A game that many have mixed feelings about...
Mario Party 8 is a great idea with great characters and great items (called 'candies' this time around). It sticks to the boardgame core of the older Mario Party games, but Bowser time is less stupid and you get to use your Miis. The 'candy' items allow you to transform into different things. From vampires, to bowling balls, to 8-bit miniatures of yourself (I haven't seen what they've done with Waluigi and Toadette yet). They're oodles of fun!
As far as graphics go, I'll say that cell-shaded is a really good look for most of the characters...
The boards are all different from each other but if they were all the same, the game wouldn't be fun. So, what did you expect?
They chose their characters well in this game. They kept all the MP7 characters and added in Hammer Bro. and Blooper, who're both unique and deserving characters.
The final good thing about this game is the concept. When this was first announced I was all like 'MARIO PARTY FOR THE WII? THIS IS GONNA BE SWEET!'. ...This leads me to the next section of the review.
The Bad:
Unfortunately, I set my expectations a little too high. When I played MP8, I thought it was cool but not as cool as I pictured it. I guess after playing Wario Ware Smooth Moves, I thought that all minigame games for the Wii would be rad.... I GUESS NOT!
Though I was never a fan of Bowser time, I was a fan of Koopa Kid and the game didn't quite feel natural without him. I suppose all things must pass...
The 'candies' were cool but they were really just cleverly disguised orbs from the previous Mario Parties. What a pity! What a shame!
The boards might be different from EACH OTHER but they certainly aren't much different from the boards in Mario Party 7! Goomba Boardwalk is Pagoda Peak, Shy Guy's City (or whatever it's called) is Windmillville, and DK's board (I forget the name) is errr.... The Italy-themed board in Mario Party 7. The only unique board I've uncovered so far is The Excess Express, which isn't even all that unique.... Hammer Bro. and Blooper might have been deserving, but so were:
Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Baby Mario Bros, Paper Mario, Paper Peach, Wart, Mouser, R.O.B., Mr. Game and Watch, Jimmy T, Mona, Captain Syrup, and many many more.
It's also a shame that they didn't make DK back into a playable character. But we're so used to the DK space that if it disappeared now, we'd think it was still there.
My final concern is the new host (his name is Ballyhoo, right?). He's creepy and he has no video game history whatsoever (except that he will be disguised as a Prymid in Brawl... JK!) . My friend Jimmy described him as 'Some random crackhead' and I don't think he's too far off. BTW, Toadsworth was totally 'CAPITAL!'.
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Closing Statements: This is definately a game that you should rent first (if you're in to that sort of thing). It is worse than its predecessor in someways, and better than it in others. One interesting thing to note though, this is 1 of 10 games that Nintendo and Hudson have worked together on over the past decade or so. With that close of a connection, it doesn't seem too farfetched to thing Bomberman will be in Brawl (old design, not ugly Act Zero design). But that's a discussion for another day!