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Mario Party 8
Thursday, February 28th, 2008 by Nick Maunders
Release Date:
Starting all the way back in 1998 on the Nintendo 64 the ‘Mario Party’ series has become one of the most popular games on the Nintendo consoles. I unfortunately have never played any of the other mario party games as I don’t own a Nintendo Gamecube (Mario Parties: 4, 5, 6 & 7) and although I own a Nintendo 64 I have never player Mario Party 1, 2 or 3. So I wondered what the new Mario Party had in store. The cover looks great to start with and when you know that something is the 8th in a series it must be at least above average considering it has basically been improved upon 8 times.
Without even going into the game yet the instruction manual (if you can be bothered to read it) is a great start. Its just got 4 whole pages on the characters in the game. The 14 playable characters are: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Waluigi, Wario, Toad, Toadette, Boo, Yoshi, Dry Bones, Birdo and two new characters (that aren’t in Mario Party 7) Blooper and Hammer Bro (These two characters are locked to begin with). You can not play as Donkey Kong (since you haven’t been able to since Mario Party 6) and you can not play as Bowser (who you could only control in Mario Party 4). You can also for the first time play as a Mii you have made in a certain area.
So now onto the game. There are 5 areas on the main menu where you can choose to go. Party Tent, Star
So lets start with the party tent. In this area you can play in the games party-board mode. In which you can choose one of six board areas (one of which is locked). Then after you have selected all the characters, you play. The objective is the same on all 6 boards, “GET THE MOST STARS” although the way to get them is different for each. Then once every player has had there turn a minigame starts which players receive coins for winning. Then the one at the end of the game with the most stars wins.
Now onto the star battle arena this is where you can unlock the 3 locked objects. (The board area you get at the end, and you get one of the two characters when you have won.) It is for one player only and you go through each of the 6 places winning against each random opponent. At the end you also get 200 carnival cards (which I will explain later).
The minigame tent is basically where you get to play all the minigames you have unlocked in the party tent mode. There are also 4 other sub games where you play either alone or with 1-4 players again playing the minigames you unlocked.
The extras zone is where you can use your miis. There are 8 fun minigames including bowling and one called Flagging Rights (which is the only minigame which you have to use a nunchuk and wii remote. You can choose here whether to play as a game character or like I mentioned before a Mii.
The fun bazaar is all about unlocking stuff and for that I need to talk about carnival cards. You get carnival cards by playing minigames, board games etc and you can use them as “money” to unlock things in the bazaar like minigames etx.
Here is a secret cheat for Mario Party 8: You need to have 50 carnival cards available. Go to the fun bazaar and buy “Heckling Sounds” for 50 carnival cards. Now whenever you are playing a board game and it is the opponents turn shake your wii remote and you will make teaser sounds such as “BOOOO!” and “COME ON”.
I would give this game the almost perfect rating of 9.5!
