Yet another Mario Party. Fortunately, Hudson still knows how to make these games somewhat fun.
With Mario Party 7, this marks the 4th game in the series to be released on the Gamecube. Mario Party 7, like most of the others, is not too much different from the previous games. Hudson adds a couple twists and a new feature every new game they make, but otherwise, the formula doesn't change dramatically. In the 7th game, Mario and his friends decide to take a vacation by going on a cruise ship around the world. They also happen to bring Wario and Waluigi. As usual, the evil Koopa King Bowser is furious in fiery rage because he wasn't invited on the cruise. So now he plans on ruining their vacation. Toadsworth will guide you in Mario Party 7 and will tell you everything you need to know. In Mario Party games, you face off against 3 other CPU's (or other players) on separate boards. Mario Party 7 features 6 different boards. Each has a different strategy of winning. While playing, most of the gameplay is similar to the previous games. You get a dice, hit it, and get a number. The number represents how many spaces you will move. As you move from one space to another, you will ether get coins, lose coins, get involved with different types of mini-games (such as Mic games, DK games or Bowser games) or something surprising could happen. After every one takes a turn, then mini-games will be active. This is where much of the enjoyment in Mario Party comes from. You are randomly chosen to have matches or games against everyone, 2 on 2, or 1 on 3. A new addition to Mario Party 7 is the 8-player mini-games. This is an interesting feature, however since the Gamecube has only 4 controller outputs, 2 people have to share a controller when the mini-games come up. In the Party Cruise, this is where the real "party" is. As said above, you mostly face off against CPU's or other players. In Solo Cruise, you mostly get challenges against CPU's or other players. Challenges could vary, such as collect 100 coins, or get 2 stars before the other player. Pretty much like any Mario Party game, the 7th game also has options so you can play mini-games on your free time, or view rankings and such. If you played a Mario Party game before (I bet some of you already have), then you know what to expect in the 7th game. Despite this being the 7th game in the series, the game is still enjoyable to play by yourself and with friends.
Graphics:
Yet again, Hudson uses the same graphics engine that was first made for Mario Party 4 (the first Mario Party on the Gamecube). This time, however, the game looks slightly sharper and has slightly better backgrounds then other games. But if you already played the other Mario Party games for the Gamecube, these graphics won't shock you that much. The series continues by having colorful backgrounds and characters, solid textures on the boards and such, and still having a solid frame rate. If this is your first time looking at a Mario Party game, then the graphics should look pretty good for you. But other then that, Mario Party 7 basically looks the same as the previous games.
Sound:
Exactly what you'd expect from a Mario-themed game nowadays. The music is happy and catchy and will appeal to anyone’s ears if they're into that stuff. The voices and sound effects are pretty much also what'd you expect in the Mario series. The audio is both traditional and well-fitted.
Conclusion:
If you played too much Mario Party in the past, most likely this game won't bring you back by a lot. I'm not one of those people that purchases a Mario Party every year, because, in my opinion, it will just wear down the enjoyment for the series. So if you own all of them already, there's seriously no real reason to purchase this title, but maybe a rental. But if you're like me and only have one or no Mario Party games and are interested in the series, then by all means purchase this one.
Pros:
-Surprisingly, Hudson still manages to keep the formula fun.
-The graphics are slightly better then the previous Mario Party's (It's seriously not a dramatic difference)
-Happy and catchy music and well fitted voices
-As usual, it's fun to play with your friends
Cons:
-Aside from the 8-Player mini-games, there's nothing drastically new here for the series.