Mario Party 7

[kirbychu]

I like Petey... his reaction to the windmill roof cracking in SMS still makes me chuckle.

[Goomba Joe]

He was an awesome and funny character in Sunshine, but he's a little obscure for the spinoffs.

[Dances in Undergarments]

I think he is great for spin-offs, as its finally a playable Pirahna Plant.

[Sqrt2]

Will MP7 use the microphone like in MP6 or are the microphone games just a one-off?

Oh and I've also signed the petition.

[Dances in Undergarments]

I think it was a one-off.

[Smashchu]

Well so far so good more ppl have signed the petition

[Boo Destroyer]

Ahem, bumping an old topic here, yikes.

But seriously, while Mario Party is a great game series, it sadly inspires hypocrisy and unoriginality in critics.

I find the prospect of them calling it repetitive hilarious, because they themselves sure are, basing their opinion on the entire series solely on the basic board game play whilst turning a blind eye to all other game-specific aspects (AKA the differences). You think it's repetitive? Go play several EA Sports games and say that again.

If anyone can provide a better argument about why it's bad (other than "repetitive" and "too many sequels" - quit contradicting yourselves. In which case, notice a paradox here?), I'd gladly accept it.

[Fryguy64]

Okay... ;D

1. The 1-Player game often leaves you waiting while the computer players carry out their turns at slower-than-player speed. They are also subjected to all of the menus, options and animations that a human player is shown, slowing the process down even more. This is unnecessary and very boring.

2. While the game rewards you for skill by giving you coins and items, the game is only won by collecting Stars. There are rarely attained by skill, but by random items and the random placing of the Star on the board. You could play an excellent game but still lose because the other players received more Boos or Genies. On higher difficulty levels it seems the skill of the computer players isn't vastly improved, but the chances of them receiving these items is higher. It's random.

3. A complaint I have regarding MP3-7... the boards have become a lot more irritating. It has become too easy to be trapped in one corner of the board unless you roll a perfect dice or use the exact item at the right time. What this essentially means is that random factors can prevent you from continuing with the game, and perhaps even forcing you to waste a few turns getting back to where you were before... and even then there is no guarantee you will roll a perfect dice.

4. Combine these three complains and consider the following. A full game of Mario Party can take around 30-45 minutes to complete. If you lose because of random factors, despite playing to the very best of your ability, then you will essentially have wasted a full half hour with no reward. Even in multiplayer this is annoying, and most people have to be dragged kicking and screaming into playing a full game. Trying to get four people with attention spans that can withstand such punishment is not easy.

5. Final complaint: all of the characters are plastic, uninspiring and spout meaningless comments on a regular basis... all of the worlds are sugarcoated fantasy lands... the stories are all unnecessary sugary slop on top of a sugary mess... basically, the whole thing reeks of poor design. Even the Mario sports titles (unfavourably compared or grouped with Mario Party) have much more character.

I want you to note one distinguishing factor about my complaints. Not one of them refers to the minigames. If Hudson could make a Mario Party without any board game element I would be a very happy player.

Also, the repetition complaint more than likely refers to the board game element as well. It's the most tiresome, boring part of ALL of the games - even the first two (which some people like more for some reason, though not for any rational reason so far as I can see). After putting yourself through MP1 and maybe even MP2, it's hard to see why anyone would still like the boardgame part enough to keep playing through to MP7 - even if the minigames are still original and fun.

There you go!

[Boo Destroyer]

admin said:

Okay... ;D

1. The 1-Player game often leaves you waiting while the computer players carry out their turns at slower-than-player speed. They are also subjected to all of the menus, options and animations that a human player is shown, slowing the process down even more. This is unnecessary and very boring.

2. While the game rewards you for skill by giving you coins and items, the game is only won by collecting Stars. There are rarely attained by skill, but by random items and the random placing of the Star on the board. You could play an excellent game but still lose because the other players received more Boos or Genies. On higher difficulty levels it seems the skill of the computer players isn't vastly improved, but the chances of them receiving these items is higher. It's random.

3. A complaint I have regarding MP3-7... the boards have become a lot more irritating. It has become too easy to be trapped in one corner of the board unless you roll a perfect dice or use the exact item at the right time. What this essentially means is that random factors can prevent you from continuing with the game, and perhaps even forcing you to waste a few turns getting back to where you were before... and even then there is no guarantee you will roll a perfect dice.

4. Combine these three complains and consider the following. A full game of Mario Party can take around 30-45 minutes to complete. If you lose because of random factors, despite playing to the very best of your ability, then you will essentially have wasted a full half hour with no reward. Even in multiplayer this is annoying, and most people have to be dragged kicking and screaming into playing a full game. Trying to get four people with attention spans that can withstand such punishment is not easy.

5. Final complaint: all of the characters are plastic, uninspiring and spout meaningless comments on a regular basis... all of the worlds are sugarcoated fantasy lands... the stories are all unnecessary sugary slop on top of a sugary mess... basically, the whole thing reeks of poor design. Even the Mario sports titles (unfavourably compared or grouped with Mario Party) have much more character.

I want you to note one distinguishing factor about my complaints. Not one of them refers to the minigames. If Hudson could make a Mario Party without any board game element I would be a very happy player.

Also, the repetition complaint more than likely refers to the board game element as well. It's the most tiresome, boring part of ALL of the games - even the first two (which some people like more for some reason, though not for any rational reason so far as I can see). After putting yourself through MP1 and maybe even MP2, it's hard to see why anyone would still like the boardgame part enough to keep playing through to MP7 - even if the minigames are still original and fun.

There you go!

All summed up into one: It takes too long! ;D Nah, just kidding.

1. Patience, my man.

2. Randomness can be annoying, yes. Unlocking all the mini-games is a pain as well, but once you have them all, it'll be fine afterwards.

3. Again with the randomness, oy?

4. LMAO ;D Lemme guess, FF fan, right? Nah XDDD Okay, randomness is, again, annoying, but also fun in a way.

5. That's just Hudson's poor ability of using the characters correctly, which doesn't really matter.

[TrustTheFungus]

I'd have to agree with BooDestoyer. I really like the Mario Party games. Although I've only ever bought 1 and 4(I'll also buy the first one released on Revolution). I normally play with people that aren't as good as me at the game. The randomness give them a chance of winning. And the waiting between turns provides time to eat, drink, and talk.
Although I would prefer to play SSBM or Mario Kart most of the time, MP is fun to play sometimes.

[Boo Destroyer]

trustthefungus said:

The randomness give them a chance of winning. And the waiting between turns provides time to eat, drink, and talk.

Exactly my point. You don't want to stay glued to the game the whole time now, eh?

[Fryguy64]

Err... I WOULD want to stay glued to the game if it was actually fun to play.

But only 1/4 of your time is spent enjoying yourself, while the other 3/4 are spent waiting, or being subjected to randomness. Then when you hit the end and the AI wins because it landed on more green spaces than you, even those brief moments of joy are suddenly torn away from you.

Oh, and the game randomiser... that seriously needs fixing or something. In the space of 15 turn game you can play the same minigames 2 or 3 times, even when there are minigames you have yet to play.

I have the patience of a saint. I can sit there for hours slowly levelling up my Pokemon, and I DID sit there for hours helping Mario inch his way across the high-wires on Gelato Beach in Sunshine... but that's because I'm doing something slowly in order to progress - rather than doing nothing because the developer thinks it would be fun to treat all computer players the same as human players... menu screens, options and all!

1 on 1 battles between computer players are the BEST! If I wanted to see that kind of thing I could just watch the demo.

Perhaps it's because I have subjected myself to MP1-5 simply for the sake of having them in my collection. Maybe if you don't flood yourself with them like I have then you have a finer appreciation for the games on their own merits... but the series is badly flawed, and would be a lot more popular if some of those were somehow ironed out... or stamped flat.

(PS. I like this debate! Keep it coming!) ;D

[Smashchu]

admin said:

Okay... ;D

1. The 1-Player game often leaves you waiting while the computer players carry out their turns at slower-than-player speed. They are also subjected to all of the menus, options and animations that a human player is shown, slowing the process down even more. This is unnecessary and very boring.

2. While the game rewards you for skill by giving you coins and items, the game is only won by collecting Stars. There are rarely attained by skill, but by random items and the random placing of the Star on the board. You could play an excellent game but still lose because the other players received more Boos or Genies. On higher difficulty levels it seems the skill of the computer players isn't vastly improved, but the chances of them receiving these items is higher. It's random.

3. A complaint I have regarding MP3-7... the boards have become a lot more irritating. It has become too easy to be trapped in one corner of the board unless you roll a perfect dice or use the exact item at the right time. What this essentially means is that random factors can prevent you from continuing with the game, and perhaps even forcing you to waste a few turns getting back to where you were before... and even then there is no guarantee you will roll a perfect dice.

4. Combine these three complains and consider the following. A full game of Mario Party can take around 30-45 minutes to complete. If you lose because of random factors, despite playing to the very best of your ability, then you will essentially have wasted a full half hour with no reward. Even in multiplayer this is annoying, and most people have to be dragged kicking and screaming into playing a full game. Trying to get four people with attention spans that can withstand such punishment is not easy.

5. Final complaint: all of the characters are plastic, uninspiring and spout meaningless comments on a regular basis... all of the worlds are sugarcoated fantasy lands... the stories are all unnecessary sugary slop on top of a sugary mess... basically, the whole thing reeks of poor design. Even the Mario sports titles (unfavourably compared or grouped with Mario Party) have much more character.

I want you to note one distinguishing factor about my complaints. Not one of them refers to the minigames. If Hudson could make a Mario Party without any board game element I would be a very happy player.

Also, the repetition complaint more than likely refers to the board game element as well. It's the most tiresome, boring part of ALL of the games - even the first two (which some people like more for some reason, though not for any rational reason so far as I can see). After putting yourself through MP1 and maybe even MP2, it's hard to see why anyone would still like the boardgame part enough to keep playing through to MP7 - even if the minigames are still original and fun.

There you go!

1)True, the one player mode isn't the greatest, but you can complain about the wait. The CPUs for the most part, are much speedier then a Human

2)No true at all. If fact the mini-games make up alot. If you cant win the mini-games. you get no coins. No coins=no stars or genies. And somone you can use the items(mostly MP6&7) gets a big advantage.(only MP5 can you win while losing the minigames)

3)Not really. I have NEVER seen this in a Mario Party. Besides, every goes to the star anyway, so no one gets traped. MP6 fixes this since its easer to get items, to help you.

4) Trying to get four people with attention spans that can withstand such punishment is not easy.

You do know there a save feture in EVERY MP GAME. As I said. Its not random. Only in MP5 can this happen. Randomness only plays a factor in close games. Besides, you can change the # of turns.

5)Even the Mario sports titles (unfavourably compared or grouped with Mario Party) have much more character.
Your point is? Anyway, there characters may not be original,but the characters arn't bad. MP is not a game to have Blood and gore so what dids you expect. The story could be better(like in MP3 hint hint) but it fits.

Lastly, the boards are great. If it was just Minigames, it would just be WarioWare with multiplayer longer minigames. The Boards add substance and transition.

[Boo Destroyer]

Perhaps they'll ditch the CPU-only menus next time. They already did that when they're purchasing orbs from shops (MP6-7), rather than watching them pick one from the menu, it immediately shows how much they paid and which one they got, among other things. But as for the movement, that cannot go (obviously ). But yes, 1-Player Mode is a drag. But as smashchu said, CPUs are exponentially faster than human players.

And in MP6-7, there are board-specific Star-acquiring methods (the traditional is used in only a few).

They both have an auto-save feature on boards, but that part goes by VERY fast.

[Dances in Undergarments]

smashchu2 said:

admin said:

5)Even the Mario sports titles (unfavourably compared or grouped with Mario Party) have much more character.
Your point is? Anyway, there characters may not be original,but the characters arn't bad. MP is not a game to have Blood and gore so what dids you expect. The story could be better(like in MP3 hint hint) but it fits.

Say wha?

What has this got to do with blood and gore? Fryguy is complaining that the characters have no personality, which I completely agree with. They are completely wooden tokens used to move around the board, letting out the same phrase and pose every time they win in every single game in every single Mario Party. Thats over 1000 minigames that end with Wario going "I'm a gonna win" and putting his hands up into the air. Sure, get 4 equally skilled players and you might not have the problem, since you'll only be winning 1/4 of the time, but compete against people that aren't at the same skill level and you'll just see the same character saying the same thing over and over and over and over and over...

Meanwhile, every single sports game gives them personality, whether its through their special moves, their taunts, the in-game movies, and even the way they move and act. Mario Party doesn't. Sure, these games have problems with some of these some times, such as annoying voice samples ("Hi I'm Daisy!"), but at least you are doing something when it occurs. Sitting there watching 3 opponents which say the same thing a billion times while you do nothing isn't fun. Its really not.


The fact is that while its great fun playing the mini-games, you spend at least half the time on a board. And when you spend more than half the playing time doing notihng and the game makes you play a game like mathletes, the Cube better make sure it knows how to fly. And when you consider that you could do one or two Mario Kart races, or a few Smash bouts in the time you are sitting there doing nothing, I know what I'll choose.

The mini-game mode is fun, but it needs the ability to track scores. I love MP5's decathlon mode because not only does it track scores but it lets all 4 players finish - that needs to be implemented into the regular minigame mode.