Wii Rally

Alright, in the interest of full disclosure I must tell you that I’ve been a fan of the Mario Party games for quite some time. One of the main reasons being that my girlfriend Jen particularly enjoys them as well. More often than not Jen just watches me play games but the first time I brought a copy of Mario Party, I think it was 5 over to her house she jumped right on board and wrestled the controller away from me. She waited with great anticipation for the next game in the series which happened to be the finest to date. Mario Party 6 was incredibly fun with a nice selection of compelling mini games. Mario Party 7 was all wrong it seemed that the series had lost it’s momentum. Enter the Wii and an entire new control scheme, which bring us to the topic of today’s lesson Mario Party 8.

Mario Party 8 is the series’ Wii debut. Many gamers were excited to see how the new controls would be implemented and what surprises Hudson (Who developed the game) and Nintendo (Publisher) had in store for this latest party game-a-palooza. Especially since the game was originally slated for a March ‘07 release which was delayed until June of the same year. Why the delay? I doubt anyone outside of Hudson or Nintendo knows.

A key mistake was made with this title. Mario Party 8 should have really showcased what the Wii Remote’s motion controls could do. The problem was they forgot to implement them. OK that’s unfair yes some very few motion controls are used but they are limited to tilting the Wii Remote to fly a plane and shaking one up and down like a can of soda pop. Most of the mini-games throughout Mario Party 8 are controlled with the Wii Remote’s D-pad. I know that these are mini-games we are talking about here but come on how about knocking the complexity up a little especially for those long time fans like myself who already know how to play the game. Which brings me to my next point.

No matter how well versed you are in the Mario Party universe, Mario Party 8 seems to treat you like a moron. Explaining every little detail like you’re 100% grade A “nub cake”. A way to tell the game “hey I’ve played this game before I know how it works” would have been nice but an old English teacher once told me “Always assume the members of your audience are ignorant to what you are talking about.” I’ve never used this rule myself I like to give my audience a good amount of credit I mean they can obviously read at least.

The stages or “game boards” in Mario Party 8 are seriously lacking in some decent creativity with the exception of Boo’s castle I felt as though I’ve played these game boards many times before. I did however enjoy the new Star Battle mode but felt it was too short.

With Mario Party 7 being a disappointment I began to suspect that the series may have lost it’s momentum and fun factor. I believe that Mario Party 8 confirms this suspicion. It maybe time to call the cops on this party and have it shut down. Ever go to a house party and by about 2 or 3 in the morning almost everybody has left except for a few obnoxious party people and you just want them to leave? Well that’s how I feel about Mario Party 8. I really do think that 8 is enough.