The popular Mario Party series has made it's way to your hand, but it doesn't really take advantage of the DS itself.
Mario Party is simple, you collect stars and want to get the most so you can win. Helping you are coins, which you use to buy these stars. That is always what happens, and everything on the board is mostly chance. Mario and friends, ever heard of free will to the people because most everything doesn't change much in Mario Party DS.
On most or every Mario Party game, you are all having a little party on this fancy little board, and most of the time, Bowser is trying to stop it. That's still how it goes here. You still play on a board. All players go and then a minigame happens is still the schedule. Whoever gets the most stars wins is still what happens. Point is, it's just another Mario game in the palm of your hand.
Of course, it's not all board crap. You can just escape and go play minigames if you aren't in a competive mood. There are also a few other things you can do, but no spoilers here.
What's really notable about this game is how it uses the Nintendo DS's online play features. IT DOESN'T. Most every Nintendo DS game has some kind of online play or downloadable content. Why not this? It makes perfect sense. Well, at least you can play with others. The game uses it's wireless so that you can play Mario Party DS with other people, give some credit to that. Also pay attention to the fact that you only need ONE Mario Party DS game to play with others. In other words, you don't need to pay more than $120 US to play with others. That's nice.
So although Mario Party is a great game and this one can be played in the palm of your hand, it lacks online play and chances of finding a stranger with a Nintendo DS who would like to play Mario are pretty slim, which makes this game lacking the Nintendo DS's features.