Super Mario Party 8 Previewed – Wii
Written by Soapy
Published by CroTech
The Nintendo Wii wouldn’t be complete, without Nintendo’s flagship party game, Mario Party 8. Mario Party began during the Nintendo 64 days and continued to thrive. Even though many of the previous games have simply been recycled ideas re-packaged to make it seem like a new game, this edition of Mario Party promises to be unique by utilizing the Wii-mote for the first time in franchise history; however, anyone who has played a Mario Party game will know the basic formula, since it rarely ever changes.
Mario Party 8, similar to its predecessors, is set up so that four players, human or computer, take turns playing a board game with their favorite Nintendo characters. Each player rolls the dice and moves across the board, until at the end of each round, when a random minigame is chosen. Minigames can be in the form of a free for all where everyone is against each other, or they can be in teams such as 1 vs. 3 players or 2 vs. 2. Winners generally earn coins that can be used to purchase items or even stars. It has been announced, that players are able to transform their characters in Mario Party 8 allowing them to avoid traps on the board, similar to the orb system in previous installments.
Each of the six new boards has a different theme and various obstacles to slug through, while players try to collect the most stars. In previous games, depending on what kind of space you landed on, you could be thrown into a battle arena with a competitor, or you could have all your coins taken from you by Bowser. Mario Party games are fairly random; your best bet is to try to win as many minigames as possible.
In terms of gameplay, all that has been confirmed so far is that you can use the motion control to row in a river race, punch statues, and steer cars, mopeds and go-karts. There will also be point and shoot games, where you will shoot at Boos, drop delicious toppings in a cake-decorating competition, and use the pointer to select the right answers in game show challenges. The various motions you can use with the Wii-remote probably won’t differ substantially from the other party games that have been released to date, such as Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and Rayman: Raving Rabbids.
Just by looking at the screenshots, we can see the graphics are hugely improvement from the GameCube era, as you can see below…
You got to have some skills like these little cuties to win.
The series success relies on the cast of well-known Nintendo characters and mascots. The following characters are returning:
Mario
Luigi
Peach
Yoshi
Wario
Daisy
Waluigi
Toad
Toadette
Boo
Birdo
Dry Bones
Two new playable characters that have been confirmed are: Blooper and Hammer Brother. These two have been missing in screenshots, so we assume that they will need to be unlocked.
Mario Party 8 includes dozens of new minigames, six new party boards and several new game modes. Also included are “extra-large” minigames such as Star Carnival Bowling and Table Menace. We hope that these new additions will make up for the lack of changes in the last few Mario Party games.
Mario Party 8 is scheduled to be released in North America on May 29, 2007.
