As strange as this may sound, I am a fan of the Mario Party games. Even more, I think it's probably the Mario series I'm the biggest fan of. Like, I love the 3D platformers, the Mario Kart games are fantastic, and the RPGs flesh out the world a lot, but there's something really special about the Mario Party games to me. They're some of the best multiplayer party experiences around, but their sheer variety of modes and minigames make for fun pick-and-play single-player titles as well. None of these games are going to rank up with my all-time favorites, but I care about the Mario Party series, and I want to talk about all of them, or at least the numbered ones.
Mario Party: Look, I get that the N64 Mario Parties are generally considered to be the best ones, but the first Mario Party is an easy candidate for one of the worst in the series. It feels like a prototype in a lot of ways, with overly simplistic board gameplay and minigames, and a generally very unbalanced and luck-based gameplay loop. There are no items in this game whatsoever, meaning that there really isn't any strategy in playing these boards, and it doesn't help that a lot of the boards are incredibly gimmicky, from the lottery in Peach's Birthday Cake to the many moving walls in Luigi's Engine Room to the sheer awfulness that is Wario's Battle Canyon (the first of many horrible island-hopping boards). The few boards I do like (Mario's Rainbow Castle and Yoshi's Tropical Island) are incredibly simple and basic, but even they suffer from moments of cruel punishment like losing coins in minigames and literally everything about Chance Time.
But how's the rest of the game? Well, the minigames are mostly alright. There are some iconic ones here like Bumper Balls, Face Lift, Bombsketball, and Bobsled Run, but most of the minigames got improved and more fleshed-out versions in the sequels. The 1-vs-3 games are also pretty awful here, it's already my least favorite minigame type, but they're especially unbalanced in the first game. One element of Mario Party I do like are the single-player challenge minigames, they're simple but mostly a good time, and I wish they showed up more. However, I can't talk about Mario Party's minigames without bringing up the blister-inducing joystick-spinning games. To put it simply, those suck too. I actually think Mario Party's extra content is pretty cool, though. There's a lot of gamemodes and fun useless junk you can buy in the shop, and Mini-Game Island is still one of my favorite single player modes in the series. Several games have a mode where you run through every minigame, but it never feels like an adventure like it does in this one. There really is a lot of charm put into the presentation of Mario Party, from the expressive character animations, to the detailed hub of Mushroom Village, to Yasunori Mitsuda's lovely soundtrack It's a shame Mario Party's core gameplay is such a chore to play because everything around that central gameplay is super charming.
Overall, while I do have a lot of love for Mario Party's presentation and would play Mini Game Island any day, as a whole, this is a weak first entry in the series and one of my least favorite mainline Mario Party games. It's unfair, unbalanced, and incredibly basic, and all the charm in the world can't save a game that just isn't fun to play.
2/5 Stars
Mario Party 2: Mario Party 2 is a pretty huge improvement over the original in pretty much every single way. It's so good in fact that it makes the first game pretty much obsolete. As far as board gameplay goes, we finally have items! I really can't understate how important items are for making Mario Party balanced and strategic, and when you add in the fact that you can't lose coins in minigames, Chance Time was slightly nerfed, and the joystick-spinning games were completely removed, you get a game that's erased pretty much every single one of Mario Party's issues. It also helps the most of the boards are fantastic here, they're much larger and more complex with a bunch of routes and paths, and the whole gimmick of the cast wearing different costumes for each board is just incredibly charming. There's a lot of all-time great boards here like Western Land, Bowser Land, and Horror Land, though Mystery Land is the sole weak point due to being another crummy island-hopping board. Mario Party 2's core gameplay isn't quite perfect though, since you can only hold one item at a time rather than multiple. I find that the way items work in a Mario Party game is integral to my enjoyment so not being able to hold onto and choose between multiple items does drag this game down a notch for me.
I'm also a bit split on the minigames. About 50% of Mario Party 2's minigmaes are taken from the original, and pretty much all of them have been improved by a massive margin. Even minigames I liked from the original like Bumper Balls and Bobsled Run just straight-up have better versions here. And the entirely new minigames like Look Away, Shell Shocked, and Speed Hockey aren't half bad either. However, I kinda just wish we had all new minigames rather than a large amount of them being remakes, and the newly introduced duel minigames are easily some of the laziest fare in the series. As far as extra content goes, I also think Mario Party 2 is a bit weaker, expanding on certain modes like the Mini-Game Stadium but also having less unlockable content due to the lack of a shop. I also think the presentation is a bit more uneven. The boards and minigames look way more detailed graphically and I already mentioned how charming the character costumes are, but the main menu is way less interesting than Mushroom Village and I'm not a fan of how Mini-Game Coaster (the equivalent of Mini-Game Island) feels less like a grand adventure and more like a series of minigames. I also found the soundtrack to be, while still good, essentially a weaker version of Mario Party's.
I know I complained a lot here but don't get me wrong, this is easily one of the most solid games in the series. While its presentation may be lacking in some aspects and certain aspects of the Mario Party formula still haven't been fully developed, Mario Party 2 still has a fantastic lineup of boards and minigames and was able to fix pretty much every single problem that its predecessor had and then some. When the core gameplay is this strong, all the complaints I made are pretty much just nitpicks.
4/5 Stars
Mario Party 3: Mario Party 3 is easily the best N64 Mario Party and quite possibly the best in the whole series, fixing up the last few issues that MP2 had and making a damn near perfect Mario Party as a result. The core gameplay is a lot like 2's but this time, you can carry multiple items at a time, leading to probably the best and most skill-driven item game in the series. There's a wide array of items here and each of them is useful and fun to use. I also think the lineup of boards is pretty damn solid, even if none of them really reach the heights of some other games especially in terms of variety. Each board is large, with multiple routes, and has one or two gimmicks that it resolves around entirely. It's a rare game where I really don't dislike any of its board, with Chilly Waters, Woody Woods, Spiny Desert, and Waluigi's Island all having a lot of merits. The only complaint I really have at this point is that Game Guy's minigames can feel a bit luck-based and cruel, but with the items at play, trying to dodge those minigames is perfectly doable. Mario Party 3 also has an entirely new board game mode called Duel Mode, with 6 boards of its own. It's not as fun as the core gameplay and the boards are a lot more simple, but the concept of using Mario enemies to fight each other is super cool, there's a nice level of strategy to it, and it gives MP3 much more content.
As far as minigames go, Mario Party 3 is pretty great as well. Unlike its predecessor, every minigame is entirely original, and they're mostly pretty fantastic. Highlights for me include Snowball Summit, Toadstool Titan, Water Whirled, Locked Out, Eye Sore, All Fired Up, Motor Rooter, and Fowl Play. This is also the first entry to not force you to pay for minigames, which is a great change in my opinion, just unlocking them by playing them in boards is how it should be done. This is also the first Mario Party with a story mode, and it's still probably one of the better story modes, taking you through all the boards and ending with a great final boss fight. There's a whole bunch of other content too, like a gambling mode with Game Guy, multiple unlockable bonus minigames, and a pretty fleshed-out battle mode. While there isn't a shop this time, the sheer amount of boards, modes, customization, and unlockables on offer definitely makes up for it. I also have to single out this game's presentation for praise, as this might just be the best-looking N64 game. Mario Party 3 has a really cool-looking pop-up book style that's aged amazingly to this day, and the soft colors give it such a dreamy vibe. It also happens to have my favorite soundtrack in the series, a beautifully ethereal and soft score by Ichiro Shikamura that nails the feel of Mario Party perfectly.
Overall, Mario Party 3 is a phenomenal party game and one of my favorites in the series. The boards are well-designed, the item game is perfect, the minigame lineup is strong and original, the amount of content is great, and the presentation is just immaculate.
5/5 Stars
Mario Party 4: So everyone has that one game that they know is flawed and poorly designed in some aspects but can't help but love them regardless. For me, that game is Mario Party 4, which has its very glaring issues but it does so much right and has so much charm that I can't help but love it. The core board gameplay actually had a lot of potential to be the strongest in the series, taking a lot of cues from 3 with its large array of items and complex nonlinear boards that focus around a single fleshed-out gimmick. From 5 onwards, I feel like the boards get a bit simpler, so 4 really feels like the last true N64-era Mario Party game. However, some of these boards have what I like to call "endless loops", where your player can be trapped in a single area and escaping is almost entirely down to luck. This is only exacerbated by the game's main gimmick, the Mega and Mini Mushrooms, which replace the dice modifying items. The Mega Mushroom lets you roll multiple die, but you skip pretty much every board event including the stars, and the Mini Mushroom lets you take shortcuts and do special events, but your dice is cut in half. These items have potential but, once again, the way they're implemented ultimately comes down to luck, especially when it comes to the Mini Mushroom. The fact that Mario Party 4 still has one of the largest lineups of items in the series and lets you carry multiple of them does help a bit, but I really can't help but feel like this could be an easy candidate for best in the series had the Mega/Mini Mushroom gimmick not existed. It even negatively impacts most of the boards, with only Shy Guy's Jungle Jam and Boo's Haunted Bash getting off scot-free.
With all this complaining, you might be surprised to hear that I still adore Mario Party 4. Part of this is because the minigames are some of the best in the series, including a whole bunch of gems such as Booksquirm, Dungeon Duos, Mr Blizzard's Brigade, Bob-Omb Breakers, Revers-A-Bomb, Trace Race, Paths Of Peril, and Chain Chomp Fever. There aren't too many minigames in 4 overall, but it's a matter of quality over quantity as there are hardly any minigames I actively dislike here. It's a truly fantastic lineup. But more than the strong minigames is just the ridiculous amount of content, secrets, and customization. You can create your own list of minigames to use during board games, there's a lengthy story mode that you can play to unlock boss and duel minigames, and there's quite possibly the largest and best Extra Mode in Mario Party history, which comes with a whopping eight exclusive high-scoring minigames, two entirely new boards, and an entire volleyball mode that lets you play as all the NPCs. I cannot understate how much time I've spent in the Extra Room alone, there's so much to do.
But I think what really cinches Mario Party 4 as one of my personal favorite Mario Party games is the presentation. While some have criticized the simplistic look of all the boards as being lazy, I actually think Mario Party 4's board design does a good job at continuing the pop-up book aesthetic that 3 had established. And aside from the boards, MP4 has this unique early Gamecube look where several items and characters still look like their N64 designs (particularly the mushrooms) and the textures are all oddly realistic while still being used for fantastical locations, which I actually kinda like. There's something very artsy about the weird realistic pop-up book look of Mario Party 4 and I feel it elevates the game a bit. I also love the soundtrack, of course, as it's made by the same guy who did Mario Party 3's score. As a whole, I'm left mixed on Mario Party 4. I know that it has flaws in its board design and central gimmick, but between this being the last Mario Party game with truly complex boards, the fantastic lineup of minigames, the best extra mode in the series, the sheer amount of content, and the unparalleled presentation, I can't help but love this one. Mario Party 4 is one of my favorite Mario Party games, even if I know it shouldn't be.
4/5 Stars
Mario Party 5: From MP4 onwards, the series would start to get a bit more gimmicky in an attempt to shake things up. Mario Party 4's Mega/Mini Mushroom does suck, but the game itself still had a lot of similarities to its predecessor in terms of gameplay to prevent things from getting too bad. Mario Party 5, on the other hand, completely overhauls pretty much everything, and not for the better. This game introduces the capsule system, which replaces normal items for items that you can either use on yourself or toss onto the ground for other players to land on. I don't love capsules since a lot of them rely on the right player landing on the right spot at the right time, but the system does have its merits, as I love how most games devolve into capsules on pretty much every other space lead to a lot of chaos. However, one thing I don't like is the fact that capsules are given to you randomly, and I'm sure you can figure out why that's bad. This mechanic almost kills the game for me, since it just removes a lot of the strategy from using items in the last two entries. I also found most of the boards to be pretty generic, as they have generally been more simplified and shortened. Stages like Toy Dream, Pirate Dream, and Sweet Dream are great, but they mostly lack the complexity of something like Woody Woods, Horror Land, or Boo's Haunted Bash. And at worst, we have a whopping two island hopping boards. Granted, they're not nearly as bad as the worst of the N64 era (and I admittedly kinda like Rainbow Dream), but they're still not preferable.
As far as the minigames go, Mario Party 5 fares a little bit better. There are a lot of fantastic games here, like Hotel Goomba, Hydrostars, Later Skater, Tube It Or Lose It, Defuse Or Lose, Bill Blasters, and quite possibly the best in the series, Pushy Penguins. However, Mario Party 5 also has a lot of lazy minigame ideas, with the worst being the plethora of button-mashing minigames, probably the most out of any game in the series. This is most evident in the pretty crummy lineup of overly simplistic duel minigames, a format which the next few games would improve upon by a large margin. As far as content goes, Mario Party 5 is actually a pretty beefy title, with another solid (if a bit short) Story Mode, the introduction of a bunch of unique minigame modes (another series mainstay), and a plethora of extra content including a few large bonus minigames and the genuinely fantastic tank-fighting Super Duel Mode. I wouldn't say the extra content is as fun as it was in Mario Party 4, but this is yet another Mario Party game with a pretty impressive amount of stuff to do. As for the presentation, I'm a bit mixed. The game tries to go for a dreamy aesthetic like MP3, but it ends up mostly coming off as generic, especially since the boards are lacking in any unique environments. However, I do really like the orchestral score and think it's probably the best Mario Party soundtrack we'd get for the next few games.
Overall, Mario Party 5 is a mixed bag for me. On one hand, its board gameplay can lead to a lot of chaotic fun, the best minigames rank among some of the series, the soundtrack is great, and there's a solid amount of content. However, the boards have been simplified, the item game was pretty much ruined, the worst minigames are some of the weakest in the series, and the aesthetic is a bit step down from that of MP4's. It's still a solid Mario Party game, but nowhere near one of the best.
3/5 Stars
Mario Party 6: Mario Party 6 is my favorite GameCube Mario Party and an easy Top 3 candidate for me. It's the only one with a gimmick that actively improves the game rather than detracts from it, the minigame lineup is hands down the series' best, and there's a very impressive amount of content, once again. Mario Party 6 introduces a Day/Night cycle to all of its boards, where something changes whenever the time of day changes after 3 turns. It's a fantastic gimmick that gives every single board extra depth by forcing you to keep track of how many turns have passed, and it never intrudes on the way items work. Speaking of which, the capsules are back, but now you can buy them in a shop bringing back that level of strategy I so desperately wanted. Granted, items are a bit rarer here making for a generally less chaotic game than 5, but I still much prefer this system. While the boards still aren't as complex as the N64 era, this game introduces gimmick boards, where each board has its own unique ruleset. I'm a bit split on gimmick boards, because they can be very hit or miss. Either we get some of the best boards in the series like Faire Square and Castaway Bay, or fairly weak and frustrating fare like Snowflake Lake and Clockwork Castle. Generally though, I think the boards in MP6 are pretty good all around and are made even better by the presence of the Day/Night cycle.
But then there's the minigame lineup, and where do I even start with this one? Granite Getaway, Catch You Letter, Daft Rafts, Lift Leapers, Pokey Punch-Out, Throw Me A Bone, Cash Flow, Snow Brawl, Ball Dozers, Jump The Gun, Clean Team, Control Shtick, Full Tilt, T-Minus Five, and that's only scratching the surface. Mario Party 6's minigames are creative, consistently fantastic, and always a ton of fun. And not only is there a lot of them (a whopping 81!), most of them have Day and Night variants, some of which even changing the way the minigames are played! As far as extra content goes, Mario Party 6 doesn't have quite as much stuff as the previous two games, but the stuff it does have is really fun. Solo Mode is one of my favorite campaigns in the series, as even though it lacks a story or final boss, it has three entirely original boards and can be used to unlock minigames super quickly. There's a Mic Mode that offers a bunch of fun activities using the Gamecube's microphone, a shop, and a bunch of fun bonus minigames, so there's a decent amount of extra content. As for the presentation, it's an improvement over the fifth game in terms of graphical quality and a lot of unique Mario enemies and NPCs are placed around the boards, but it's still a far cry from the charm of the earlier games. Similarly the soundtrack is mostly just alright. There are some fantastic tracks, but it's definitely the weakest one so far.
Overall, though, Mario Party 6 is one of the best games in the series because it nails what truly matters: The boards and the minigames. The minigames are the best they've ever been, the Day/Night Cycle is the series' best gimmick, the Solo Mode is a ton of fun, the capsule mechanic is actually fun here, and most of the boards are really great.
5/5 Stars
Mario Party 7: Mario Party 7 is pretty much just MP6 but slightly worse, so I probably have the least to say about this one. The board gameplay is almost exactly the same, with roughly the same level of quality in its boards. Windmillville and Pagoda Peak are the highlights here, while Pyramid Park and Neon Heights are the more notably weak ones. The only new gimmick here is Bowser Time, which essentially forces everyone on a Bowser Space every five turns. This could have been a solid Day/Night equivalent, and some boards do work around it (Bowser's Enchanted Inferno especially), but most of the time it feels random and overly punishing. In the case of Windmillville, Bowser Time actively detracts from an otherwise fantastic board. One thing I do like about Mario Party 7 though is the fact that it also allows for 8-player team gameplay, with its own set of exclusive minigames and modes. It's still the only Mario Party game that works with eight players which is a real shame, it's such a fun addition to the game.
As for the minigame lineup, it's pretty solid just like its predecessor. While not the best in the series, it's definitely up there, and has a lot of strong highlights like Fun Run, Track And Yield, Sphere Factor, Battery Ram, Buzzstormer, The Final Countdown, and Camp Ukiki. However, I feel like the game spread itself a bit too thin with its minigame types. We have all the usual types, but there's also 4-player Mic minigames, 1-vs-3 Mic minigames, single and multiplayer minigames for Bowser and DK, 8-player minigames, the list goes on and it's just way too much! It got the point where we only have 13 standard 4-player minigames in this one, and that's just not even close to enough. As far as extra content goes, Mario Party 7 is pretty much the same as its predecessor as well outside of that aforementioned 8-player mode. There's a shop, a solid Story Mode, and a few bonus minigames to unlock. The presentation is almost exactly the same as 6's too, with the same general artstyle and even the same composers working on the soundtrack. Although, I do really like the vacation theme and how all of the boards are based on real-world settings, it's always cool when games do that.
Overall, Mario Party 7 is a solid Mario Party game with another great lineup of minigames, some more strong boards, and a neat vacation theme. However, it's way too based on Mario Party 6 and Bowser Time drags it down a bit for me.
4/5 Stars
Mario Party 8: Mario Party 8 was the first Mario game I ever got my hands on, so just know that I'm going to be very biased with this one. Anyway, this is one of my favorite games in the series and I love it with all my heart. Let's start with the board gameplay, which is easily some of the best in all of Mario Party. The capsules were removed and replaced with candy items, which basically just work like the ones in 2-4, and while the game still has gimmick boards, all of its boards take concepts from 6 and 7 and polish them to near perfect, leading to the best lineup of boards in any Mario Party game. Shy Guy's Perplex Express is the coolest linear board as it tasks you with working your back after getting a star at the front of the train, Bowser's Warped Orbit turns the frustrating star stealing mechanic into what can only be called a tense game of Uno, King Boo's Haunted Hideaway is the only board that feels tailor made for the team-based board gameplay, and then there's Koopa's Tycoon Town, my favorite board in the series that takes what Windmillville did well and perfects it.
However, while the board gameplay is nearly flawless, I will admit that the minigame lineup is one of the weaker ones. Not that the minigames themselves are inherently bad, but a lot of them use motion controls since this is an early Wii game, and most of the time, those motion controls don't work very well. Still, there are some highlights here, like Specter Inspector, Rotation Station, At The Chomp Wash, Speedy Grafitti, Thrash And Crash, and Grabby Gridiron, some of which use the motion controls in pretty creative ways. I also think the duel minigames are easily the best in the series since they don't just reuse the same locations and ideas like the last three. As for extra content, Mario Party 8 is mostly more of the same, with another solid Story Mode and shop, but the Extra Mode is surprisingly beefy this time, with a whopping eight exclusive minigames. It's still not Mario Party 4 level, but it's pretty close. Presentation-wise, this game's pretty strange. I like the idea it's going for, having the whole game be carnival-themed, but the game goes for this weird realistic look that hasn't aged well, the UI is godawful, and the way the screen size changes with every mode just looks super awkward. However, despite how jank and weird this game looks, there's a bit of a charm to it, only bolstered by Mario Party 8's weird and eclectic soundtrack. Mario Party 8 is a mess in terms of its visuals and audio, but it's my mess.
Despite being fully aware of my nostalgic bias, I still feel comfortable calling Mario Party 8 one of the best in the series. Sure the motion controls suck and the presentation is sloppy, but the board gameplay is so good that I don't really care. Just like with 6, this game nails what really matters in a Mario Party game, and it will probably always be the one I come back to the most.
4/5 Stars
Mario Party 9: My feelings on Mario Party 9 are complicated, to say the least. Because, despite how divisive it is, I genuinely get what the devs at ND Cube were going for here. Mario Party 9 feels like it was designed with the intent of having a Mario Party game that felt like a classic Mario adventure, and once you look at it like that, it informs a lot of the game's decisions. It's why MP9's aesthetic felt so reminiscent of New Super Mario Bros Wii, why the core board gameplay was designed around these dynamic linear paths, why so many of the minigames prioritized platforming above all else, why there are boss fights, and why the atmosphere felt a lot more serious here. This is one of the few Mario Party games to not take place at some sort of festival, there isn't even really a host this time around. The main story isn't some goofy excuse plot, Bowser is literally ripping the stars out of the sky and you need to stop him. And compared to many of ND Cube's later games, Mario Party 9 isn't just a collection of boards and modes. There's a genuine Story Mode with progression and each board feels like it segues right into the next one. Mario Party 9 was designed to play as a cohesive adventure reminiscent of actual Mario platformers, and I think that's a really cool concept... but the execution just isn't all there.
So... the car gameplay. I'm just going to get right to the point here, I'm not a fan of the car gameplay of Mario Party, which puts all four players in a car that moves down a linear path and gifts Mini Stars to whoever is at the lead when the car passes them. There's no independent navigation, no items outside of the different kinds of die, and hardly any strategy. I do actually think the concept can be done well, as you'll see in a later game, but in Mario Party 9, you can tell this whole new gameplay style is a bit unpolished. This game loves taking away half your Mini Stars, and the boards have several gimmicks that just feel overly punishing and luck-based. A lot of the time it feels like I'm suffering due to reasons I have no control over, and it makes for a pretty miserable experience, especially in the Story Mode, what's supposed to be the heart of the game. It's a shame because otherwise the boards in MP9 are pretty fleshed-out, with a wide variety of setpieces, board-exclusive events and minigames, and one major gimmick that gets fleshed-out over the course of the board. I'll always prefer star hunting, but if the car gameplay was just balanced better, I think this could be a really engaging and unique Mario Party experience.
It's even more frustrating that I don't enjoy the board gameplay in Mario Party 9 all that much because the minigame lineup here is phenomenal, easily one of the best in the series. The minigames here are creative and polished, with highlights such as Skyjinks, Speeding Bullets, Goomba Bowling, Snow Go, Pizza Me Mario, Hazard Hold, Bumper Sparks, and Shell Soccer. We even have the introduction of boss minigames which I mostly like, along with incredibly fun mini-boss fights against Bowser Jr. Mario Party 9 also has one of my favorite Extra Modes in the series, which has a mode called Perspective Mode that lets you play a bunch of minigames with a different camera angle. It's such a cool concept that transforms those games more than you might expect, and I wish it would be a regular thing. There's also a shop with a lot of stuff you can buy, but it's actually really hard to make enough money to buy much without playing boards, which I just don't really like to do. It really shows how poor board gameplay can tank a Mario Party game where everything else is absolutely phenomenal. The presentation is also quite stellar. Despite mostly basing itself off the New Super Mario Bros aesthetic, the game has a strong sense of atmosphere thanks to its dramatic lighting system and bolder-than-usual color scheme that really elevates it far above those games visually. It's easily one of the best-looking games on the Switch, and one of my personal favorite Mario Party games in terms of the general look. And of course, the soundtrack is absolutely incredible, easily one of my favorite in the series right behind 3.
Mario Party 9 is a game I can't hate, but I can't love it either no matter how hard I try. It nails so much from the board designs to the minigames to the Extra Mode to the atmosphere and music, and it has a strong cohesive vision that I can genuinely get behind, but when the core gameplay is so dreadfully frustrating, it really brings the overall package down. This game's got heart, but heart can't save poor gameplay.
3/5 Stars
Mario Party 10: As I had hinted a bit earlier, I think Mario Party 10 actually makes the car gameplay not just tolerable, but genuinely fun at points. Captain events are gone, but on the other hand, there are more small events across each board that everyone can participate in equally. There are also less board gimmicks reliant on stealing half or all of a player's mini-stars, and items are handed out to the players more frequently to give them a bit more player choice. Even more, there was a really cool new Bowser Party mode, where one person plays as Bowser and chases after the car. It may be a bit biased towards the Bowser side, but I actually have a lot of fun with my friends whenever we play this mode. So where's the catch? The catch is that there's not enough of it! Mario Party 9 had seven boards, this game only has five. Bowser Party fares even worse, since you can only play three of the five boards in this mode, and the poor guy only has ten minigames that get more repetitive the more you play them. Granted, there is also an Amiibo Party mode that uses the original star collecting formula, but that mode has a single linear board and having to tap the Wii U gamepad with your Amiibo to do literally anything feels like a massive slog. Mario Party 10 should have dropped the Amiibo Party mode entirely and focus on the core Mario/Bowser Party modes because there's a lot of potential there, it just wasn't used to its fullest.
Mario Party 9 managed to make up for its NSMB-inspired aesthetic with strong atmosphere and a focus on feeling like a cohesive adventure. Mario Party 10 also entirely bases its aesthetic on New Super Mario Bros, but unlike its predecessor, it lacks any sort of style or vision to elevate that aesthetic. It looks and feels really sterile and generic, and with the lack of a campaign or anything meaningful bridging the modes and boards together, it also lacks cohesion. While I like the content of the boards, their theming is as basic as you can get, and there really aren't many minigames that I find creative or especially great. None of them are flat-out bad, mind you, but it feels like NDCube played things way too safe for this one. There are occassional highlights like Balance Ball Brawl, Bullet Bill Bullies, Cheep Cheep Leap, Rapid River Race, Flash Forward, and the boss minigames as usual, but even they don't really stick out as favorites of mine. There is also some neat extra content here, like how you can customize the bases of your Amiibo characters and change the theme of the Amiibo Party board depending on which characters you own, but once again, that doesn't mean much if Amiibo Party isn't that much fun to begin with. The Toad's Room shop is pretty robust, with the first achievement list in the series (always a great addition to a game), and there's a solid lineup of bonus minigames include two entirely new Bowser Jr fights. The visuals look nice since this is the first HD Mario Party game, even if once again the general artstyle is pretty generic, and the soundtrack is solid if unremarkable, once again being composed by the Mario Party 9 composer.
Overall, Mario Party 10 does fix some of the mechanical issues with Mario Party 9 and has a cool Bowser Party mode, but it tries to do too much and spreads itself too thin, ultimately coming off as feeling disjointed, lacking in content, and generally unfocused. But most of all, it feels kinda sterile and soulless. It's not a party or an adventure, just a menu with a bunch of modes of varying levels of quality.
2/5 Stars
My ranking of the main ten Mario Party games is:
- Mario Party 3
- Mario Party 6
- Mario Party 8
- Mario Party 4
- Mario Party 2
- Mario Party 7
- Mario Party 5
- Mario Party 9
- Mario Party
- Mario Party 10
My ranking of their boards is:
- Mario Party 8
- Mario Party 3
- Mario Party 2
- Mario Party 6
- Mario Party 7
- Mario Party 4
- Mario Party 5
- Mario Party 10
- Mario Party 9
- Mario Party
My ranking of their minigames is:
- Mario Party 6
- Mario Party 9
- Mario Party 4
- Mario Party 7
- Mario Party 3
- Mario Party 5
- Mario Party 2
- Mario Party 10
- Mario Party 8
- Mario Party
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