Nintendo Wii Reviews
Mario Party 8 Review (Wii)
By Hector Cortez May 29, 2007, 13:34 GMT
The series that began back in 1999 on the Nintendo 64 makes its Nintendo Wii debut eight years later. Does Mario Party 8 bring anything new to the table?
Can you believe this? Nintendo has put out eight Mario Party games in eight years. The series began back in 1999 on the Nintendo 64. It then moved on to the GameCube and now, eight years later, it makes its Nintendo Wii debut.
The same basic premise as previous versions is present in Mario Party 8. You will battle against the CPU or your friends as you try to win an interactive board game. You will all get to roll the dice and move a certain amount of steps. Once everyone rolls you will enter into a mini game. This is where the game is hit or miss. Some mini games are fun while others are just plain bad, pointless and boring.
The game supports up to four players and the mini games are sometimes 2 vs 2 or all against each other. The mini games and players are randomly chosen. Once you unlock mini games at The Party Tent, you will be able to play them at your leisure at The Minigame Tent.
There are some extra things to do like visit the Fun Bazaar where you can buy items and mini games or the Extras Zone where you can play mini games using your Mii character! Games such as a bowling, although not as good as Wii Sports Bowling, and a canyon racing game.
Visually, Mario Party 8 is lacking. It seems as though this game was intended as a GameCube game and was ported over to the Wii instead. Either that or the developers were just plain lazy. The Wii is capable of far greater graphics than what Mario Party 8 brings to the table.
Overall, Mario Party 8 is best enjoyed as a rental with 3 of your friends on a Friday night. You'll play it a couple times, have a few laughs, and then forget all about it. Here's hoping the developers spend more time crafting the upcoming Mario Party 9. If that means taking an extra year to finish the game then so be it. Nintendo fans are used to waiting.
