Mario Party 8

What’s the Story?

MARIO PARTY 8 lives up to its name by offering a decent multiplayer experience. Play is structured like a board game where up to four players compete both against each other and in teams by rolling dice, landing on spaces with various consequences, and participating in Mini game challenges to earn coins and stars. Familiar Nintendo characters like Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, and Wario are all playable this time around, with the ability to unlock several more as the game progresses. Mario Party 8 boasts more than 60 new Mini games, and several innovative new boards including DK's Treetop Temple, the pirate-themed Goomba's Booty Boardwalk, and the bustling metropolis of Koopa's Tycoon Town where players invest money in hotels to earn stars, much like Monopoly.

Is It Any Good?

Many of the Mini games in Mario Party 8 incorporate the touch-sensitive Wii remote in creative ways, letting it double as a paint brush, hammer, dart, stamp, and lasso to name a few. It's accuracy as a pointing device also comes in handy, and it makes it that much easier for novice gamers to jump right into the fun without having to familiarize themselves with a complicated controller.

Mario Party 8's biggest issue is that it relies too often on elements of random chance, which might prove frustrating for more competitive gamers. Another disappointment is that Mario Party 8 still looks like it did almost 10 years ago on the Nintendo 64. That being said, if gamers are able to look past these issues, there's still a great party game to be found that's made all the more fun thanks to the intuitive Wii remote.