E3 2010: Get ready to Wii Party

by Tim SparksJune 17, 2010

Nintendos latest take on the Mario Party formula, except without the Mario part

It’s been nice to have so much focus on what you’d call "normal" games this year, but Nintendo did have a new "Wii" series title to show off in the form of Wii Party. Yes, you guessed it, this game has elements very much like those in Mario Party, except in this case all the fun characters are replaced with Miis.

Considering the game features 13 party game modes, such as Board Game Island and Balance Boat, and over 70 of the mini-games themselves, the numbers seem pretty good. What is meant to make this different to all the rest of its sort, though, is actual out-of-TV action, called House Games. For instance, one player might be tasked with hiding the other players’ remotes (while they’re not looking!), which they then need to find, presumably with some sort of time limit.

However, Board Game Island is where most traditional party gamers will be spending their time. As you’d expect, there appears to be a few crossover games from Mario Party, and we haven’t seen all the modes yet to know exactly how much of the content is new. Some examples given include shooting down gift balloons while riding a rollercoaster and a form of tag.