Mario Party 8 Game Review–Take Their Hint
Seeing as how me and the Big N parted company back around the Gamecube era (as in, I had one, but after a couple weeks I took it to the local Gamestop and traded the sucker in on an Xbox because, as far as I could tell, Nintendo would not put out a game for anyone over the age of twelve), I never really got the opportunity to take a stab at the Mario Party line. Thusly, my first exposure to the Mario Party series was this one right here, Mario Party 8 for the Wii.
Yes, it’s true–the game that amounts to little more than a board game wherein mini-games are played to decide who wins and who loses has reached its eighth iteration with this one. And, plotwise, that’s really all you do. You’ll play, generally in a four player environment with computer players to make up the slack as needed when humans aren’t on hand (if it’s just you, you’ll play against a trio of computer players), a series of board games. You’ll punch a dice cube above your head when it’s your turn, then you’ll proceed the correct number of spaces along the board, at which point you’ll receive rewards or punishments based on the rules and then proceed onto the next mini-game, and you’ll repeat for a certain number of turns.
Yes, it’s a little bit monotonous. No one ever said this sucker was going to be the kind of thing you’d ever mistake for high art. Or low art. Or any other kind of art, come to think of it. There’s nothing really resembling a storyline here–in fact, the only thing that keeps Mario Party 8 from being nothing more than a second-rate collection of mini-games is that it’s actually a FIRST-rate collection of mini-games. I admit that, when I played this, I had more than my share of fun, for about the first half-hour or so. After that first half-hour, however, that’s when the boredom settled in. It only started grating, though, and every time a new mini-game came up, the boredom lessened significantly.
Now, there’s a lot of appeal in a game like this. Indeed, with three or more friends around this sucker’s probably incredible fun. Even with one extra buddy in tow, Mario Party 8 could easily be a great time. But if you’re playing this one by yourself, the limits of the fun are sorely strained. In fact, the appeal in playing this one in single player mode is fairly well limited to the number of new mini-game experiences you can have. Once you’ve played through all the different games, and all the different boards, and won all the various prizes you’re able to win, you might as well just unplug your Wiimote and take that sucker back to the store, because you’ve just done everything you could ever possibly do with this game.
Mario Party 8 isn’t the kind of game you can give a simple yea-or-nay review to. It has a series of very specific applications that, if your intended use doesn’t fit them, will limit your enjoyment of this game by limiting its usefulness. If you need a game to play with friends or as a short-term rental, then yes, absolutely, Mario Party 8 will do the job nicely. The game is called Mario Party for a reason–take the hint.