a bang up job. Such as the mini-game where everyone shoots at the screen while one person dodges. It's just unfortunate that there aren't a lot of mini-games that do so, and instead make you either play the traditional way or just simply tilt the wii remote. There are some fun games here, but the game is populated by more games that really aren't a lot of fun.

As usual, Mario Party games are no fun by yourself. They need to be played with friends and family. Like previous installments, multi-player can be a lot of fun--provided you get a good mini-game. Some of the games are free-for-all but there are also some games where you'll be by yourself against three players, or working together with one other player. Mostly, though, they're free for alls, and playing with a friend is nice just so that you can see who's better. Multi-player has always been a strong aspect of Mario Party and it's no different in number 8. However, much like previous installments, the game is entirely left up to chance. One moment you're in first place, and after the very next roll you're in last. It's annoying sometimes because you really don't have any control. It's all a game based on luck. This is both a good and bad thing. Good because it makes the outcome unpredictable, and once more anyone can play this without any prior experience. It's bad, however, because for some who like to add a little strategy to their gaming, you just can't do it here.

Perhaps the biggest problem facing Mario Party 8 is that it doesn't really present a whole lot of new stuff that wasn't in Mario Party 7. With the game making use of the Wii-Remote, one would expect the experience to be quite different. Instead it's more of the same thing. Especially because there are other games on the Wii that are filled with mini-games that make far better use of the remote (Rayman Raving Rabbids comes to mind). In Mario Party 8 the wii remote controls either feel tacked on or you don't really use them. It's also hard to get past the fact that the mini-games aren't very inventive because of this. Certainly water-skiing is fun, but when you're just tilting left and right throughout the whole thing? You might as well have just put this on the Gamecube and let me tilt the analog stick left and right.

Graphically, it's no surprise that Mario Party 8 isn't the best looking game out there. Mario Party games usually aren't. At least it runs smoothly. There's no slow down or frame rate issues. It really doesn't look any different than any of the Mario Party games on the Gamecube however, and those who have a widescreen television will be disappointed to know that the game won't take up the whole screen, and instead will give you a boarder. Luckily, graphics don't make the game. Mario Party doesn't look bad, it just looks dated.

Mario Party 8 had so much potential. If they'd done more intuitive things with the Wii Remote, this may have been worth a buy. There are other mini-game collections out there that utilize the wii remote much better than this. There will be plenty of gamers out there that will be able to get past the big flaws and just have fun with it, but if you're one who's been playing Mario Party since the beginning, you can't help but admit a change is in order. Unfortunately Mario Party 8 doesn't do much for you.

Pros:

+When the Wii Controls are good, the games are actually quite fun
+Simplistic gameplay; anyone could pick this up and play it with no problems
+There are over 60 mini-games to play

Cons:

-There are far too many mini-games where the wii controls feel tacked on, and these games are pretty boring to play
-There are far too many mini-games that don't make use of the motion sensor controls at all
-There are not a lot of very inventive mini-games
-In short, the game doesn't do much to stand out above previous Mario Party installments. You'd think with the Wii Remote, Mario Party 8 would be something new to experience, but instead it ends up not being that much of a step higher than Mario Party 7

Mario's Wii Party fails to Entertain

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 11
Date: June 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mario Party 8 is essentially a collection of (mediocre at best) mini games designed for the Nintendo Wii and the Motion Sensing Wii-Remote. What makes Mario Party unique is that it takes the form of a traditional board game, with players taking turns to roll the dice block and move ahead the number of spaces shown. The virtual game board has many different types of spaces players can land on, each producing different effects. The primary objective of the game is to collect more stars than the other players. The winner of the game is the player with the most stars after all the turns have been completed.

As with most other party games, Mario Party 8 is best played with multiple, preferably four friends. However, the game can also be played alone or with less then four people, in this case the computer takes over for any absent player.

Unfortunately, the game is not very engaging, making only limited use of the Wii-mote and moves painfully slow. This becomes a real big issue when playing the game as a single Player. In this situation the player is forced to sit and watch until all three computer controlled characters finish taking their turn. Overall, the game relays heavily on luck, which becomes frustrating especially when playing against the computer. Adding these shortcomings to the mediocre and often boring mini games makes Mario Party 8 a very unattractive game.

Good game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: June 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It's about having fun right? Well if you live by that concept, you'll have NO PROBLEM enjoying this game. The creators have managed to design a game where anyone can pick it up and win, even if other players have used it for hours. I have only played a few Mario Party 8 titles before and I can honestly say this is the best one because of the Wiimote capabilities. There are a FEW (scarce) times where the Wiimote's motion sensing was a little off but nothing to annoy you too much. A must-have for any Wii user who has friends (don't we all?).

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