I’m going to go into the series with a quite insultingly simple description, so for those of you who have played any of Mario Parties 1-6, feel free to skip ahead. The basic concept of the game is thus: You get up to three sentient beings (at this point in time, most likely of the human species) to each grip a Nintendo GameCube controller and join you – also gripping a similar controller – around the aforementioned Nintendo GameCube and a convenient audio/visual output device (or “TV”). Each of you then selects a character that is of the Mario universe and compete head-to-head in a series of Mario-themed minigames.

In this, Mario Party 7, there was little digression. Six games were playable on the show floor – a cactus-lumberjack button masher, a fighter where you have to punch all of your opponents out of a bubble of water, a track-and-field hurdle-jumper, a Super Monkey Ball-like game where you’re shot from cannon and must fly through tokens to collect points on the way down, a Memory-like game where pictures are shown and you must move through a flipbook and match up the images, and finally, a sort of reverse whack-a-mole where you are the mole and must keep your head aboveground longer than your opponents and without getting clubbed. I went up against Silver and won the series 4-2, sweeping the last four games. Meh. He’s a Yankee fan. He’s used to that, I imagine. For the record, I’d like a little respect for not walking away from the game station crowing “And the Mets take it in six!” for all in West Hall to hear.

Controls are ridiculously easy, and clearly explained before the start of each contest. Further, while we were able to select from a fair number of characters, there were several more that were locked up, ensuring that there’s a reason for even the loneliest of players to hit the Power button. As of right now, the game is slated to release on November 8th, 2005.

Mike Twomey