WaluigiFan

THE GameCube Mario Party of choice here, it takes everything good from Mario Party 4 and makes it a darn sight better, with some of the best board designs the series has ever seen and a new rule that manages to get the mix between not feeling pointless and not feeling too gimmicky. That new rule is the day and night rule, which means that the first three turns take place in daytime, then the next three turns take place at night, then the next three turns take place at daytime, and so on. This addition is not merely for aesthetic purposes, but actually changes certain attributes on the board you choose, such as star prices, shop prices and tweaking the happening spaces in certain ways. Overall, this is as good as Mario Party gets, even though there are still annoying things you have to put up with [i'm looking at you, microphone mode]. Also mini-games are good, but thats obvious, right?

Were at eight Mario Parties? Eight?! Well, lets get going. I just want to say right of the bat that the motion controls just do not work properly at all half the time during mini-games. Seriously, there have been so many times where i'm winning a motion controlled mini-game and then it just messes up because it cuts off or freaks out and goes all over the place. When the mini-games are not motion controlled, there actually some of the best in the Mario Party series. The boards are also some of the best in the series (my opinion, yeah?). Everything else is **** Overall, this is a underrated Mario Party, but its still not amazing.

This is where Mario Party went way to gimmicky for me. Most of the boards, while nicely designed, have stupid gimmicks that ruin the playability of the board. The worst board is Neon Heights, where there are chests everywhere that contain stars, Z-stars (they take a star away from you), coins or nothing. It's completely luck-based! It just depends what space you land on! Someone who is terrible at mini-games might actually win because of how much it revolves around dumb luck! Also, turn the microphone mode off, you'll thank me later (you need a microphone controller for this to work anyway, so you might not have that. Lucky you). Overall, everything is the same old Mario Party, but with stupid gimmicks shoved everywhere. The gimmicks dont end here people. The gimmicks dont end here...

Mario Party 5 is completely average. The big offender is the boards, they are some of the worst i have ever seen in the Mario Party franchise [but at least your not all in a car, looking at you MP 9 and 10]. Everything else is your average fare, minigames, star-collecting, all that. Overall, theres no need to play this if you have MP 4, 6 or 7. If you going to pick a MP on the GameCube, then it would be 4 for beginners, 6 for veterans. MP 5 is the worst MP on GameCube, enough said.

I mean, its mario party all right. Nothing necessarily bad about it, but nothing special enough to warrant playing it over Mario Party 6 [apart from the price, as MP 4 is half the price of MP 6]. Overall, if you want some Mario Party action and cant afford 6, then it will do the job. if you have Mario Party 6 all ready, dont bother with it, unless you want more mini-games of course

For many, including myself, this was the beginning of the end of the mario party franchise. Why? Because for some ungodly reason, you all move around in a cart, which means when one person moves, everyone moves. What? Who thought this was a good idea? To be fair, the board designs are ok, the boss battle mini games are welcomed back (from mario party DS) warmly and the normal mini-games are just as good as mario party 8's. Overall, its bad. But can you blame nintendo for experimenting with new ideas?

No................................................................Just, no.