It may seem a bit strange that I'm such a diehard fan of the Mario Party games. Aren't they all a bunch of repetitive minigame collections that are only fun with friends? You'd think that, but when the board game mechanics are this interesting and ever-changing, the minigames are this addictive and fun, and the charm and side content is this immense, I think that would be selling the series short a bit. Mario Party 6 in particular serves as a great example of what makes Mario Party so engaging on a gameplay level, it's arguably the most unanimously beloved entry in the series for a very good reason.
Mario Party 6 is one of a whopping four Mario Party games for the Nintendo Gamecube, and all of them are known for tossing in some sort of wild gimmick that drastically affects how you play, usually for the worst. Mario Party 4 introduces the Mega and Mini Mushrooms that vastly restrict your movement, Mario Party 5 randomly distributes items (it shouldn't be hard to figure out why that's a problem), and Mario Party 7's Bowser Time throws everyone into an unavoidable Bowser space that brings the pacing to a screeching halt. Mario Party 6, on the other hand, is different. Its gimmick actively improves on the game in pretty much every way. Mario Party 6's central gimmick is a day/night cycle. Every three turns, the board shifts from day to night and certain aspects of the board shift along with it. Most of the minigames also have day/night versions based on when you play them, and in rare cases, this even changes how the minigame is played.
Mario Party 6's day/night cycle is simply a genius mechanic. Mario Party in general is at its best when you have to think several steps ahead to win, and many of the best boards give you a simple set of rules that you have to figure out how to work around. For example, Woody Woods has split paths that change directions every few turns, Sweet Dream has bridges that switch whenever someone crosses it, and Bowser Land has a Bowser Parade that shows up every five turns that you can redirect to head towards your opponent. These kinds of boards promote strategy and spatial reasoning, and with the day/night cycle, every single one of Mario Party 6's boards is like this. On top of that, Mario Party 6 introduces more unique gimmick boards that gave the series a much-needed dose of board variety. So you have your standard board like E Gadd Garage which have gears that move whenever the time of day changes, but then there's also Snowflake Lake where the time of day changes how far the star-stealing Chain Chomps can go, or Faire Square where the time of day changes how much a Star costs and what activities are available.
Even the one board where the day/night cycle doesn't do much, Castaway Bay, still manages to be one of my favorites because it keeps this philosophy anyway. It's a linear board where either Bowser or DK is waiting at the end and they switch whenever someone reaches them or steps on a Happening Space, it's super tense and stressful at times!
The item system is also a massive improvement over previous games, particularly the Orbs in Mario Party 5. The Capsules in Mario Party 6 may not have that neat element of choice where you must decide to use an Orb on yourself or toss it onto the board, but it's far more streamlined, far better balanced, and you can actually buy them in shops this time. Add in a pretty massive pool of Capsules you can use that even change depending on the board, a nice amount of useful dice modifiers, and a pretty charming presentation and you get one of the best item systems in the series. And with fantastic boards that promote strategy, and a fair and balanced item system, I can easily call Mario Party 6 one of the most skill-based entries in the series.
Another thing that Mario Party 6 nails is the single-player content. Mario Party's story modes tend to be pretty hit or miss since a fair chunk of them tend to just be making the player play through all the boards in succession. There are some genuinely great story modes like MP1's Mini Game Island and MP5's minigame-centric Koopa Kid-themed campaign, but Mario Party 6's Solo Mode is especially noteworthy for having three entirely original boards. No other Mario Party has single-player exclusive boards, and that alone makes MP6's Solo Mode worth playing. The main premise is that you're on a short linear board and each space will let you play a certain type of minigame. You only have so much time before you inevitably reach the end of the board, so your goal is to play as many minigames as possible and try to stop at the very last space to get the Rare Minigame. Thus, this game's Solo Mode is less like an actual story and more of a fun way to unlock minigames, which is a godsend considering how tedious grinding for minigames could be in other games. It's just such a cool single-player offering that solves one of the series' biggest issues while giving you a bunch of neat new boards to play around with.
And that leads us to the minigames themselves, which are absolutely amazing. Mario Party 6 has easily the best minigame lineup out of any Mario Party game, hands down. Nearly every minigame is a hit, there are so many creative and addicting games and the abundance of platforming-heavy games in particular is very much welcome. Just listing out all my favorites would be a near impossibility... but I'll try it anyway:
Granite Getaway is a tense Indiana Jones-style chase scene filled with fun obstacles to dodge and opportunities to push your opponents into harm's way.
Catch You Letter is a frantic spin on the standard collecting minigame where simply catching the falling letters is only part of the equation. You also have to deliver them to the Shy Guy running around the center at top speeds.
Lift Leapers is basically a standard 2D Mario platforming level that's just as well-designed as something in an actual mainline game, and trying to beat my best time with every attempt is super addicting.
Pokey Punch-Out lets you punch the hell out of Pokeys. What else is there to say?
Snow Brawl is a surprisingly well-balanced snowball fight where one player with some AI companions faces off against the other three. It's both fun and incredibly high-stakes.
Ball Dozers is a fun puzzle game where finding the path of least resistance requires a lot of foresight and dropping the ball in a bad cluster of pegs can be crippling.
Rocky Road is a visually unique 2v2 game that requires both players to be on their A-game to break these boulders as quick as possible.
Control Shtick is an incredibly inventive twin-stick twitch reaction game.
And T-Minus Five is a simple but effective timing game where the only fault for losing is your own.
That's only scratching the surface, by the way. And on top of all of that, as I mentioned earlier, most of these minigames essentially have two skins based on the time of day. And in some cases like Conveyor Bolt or What Goes Up, this gives you two entirely different minigames in one.
Like most other Mario Party games, MP6 is also chock-full of side content and extra modes. Aside from Party Mode, Solo Mode, and Free Play, there's also a bunch of alternate minigame modes like the very fun Decathlon, several beefier Rare minigames like a Bowser fortune teller and a full-on puzzle game, and a shop where you can use your Stars to buy a bunch of stuff like unlockable boards and characters, sound tests and taunts, harder CPU difficulties, and pages for a cute little pop-up book. There's also an entire extra mode focused around the Gamecube's microphone which was packaged with Mario Party 6, and it's a fun bonus with a bunch of neat side modes like a quiz and an obstacle course and some bonus minigames. To put it simply, there is a lot here to do and experiencing everything Mario Party 6 has to offer will take a long time regardless of if you're on your own or with friends.
As far as presentation goes, I will be the first to admit that Mario Party 6 is not a high point in the series. The graphics still look as colorful and polished as always, but the charming dreamy and stage-play-inspired visuals that I loved about the first five games is pretty much entirely gone here. The soundtrack is good and has a lot of stellar tracks like Night On The Bay, Slow And Steady, and Amusing, but once again, it pales in comparison to that of the first five games. That being said, where Mario Party 6 does excel at is in its theming. Everything about this game's presentation exists to hammer home the central motif of day vs night. The main story is that the sun (Brighton) and moon (Twila) are fighting and you need to get Stars to help them get along again. The hub is split between the day and night, with some of the modes being hosted by either only Brighton or Twila. It's a classic Nintendo move, taking a single concept and running with it as far as they can, which really helps Mario Party 6 come together as a cohesive product.
But while the vibes of Mario Party 6 may not hit the same as some of the other entries in the series, on a gameplay level, this is easily one of the best party games ever made. The day/night cycle is a masterful addition perfectly executed, making the boards more strategic, giving the minigames more replayability, and strengthening the thematic cohesion of the whole package. But even beyond that, Mario Party 6 has consistently fun and varied boards, a perfectly balanced item system, one of the best single-player modes in the series, tons of side content, and the greatest lineup of minigames in the franchise. As far as Mario Party gameplay goes, it does not get any better than Mario Party 6.
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