Mario Party 5 Review by Vespa
Gamecube Reviews
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Mario Party 5 Review

Continuing the long running franchise, Nintendo has released the newest instalment of the zany, board-game style video game, Mario Party. Taking some bold new steps with the formerly static franchise, Mario Party 5 supports plenty of new mini-games, several new modes, and some damn sexy game boards.

Yeah...anyways, on with the review.

Story: 1/1
From the beginning of the series, Nintendo has decided that each Mario Party game needs some sort of incredibly lame yet barely satisfying storyline/party theme for the games. This time around, the theme is ''Dreaming'', and the story line is as follows:

Bowser wants to twist the various dreams to satisfy his own little fetishes. The stars guarding the dreams can't help, so you play on the maps for the stars.

And that sums it up. Yes, it's a pitiful story, but I certainly hope you didn't buy/rent Mario Party with hopes of a solid story line...anyways, it has a story, so it gets a point.

Gameplay: 3/3
Just to clear up the main question on most people's minds, the new characters are Boo and Kid Koopa (Baby Bowser if you prefer). Also, DK is not a playable character in the Main game (more on that later). DK is now a special space, which usually results in you or all of the players getting extra coins, and in some cases, an extra star.

Mario Party 5 (referred to as MP5 from now on because I'm lazy) is a definite improvement board-wise in relation to MP4. Whereas the boards in MP4 got bogged down with Mushroom spaces, item shops, and board traps, MP5 has a fresh new variety of boards which allow for smooth, almost fluidic gameplay, giving a better ''board game'' feeling to the game.

The most noticeable difference for most people will be the board designs, but I'll discuss that later in the graphics section. Mario

After the layout though, the next major change people will note is the lack of item shops. Yes, item shops are no more, correcting the bug in MP4 where the computer would ALWAYS have to stop in, regardless of whether it was going to buy something or not. In place of the item shops are Capsule Machines. Capsules are basically the same as the items from the last couple of Mario Party games, but with a clever usage system. Getting an item from a Capsule Machine is free, as long as you have enough room in your inventory (3 capsules max). When you want to use a capsule, generally you have two options;

1.) Use the capsule on yourself.

This option will be used with capsules like the Mushroom Capsule (which adds an extra Die for you to roll), or the Klepto Capsule (which summons Klepto to carry you to another player's space). This is the item system that most people are used to, minus the part where you pay as you use it. All capsules can be used on yourself, but doing so is not always beneficial.

2.) Set the capsule to become a Capsule Event Space.

Basically, you set a trap using the capsule. That's right, now you have the ability to change the board during gameplay. Instead of using the capsule on yourself, you now have the option to place it down up to approximately 12-15 spaces in front of you. This allows for ''strategic maneuvers'', such as planting a Koopa Bank in front of your opponent, forcing them to pay 5 coins and not having enough to buy that star that's in front of them (and you will do this often I'm guessing...) Overall, the capsule traps are pretty useless, as more than often you will simply toss trap capsules anywhere to make room for useful capsules to use on yourself.

After the item thing, the next thing that people will notice is the increased amount of stars you receive in game. In MP4, one of the big problems was that you could easily get trapped on various side or sections of the board and not be able to escape for 10, 12, heck, even 20 turns. Not only that, but many boards involved crossroads which had some chance scenario that determined which way you went (The Roulette in Goomba's Greedy Gala and Ukiki's Banana Exchange come to mind...). This really messed with some players ability to compete and made the amount of stars that were bought lower as compared to prior Mario Party games. With the fluidic design of the boards, it is much easier for one to transverse the board from one side to the other in 2 or three turns, and to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any chance-based junctions on the maps. The result: it's a heck of a lot easier to get to those blasted stars.

Another noteworthy item is the new way Bowser Spaces work. To be blunt, those stupid Koopa Kids are finally gone. Yes, landing on a Bowser space no long means that you're going to instantly lose 10-xx of your coins to a Bowser kid. This time around, Bowser's handling the entire show himself, and he has lots of fun planned for unsuspecting players. To be frank, landing on a Bowser Space is actually rather beneficial now, and the possibility of a Bowser game isn't as great as it used to be.

A small yet important aspect of the game has also changed drastically; Battle Mini-games. Now, the Battle Mini-Games occur only every so often at the end of a turn; I don't know if there are any requirements to get the Battle mini-games to appear, but I do know that it is entirely possible to go an entire game without one.

The final thing to note is the last 5 turns scenario; first off, same space duels are revived in the last 5 turns. Second, the space change roulette has many extra options, such as 5 Star Spaces or All Spaces are Capsule Events. This REALLY can alter the outcome of the game, and you will usually get changes like this instead of teh Red/Blue space coin multipliers (which now can be various integers, not just 2).

That pretty much sums up everything new and noteworthy in the main game. I won't go into much detail about the new mini-games outside of this short description of the new games as a whole:

The new games are all pretty decent, and tend to fall more along the lines of ones found in the original Mario Party. While there still aren't any Control Stick rotating games, and STILL NO GRAB BAG, the games are pretty decent over all, excluding Pull a Rope, which shouldn't be a Duel Mini-Game.

Outside of the Main game, there are 4 minigames you can play;

Super Duel
Volley Ball
Mario Card Party
Hockey.

Volley Ball and Hockey are pretty self explanatory, so I'll briefly describe the other two.

Super Duel : Basically, you build cars by buying parts from the Shop. You currency is earned by playing mini-games in Story mode or the Main game. You then can duel friends or computers one vs one in multiple arenas. Not that great IMO, but many will like this mode to relax with.

Mario Card Party: This is basically what Mario Party would be if it were a real board game, without all of the crazy mini-games. You play against 3 other people on a board that is revealed by flipping cards over. The objective is to gather as many Star cards as possible. Again, not that great IMO, but some will like it as a change of pace.

Graphics: 2/3
Well, after that lengthy gameplay review, it's time for fly through Graphics and Sound/Music.

The graphics for generic animations haven't changed too much from MP4. I personally think that the character models have been downgraded slightly, but that is more than acceptable when you see how the board graphics have changed.

DaisyYes, the boards are just plain beautiful now. No longer are we restricted to the same old boring, linear-style boards found in the prior games; now there is depth with each board. Some sections are higher up than others, some spaces will have cute little background animations when you pass/step on them, and the Capsule NPC's have great animations. A lot of effort was put into all of this eye-candy, and overall it seems to have payed off. Though I'm usually opposed to developers wasting time on eye-candy, there are enough ''cool'' animations in the eye-candy and enough improvements to the gameplay to appease my wants. The Graphics lose a point for two reasons, which in reality I have already slipped past most readers:

1.) The digressed character models

I honestly think that the characters looked more solid in MP4; though I suppose they were downgraded for a good reason, I can think of several lengthy animations that could have been sacrificed in lieu of the character models.

2.) I really despise eye-candy.

I do, and MP5 is about as much as I can take. Even though I do think that some of it looks good (like pitching capsules or the Tweester animation), I still find it annoying.

Sound and Music: 2/3
Well, I really don't have much to say about the sounds...they're what you'd expect in a Mario Party game. The music is somewhat appropriate for each stage (Pirate Dream has sort of pirate-ey music and Sweet Dream has light-hearted music...)

A point is lost...well, it's like this. Officially, it's because I think that the sounds tend to wear on the player and eventually piss off anyone who's not playing. Unofficially, it's because you can still taunt, and my little MP group has driven me insane with taunting...but officially it's the mental wear and tear.

Overall : 8/10
Like - New item system, fluidic boards, Bowser Spaces

Dislike - Pull a rope and Daisy's Taunt Yoshi

O_o - Crazy team name combinations in Bonus mode, the Star from Super Duels.

Rent/Buy/Borrow - Renting might give you and your friends enough time to have a night or two dedicated to MP5, though if you plan to have gaming parties often, buying MP5 is a must. Same for borrowing; if you borrow it often, or plan to, just buy the game. Though, be sure to have a few friends to play with, as that's what Mario Party is all about.

Closing statement O_o style : Whoever said words can never hurt you never got hit in the head with a dictionary.

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