Mario Party 4

Mario Party is back, in glorious 3D

I'm a latecomer to the Mario Party series, part 4 being the first I've played. I hope that I'll, therefore, be able to give a slightly more detached review than many others I've seen. On receiving the review copy, my first thought was to enlist the help of a pair of children to add some balance to the review - Mario Party 4 is, after all, very much a youngster's game.

The basic premise is very simple. Mario Party is essentially a board game for one to four players. There are always four contestants - if there are less than four human players, AI opponents fill the gaps. Eight Nintendo characters, from Mario to Bowser, are available to play. Each player chooses one of these characters and takes his turn throwing the dice to progress around the board. Rather than being a straight beginning to end affair, like snakes and ladders, Mario Party is a quest for stars. At the start of the game, the location of the first star is shown, and once a player has collected the star, the location of the next is shown. Landing on the star square isn't enough though - oh no, you have to cough up 20 coins to get it.

On the boardwalk

Decisions, Decisions....

Dotted around the playing board are special squares and locations. Some give you coins, some take coins away, some activate a mini-game (more on this later), and some change the structure of the map by opening or closing new routes. One of the best locations is a little shop where you can spend your hard earned coins on power ups. These include Mega-Mushrooms which double your size and give you two throws of the dice - they also allow you to swipe coins from anyone you pass on the board: Mini Mushrooms, which allow you to squeeze through little pipes, opening new routes around the board but reduce the numbers you can throw on the dice; a Magic Lamp which allows you to transport directly to the star location, and so on. There are tons of these. But, in order to buy stars and power-ups, you need coins.

Coin gathering strategies vary. If you're a gambler at heart, take potluck with one of the games of chance around the board. Alternately, if you're a saver, you can trot round the board gathering coins in dribs and drabs from coin squares. If you're a bit on the naughty side, you can swipe coins and stars from other players by various means. If you're reading this review then you most likely play video games, therefore you'll want to earn coins by winning the mini games!

The mini-games

Going to pieces....

At the end of each turn, a mini game is played. These can be either "every man for himself" or team games. The mini games vary wildly from tossing basketballs into hoops, scaling the sides of mountains, skiing back down mountains, running around in mazes, to simply seeing who can hit the A button fastest to break out of some goop. The games are all entertaining - helped by their shortness - they never last long enough to become tedious. At the end of each mini-game, the players are awarded coins according to their performance. At the end of the whole game, the players can receive extra stars for gathering the most coins, winning the most mini games, and landing on the most event squares. Finally, in a grand ceremony, the winning player or team is announced.

There are several different boards to play, although they do all work in very similar ways. I don't feel that a variety of boards really matter too much in this game - there is enough variety in the mini-games. There are several game modes available - including the option to play only the mini games. The most useful option available is the ability to choose the length of the game by specifying the number of turns it should run for.

Nuts and Bolts

How does it play? First off, this is not a single player game. The fun of the game comes from competing with friends or family, and frequently hurling abuse at them for nicking your coins. A single player "adventure" mode is provided, but I suspect this was done simply for the sake of completeness. A handicap system is provided for younger (or older) players, but this is implemented in a slightly strange way. A player with a handicap of three starts the game with three stars. This means that one of the more experienced players can steal them from him, putting the new player at an even greater disadvantage than if he'd started level with the others. A bit of a strange choice, I thought.

There is a lot more strategy to the game than may appear at first. Choosing a route around the board and using power ups tactically, can provide quite a bit of brainwork for the older player. Sadly, this can result in younger players spending some time going around in circles because they don't quite get the concept of switchable routes or mini-mushroom pipes.

The new Command and Conquer?

It's hypersports all over again.

This is, though, a fairly small gripe - Mario Party 4 works quite well as an introduction to strategic video games. One of the younger reviewers (four years old) has developed a tendency to think about his choices more carefully since he started playing the game. The capacity for mischief causing, by switching a route just before another player passes it, can also add frustration - but only briefly as you're sure to get a chance to do it to them on the next turn. In the end, though, the outcome of the game is very strongly influenced by sheer blind luck and the roll of a dice. The final four games our reviewers played resulted in each player winning once.

Mario Party 4 is an excellent family game, particularly in team mode. It is not, in my opinion, going to have the same appeal to a group of adults playing as it would a mixture of adults and children. The initial period of frustration that younger children might feel, along with the poor handicap system, should be considered before making a purchase.

This is a great game for children - it teaches turn taking and cooperation, as well is introducing tactical play, using already familiar characters. This is an excellent purchase for anyone with one or more under-tens in the family.