The Mario Party series has long been the standard for the “party game” – a game specially made for multiplayer fun between 4 friends. Since the first Mario Party on the Nintendo 64, gamers have played against their friends in the game’s series of boards, and battled each other in enjoyable mini-games, looking to get as many stars and coins as they can to defeat their buddies. Now, the series introduces its fifth installment – Mario Party 5, which looks to revamp the entire series to make it much more than the usual coin-grabbing, star-obtaining, mini-game winning-funfest.

Mario Party 5 does feature its world famous Party mode, but it is much more than that. There are new modes, which include a newly revamped Story mode, A Mini-Game mode with new ways to play, an Extra mode with three new mini-games not playable anywhere but in this game, and most interesting, an Super Duel mode where players create cars and duel in Twisted Metal-style battles – kinda like a game…within a game!

Leaf Leap, one of the better mini-games.

First, the meat and potatoes of the game – the Party Mode. In this mode, up to four players battle on various game boards, all of which are based on various dreams. The boards are all pretty childish in tone, and include Toy Dream, Future Dream, Pirate Dream, and Sweet Dream. Although the boards are fun, each in their own way, it is the improvements made to the presentation over Mario Party 4 that really take the cake. First, the time-wasting and excessively boring Store and Lottery have been eliminated, thus speeding up the game dramatically. They are replaced by a new capsule system, in which players can obtain capsules from special spaces, which work a lot like the items in Mario Party 4. Players can use these capsules on themselves (often for a fee) in order to gain an advantage over their opponents, or set them on other spaces as traps for other players to land on. This new system is much more fun then the simple using of items, and adds a true sense of strategy to the usually boring game boards – not to mention seeing the return of some long-missing Mario enemies (this is probably the first time since Super Mario Brothers 3 that we’ve seen Spiny and the Hammer Brothers). Also, for the first time since Mario Party 3, new characters have been added. The usual lineup of Mario Party favorites including Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi now sees the addition of long-time Mario Party host Toad as a playable character, as well as Koopa Kid/Bower Jr. /Baby Bowser (whatever you want to call him) and Boo. However, long-time addition Donkey Kong had to be removed from the game – sort of. He has now gained his own space on the board, where he’ll give you a prize of coins, or challenge players to a coin-collecting mini-game. Overall, the DK space is a fun addition, even though it would have been nice to have DK playable.

The mini-games have always been the best part of the Mario Party experience, and, of course, they are back for MP5. As usual, the regular mini-games are split into 3 categories – 4-Player mini-games, which pair all characters against one another, 2 vs. 2 mini-games, which pair players together as teams, and 1 vs. 3 mini-games, where 1 player goes against the others. Also, there are several special mini-game modes, such as Battle mode, which occurs randomly after a turn, instead of a mini-game. Battle mini-games are like regular 4-player mini-games, except a certain amount of coins is taken from each player as a pot for each character to win. Also, the players can choose the mini-game, instead of it being randomly chosen. Another special mode is a Duel mode, which can be initiated when two players land on the same space with less than 5 turns to go in the game, or when a special capsule is used. Duel mini-games pit one player against another, in a battle for coins and stars. As well as the mini-games on DK’s space, the Bowser Space returns with mini-games of its own, in which character race to avoid having their coins stolen by everyone’s favorite spiky-shelled monarch. Bowser can also perform a Bowser Shuffle, where all characters switch places on the board, and give you a Bowser Bonus – the “Ztar” star, thus nullifying one of your own stars.

The Mini-games themselves are quite varied, and go from the very simple to the very wacky. There are several standouts – my personal favorite is “Pushy Penguins”, a game in which players run through a moving maze of penguins escaping to sea, and the last man standing wins. Another favorite is “Dinger Derby”, where players compete in a home run derby to knock the most balls out of the park. The 2 vs. 2 games are also pretty good, and require more skill and teamwork than ever before, as partners must work together to succeed. Unfortunately, most of the 2 vs. 2 mini-games are quite weak, with only “Defuse or Lose” and “Mario Can-Can” the only standouts. Also, most of the 1 vs. 3 mini-games are one-sided towards the 1 player – “Heat Stroke” and “Flatiator” are examples of this. However, although the quality of the mini-games is lacking, that is not to say there is a good variety, which tests everything from button mashing, to coin collecting, to games of pure luck.


Marlow: Pushy Penguins!!! Pushy Penguins!!! PUSHY PENGUINS!!!
Although Party mode is fun, there are also 3 other modes worth mentioning as well. The first of this is the 1-player Story mode, which has been fortunately revamped from its incredibly long (and incredibly boring) incarnation in Mario Party 4. Instead of facing other characters on the game boards, players face off against Bowser’s Koopa Kids on multiple game boards, en route to an eventual showdown with Bowser himself. Although the story mode is decent, it’s merely a distraction from the party mode. Ditto with the Super Duel mode, where players create cars from various parts and weapons and compete against each other in battles. It is fun, but the battles are very short, and painfully easy – even on hard mode. The standout of the extra modes is Bonus Mode, which features some very fun extra games-within-games. Aside from the exceptionally lame card party, you can play a two-on-two game of Ice Hockey, or the exceptionally fun Beach Volleyball game, which may be better than the actual game.

Graphically, the game is nothing special, and is exactly the same graphics as from Mario Party 4. The graphics are crisp and cartoony, but not overly detailed – not like they need to be in this type of game. The sounds, music, and effects are all par for the course – nothing really annoying – but everything is quite childish. The gameplay is very simple – the instructions are clearly laid out on each mini-game, and none of the games are overly complicated – although some can be kind of confusing at first. The gameplay is also diversified among the mini-games, which is good – due to the various playing skills of the different players (Silver, for example, is a terrific button-masher). The game is quite easy on Easy mode, but can get very hard in the later levels.

Overall – This is a great game to play – if you have friends. Don’t bother picking this up if you don’t have buddies like “the Upstate Trio” – this isn’t a game meant for one player. The story and Super Duel modes will keep you busy for a while – but only maybe a week. This is a game meant for multiplayer use, and in that regard it passes with flying colors.