At a relatively cheap price too, considering it was released four days ago (it was about 1/4 of the price less than most new Wii games, so I was all "may as well" and got it).
But basically, what this means is that I'll more than likely do a review for this game in the future. And I might even write a massive mini-game guide it for. Everybody loves mini-game guides. Depends on the time I get and motivation I have. Below will be a "first thoughts" thing anyway.
In general though, for my first day of playing through it, I'm pretty happy with it it. You know it's Mario Party, but it doesn't feel like it. But it's kind of a good feeling, and the board maps don't take forever to finish (30 to 60 minutes at most, which is nice). The "routine" feel of the game has pretty much vanished with this one, although everybody moving at once means I have to kind of rethink my strategies.
The mini-games are great from what I've played, and surprisingly, you have access to all of them (bar the boss battles) from the word go, whereas previous instalments required you to play the mini-game on a board map to unlock it for free (don't get me started on MP1 and MP2, which made you BUY mini-games).
Graphics are good for a Mario Party game. Visually appealing, cartoon-ish graphics, and plenty of Mario themed scenery. The hills from NSMBW pop up quite a lot. The character models are all great too. The MP8 character animations were kind of choppy, whereas these ones are much more fluid (and are different too, which is fun). On the topic of characters, the roster is pretty good to me. Especially considering Shy Guy's on the list.
Just as I expected, the game plays a lot like Wii Party. This, I don't mind, because Wii Party was good. This has just built on it and produced a nice Mario experience. The mini-game modes, I haven't checked out, but I'm assuming there are various different modes to challenge yourself and your friends with. The controls are fairly simple, and with the mini-games, you're using hand gestures, point and click, and classic d-pad control schemes to move your character about.
Music is very nice in this game too. I know in MP8 it was kind of annoying, but it's certainly not that here. Quite a few nice little remixes. They hammer the classic Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 song a few times with an upbeat coat applied to it, and it appears in one of the puzzle games, where it's a nice thinking song (even when said puzzle game can last for 30 minutes).
And the unlockables... oh boy, the unlockables. There's a lot to get, and you see yourself earning Party Points (obtained from playing a map, playing mini-games, etc.) to be able to purchase them. Here's to hoping collecting said points doesn't become too tedious.
And here are some other fun facts:
But basically, what this means is that I'll more than likely do a review for this game in the future. And I might even write a massive mini-game guide it for. Everybody loves mini-game guides. Depends on the time I get and motivation I have. Below will be a "first thoughts" thing anyway.
In general though, for my first day of playing through it, I'm pretty happy with it it. You know it's Mario Party, but it doesn't feel like it. But it's kind of a good feeling, and the board maps don't take forever to finish (30 to 60 minutes at most, which is nice). The "routine" feel of the game has pretty much vanished with this one, although everybody moving at once means I have to kind of rethink my strategies.
The mini-games are great from what I've played, and surprisingly, you have access to all of them (bar the boss battles) from the word go, whereas previous instalments required you to play the mini-game on a board map to unlock it for free (don't get me started on MP1 and MP2, which made you BUY mini-games).
Graphics are good for a Mario Party game. Visually appealing, cartoon-ish graphics, and plenty of Mario themed scenery. The hills from NSMBW pop up quite a lot. The character models are all great too. The MP8 character animations were kind of choppy, whereas these ones are much more fluid (and are different too, which is fun). On the topic of characters, the roster is pretty good to me. Especially considering Shy Guy's on the list.
Just as I expected, the game plays a lot like Wii Party. This, I don't mind, because Wii Party was good. This has just built on it and produced a nice Mario experience. The mini-game modes, I haven't checked out, but I'm assuming there are various different modes to challenge yourself and your friends with. The controls are fairly simple, and with the mini-games, you're using hand gestures, point and click, and classic d-pad control schemes to move your character about.
Music is very nice in this game too. I know in MP8 it was kind of annoying, but it's certainly not that here. Quite a few nice little remixes. They hammer the classic Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 song a few times with an upbeat coat applied to it, and it appears in one of the puzzle games, where it's a nice thinking song (even when said puzzle game can last for 30 minutes).
And the unlockables... oh boy, the unlockables. There's a lot to get, and you see yourself earning Party Points (obtained from playing a map, playing mini-games, etc.) to be able to purchase them. Here's to hoping collecting said points doesn't become too tedious.
And here are some other fun facts:
- 2 to 4 players can play on a board map, it's very flexible (which is awesome)
- I had to retry the first stage because I came damn 2nd out of three players (and the one character that wasn't supposed to win, naturally, won)
- The luck games do return, and are a wee bit cheap, but they aren't very "make or break"
- You need to do more than just win mini-games to get mini-stars, you need to also move strategically and rely on a little luck this time (which is fine by me)
- Shy Guy's in it. Not sure how to unlock, but I better damn well find out soon
- I accidentally started up the Staff Credits and couldn't get out, revealing a wave of all the characters in the game. Whoops
