Mario Party 7
Available platforms: Gamecube
A party with a bunch of Italian plumbers, a princess or two and some talking mushrooms sounds like something you can only experience after taking some very serious drugs. However, if you want to see all of the things mentioned above, I would recommend Mario Party 7, it’s a lot safer than acid. The latest rehashing of the long running Mario Party series stays true to the format of previous games, simulated board game play with a Nintendo twist. I guess Nintendo’s mantra is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it because for better or for worse, there are very few major changes to previous versions. Despite the similarity to years past, Mario Party 7 is still good for a fun multi-player experience.
The game begins with a character named Toadsworth, an elderly talking mushroom, inviting Mario and his friends on a vacation cruise. The problem is they forgot to invite Bowser who decides to ruin everyone else’s time. This a very simple storyline that is not at all important to the game whatsoever. The gameplay is a well balanced blend of skill and chance that gives all players a shot at winning.
The goal of the game is to travel across the board as your favorite Nintendo character and collect more stars and coins than your opponents which sounds simple but can be a very frustrating task. You move across the board by hitting a dice block which makes the race to the star more about luck than skill. You can land on many types of spaces that will either send you to a different spot on the board, take all of your coins, or a number of other fate altering events.
One of the major changes is the boards that you can play on. Each board is significantly different from the rest both in design and function. The six boards are Grand Canal, Pagoda Peak, Pyramid Park, Neon Heights, Windmillville and Bowser’s Enchanted Inferno. Each of these boards have their own themes and unique events that can be triggered by landing on certain spaces. In previous versions each board only differed by the what they had in the background. Now each board provides a completely different type of game.
Mario Party 7 features 86 new mini-games, which are the main draw of the franchise. The controls for all of the games are fairly simple and easy to learn, but the games vary in terms of difficulty. Some games are a free for all, while others pit you against a single opponent. There are also games that utilize the microphone attachment that comes with the game. While the microphone might seem like a cool idea, it really seems forced and does not do anything that couldn’t be accomplished with the normal controller. You can also play all of the mini-games in a special mini-game mode in which the whole board game part is left out.
The game really falters when it comes to solo play. If you don’t have any friends around to play with at the time, or don’t have any friends period, Mario Party 7 is not a very enjoyable game. Watching the computer controlled players move around the board and play the solo mini-games is not my idea of a good time. You have the option to turn off text boxes and skip computer controlled mini-games but the game still feels very slow when you party solo.
The game’s selling point is multiplayer game play. Few games give as much opportunity to insult your friend’s crappy play or to talk as much smack as possible. Moving around the board and other game elements that are dull in single player mode, become very entertaining when you add a couple of friends. The mini-games are also improved during multiplayer modes because playing against other humans provides much tougher competition. Another new feature is the ability to play games with 8 people. This is made possible by players sharing a controller and using the two different joysticks found on the Gamecube controller.
This game is obviously targeted towards a younger audience, but college students could easily find a way to make Mario Party 7 more entertaining — Mario Party + beer = good times. Mario Party 7 is a shallow game that has huge entertainment value. However, you need to remember that parties are always more fun with other people so find some friends and party on.
Overall Grade: C+
Contact reporter Eric Richardson at richardsondbk@gmail.com.
