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« on: August 23, 2010, 04:50:01 PM »
I quit the Mario Party series at number 5 when it started to add new game play concepts that made the game more complex than it needed to be. Mario Party 8 was a big disappointment, in my opinion. I played it for the first time last year and it was terrible from a technical standpoint-- no widescreen support, 30 fps for much of the game, some noticeable slowdown, motion controls that felt tacked on. Also, the boards that felt watered-down compared to the boards in previous iterations. It could've been better if there was more experience in developing for the Wii (but GC and Wii hardware are very similar and probably equally easy to develop for, nonetheless...) and more time taken to develop upon the game concepts.
The videos I've seen of Wii Party make the game look as if it will answer that; it looks very promising. Maybe this says that removing Mario from the Mario Party formula is what was needed all along to revitalize the series... I'm not saying that Mario is the problem, but you can only go so far before the Mario-based concepts and ideas grow too foreign for new players (or maybe too familiar with fans). Even though Mario seems to have "done it all" and always has potential for new things, the Mii just seems to be more flexible and easier to design with.
But Mario aside, I like the direction Wii Party has gone with the formula. Board Game Island is probably the closest thing to Mario Party-- 4 players on a board, roll the dice, move, play a mini-game. However, moving on the board is more like a race to the finish rather than "get as much stuff as possible in 20 turns." And, I've noticed in the mini-games is that one person won't necessarily monopolize the game (that one player who repeatedly wins and gets 10 coins every time); all players are rewarded based on performance with new dice to roll. The player in 1st place gets a golden die (this die gives a chance at rolling higher numbers to progress), the player in 2nd a silver die, 3rd a bronze, and 4th nothing. You can say that it's like the Battle mini-games in Mario Party. The mini-games I've seen are very diverse, and they appear very easy to understand and get into.
But I digress. Wii Party looks like it revitalize the experience that was beginning to wane in Mario Party. I look forward to it, and plan to buy it the week, if not the day, it's released.
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