Mario Party 8 (Wii) Review
Mario Party has been one of those franchises that Nintendo has had going for what seems like ages, with nearly one title being released each year, it is a wonder how the team over at Hudson are keeping the franchise fresh and without any boring bits. Unfortunately, with the release of the recent Mario Party titles, such symptoms have started to show and thankfully, with the newest Wii iteration of the franchise, Mario Party 8 breathes life into what was becoming a dying franchise.
Like most Mario titles, there is little to no story but we’ll cover the story anyway. Within the Mushroom Kingdom, the “Star Carnival” rolls into town, hosted by an odd looking creature known only as Ballyhoo, who also owns a talking top hat known as BigTop. Ballyhoo is a very flamboyant character and challenges the denizens of Mushroom Kingdom to see who is the “SuperStar” and rightful owner of a mysterious ancient relic known as the Star Rod. Oh and did I forget to mention the SuperStar also gets a year worth of Candy? =P However, when the Star Carnival is threatened by Bowser and the Star Rod is stolen, the Star Carnival must be saved, which is where you come in.
So the story isn’t really all that great, but boy does Mario Party 8 bring quite a bit to the table. Upon opening up the game you are presented with multiple modes, though really nothing has changed in terms of the format. You still look for stars, collect coins and play mini-games to win coins. Unfortunately, unlike the previous Mario party 7, the game does not suppoer 8 players, doesn’t come with a crappy microphone preipheral and has about 10 less mini-games than Mario Party 7. Saying that however, the mini-games are fun and varied, and there are a lower proportion of these games being standard rehashes of previous games (saying that though, this isn’t a 100% original affair either).
Graphically the game does disappoint. It runs at a terrible looking 50Hz during most gameplay segments, though during most menus it runs at a nice and smoother 60Hz. Unfortunately, the graphics are more akin to a first generation Gamecube title than something the Wii could truly handle (See: Resident Evil / Metroid Prime) but the graphics for the whole do their best to match the art style Mario and his buddies. The most perplexing thing about Mario Party 8 is the extremely iffy widescreen support. When playing on a HDTV, the game doesn’t quite look particularly appealing, name with ONLY the title screen and certain menus supporting widescreen, while placing horrific borders on the actual gameplay. This comes as a big surprise considering that even Mario Party 4 supported widescreen and ran smoothly at 60Hz, yet less was going on “on-screen” in MP4 and it was running on inferior hardware. But besides that, the game does look nice in that it does remain faithful to the original art style.
There are multiple modes to play around in Mario Party 8, with 14 playable characters (with 2 secret unlockable NEW characters included). There is something for everyone with the included modes, including Party Tent, which is your standard multiplayer fare. Star Battle Arena is the single player version of the game, and is a simple play through of the games six boards, which seems pretty tedious at first, and seems to only get more tedious. Secondly, for those who can’t be bothered with the whole board game scenario, there’s the Minigame Tent where you can play several mini-games. Lastly is the Extras Zone, where your Mii’s can be used in minigames and FINALLY, the Fun Bazaar you can use unlocked Carnival Cards to purchase mini-games, artwork, sound bytes and many other exxtras. The extras in this game are it’s only real long term appeal.
The Mario Party series has never really changed in terms of format. Players compete with one another to get the most combined stars and coins, encountering difficulties along the way. However, in Mario Party 8, each board has a set theme in which the objective is not only to gain the most stars, but also the method in which you gain the stars is varied. Some include the standard 20 coin component seen in previous games, while some take on a more monopoly like approach, where stars are awarded depending on how many hotels are bought on the board. Instead of items however, there are pieces of candy which have varying functions, including the Duelo Candy, which puts the player against the first player they run into. Candy is varied throughout the game, with about 12 different candy each having different functions. The minigames are all very well thought out too, with a lot of games incorporating the WiiMote functionality quite well. There are some interesting games that have some terrible double entendres, such as shaking up a can of soda. Other games include keeping balance on a tightrope using a pole, aiming and shooting at cans, and waving a lasso around your head to hoop barrels. All in all, Hudson have done a terrific job with the WiiMote support for the game, with each minigame feeling well made and designed. Unfortunately, there are a few games that feel like the Wii controls have been tacked on but fortunately for us those games are small in numbers. The worst aspect of the whole game is that skill is really no determinant in who wins the game. Players who are usually good at the game will find that they will be beaten by the most casual of players, thanks to the components the game employs to even the playing field. Add this to the Wii’s accessibility to casual gamers, and we have a ticking time bomb for those hardcore players who don’t like to lose.
Multiplayer wise, the game is a blast to play. Most of the minigames only require a WiiMote and don’t need a nunchuck to play properly, so the game is somewhat affordable to those wanting to play a full four player round. The game moves quite fast paced, but it is a shame that there is no online mode included, as this genre is desperately needing some form of online competition.
The audio in the game is pretty botched too, with low quality audio plaguing the game. Most of the music does do well to fit into the atmosphere and style of the game, that is the Mario style, but unfortunately it is very much low-tech compared to the recent offerings presented to us to be used in Smash Bros Brawl. The audio emitted from the Wii controller with each players term is pretty low quality but also nothing we haven’t heard before, although it is a nice feature. That being said, an upgrade wouldn’t go astray to the games music, but for now it still does the job.
All in all, Hudson’s 8th iteration of the Mario Party series is a solid outing, there’s heaps to do, it’s amazing fun with your mates and it is a great ice breaker for anyone playing. Unfortunately, the game does suffer graphically but it’s nothing you’ve haven’t seen before on Nintendo’s newest system. For fans of the previous games, this may be a bit much of the same to you, but for people who haven’t really touched the franchise since it’s first foray onto the Gamecube (Mario Party 4 or 5), it could be the breathe of fresh air that the series was desperately needing. All in all Hudson have definitely done a good job in making the game fresh enough to utilise the WiiMote controls without making them stale and repetitive.
