Topic: Why did Nintendo only produce one Mario Party for Wii U?

[Order.RSS]

So the Wii U release schedule has been pretty sparse after Summer 2016, and I found myself wondering if there were any "quick to produce" titles Nintendo could've hypothetically produced to prop up the last 9 months of the console's lifecycle.

Mario Party had three entries on N64, four on GameCube, two on Wii, but just one on Wii U in early 2015. I'm likely vastly underestimating the amount of time it takes to produce a HD game, but since they made one for 3DS it would have seemed like a relatively doable job? Just throw a bunch of existing minigames from various Mario Parties together, adapt a few from Wii Party U... Could have been doable perhaps right?
Maybe not even a full-on Mario Party, but just a "best of Mario Party mini game collection" or something?

The reasons I can think of why they wouldn't are fairly obvious: you don't wanna undermine the series with a "quick cash-grab" version, the resources are better used making one for 3DS or perhaps NX already, maybe MP10 didn't do so great, producing a Wii U title at this point is probably not worth it (if it ever was)...

Just found this curious is all; Wii U didn't have any Mario Golf/Baseball/Strikers/Sports Mix either, all of which seems like faaaairly easy games to produce that could easily prop up the release schedule. I mean those Sonic & Mario games seem popular right, so heck maybe Sega could've made one?
By now it's too late obviously, but was just wondering what could have been, and why it wasn't. Was hoping y'all could enlighten me!

[Mop it up]

No idea, but after the party machine that was the Wii, the lack of strong multiplayer titles on the Wii U is one of my many disappointments with the system. And I know I shouldn't judge games I haven't played, but from what I've seen, Mario Party 10 and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash looked kind of bare-bones compared to past games in the series, and not very worthwhile. I still might check them out if the price is right, but I go back and forth on that.

In the case of Mario Party, somewhere around 2009 it switched hands from Hudson to Nd Cube, and although the company retains some of the Hudson staff, they still work on a different schedule and make different decisions. One thing that happened is that they made Wii Party and Wii Party U, which is similar to Mario Party with Miis instead of Mario, but has some differences. So that has lessened the frequency of Mario Party titles.

Also, the best-selling Mario Party game is Mario Party DS, so it makes some sense they would make 3DS versions when the Wii U has such low sales potential for games.

I do suspect that the budget of HD games means these kinds of B-tier stuff can longer be very feature-full, and apparently sometimes not even as feature-full as past games. It's why we're seeing all the spin-offs appear on 3DS instead of Wii U, where they're far cheaper to make. A real shame, as it feels like graphics has won the war of gameplay vs graphics.

[TOPHATANT123]

So far for party games on Wii U and 3DS we've had Wii Party U, Mario Party Island Tour, Mario Party 10, Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival and Mario Party Star Rush. That's plenty enough in my opinion, I would recommend though Wii Party U if you haven't played that, it's got tons of variety and is often overlooked.

[Phil]

Don't forget Nintendo Land and Game & Wario!

[Soren]

Because they also made NintendoLand, Game & Wario, Wii Party U and Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival. Wii U had plenty of party games.

[Mop it up]

I've played Wii Party U, it was a freebie from Mario Kart 8 thankfully. We've found it to be subpar and not as fun as Mario Party and other games.

I have not played Animal Crossing amiibo Festival, but every sign points to it being kind of terrible, and a friend of mine who I trust has the game and says it's almost complete junk.

3DS local multiplayer is not really possible for me I'm afraid, only one person I know owns one and that isn't what we'd want to do when meeting in person. Besides, party games are better on a TV.

Don't forget Nintendo Land and Game & Wario!

Both of these games have pretty poor options for multiplayer unfortunately.

[TOPHATANT123]

Don't forget Nintendo Land and Game & Wario!

Oh yeah I forgot about those.


I just thought of another one, only recommended for masochists though.

[Mop it up]

I dunno mate, it has the word "great" right there in the title. Surely you aren't suggesting they would flat out lie on the box.

[Order.RSS]

Yeah I had not considered market saturation of partygames! Just would have seemed like a relatively easy way to pad the release schedule. It's interesting to hear that both Mario Party and the Wii Party (U) series are done by the same teams, didn't know that.

Hopefully for Switch they'll finally take Mario Party online. I can see the reasons why they wouldn't (nothing like smirking in their face when you steal someone's hard-earned star), but it would certainly expand the opportunities to play it 'properly' (so not against CPUs).

[Phil]

I was thinking the Xbox way of confronting someone who stole your hard-earned star online. Calling them a [REDACTED].

[supermario2k]

Yeah I had not considered market saturation of partygames! Just would have seemed like a relatively easy way to pad the release schedule. It's interesting to hear that both Mario Party and the Wii Party (U) series are done by the same teams, didn't know that.

Hopefully for Switch they'll finally take Mario Party online. I can see the reasons why they wouldn't (nothing like smirking in their face when you steal someone's hard-earned star), but it would certainly expand the opportunities to play it 'properly' (so not against CPUs).

I am not convinced that is the case, otherwise how is PS4 and Xbox 1 doing so well with the glut of FPS games. There is no such thing as market saturation with a Nintendo console, the truth is they didn't do anything else Wii U because they were shifting their focus to the Switch and they needed to get people to forget the Wii U and move on. The more distance they put between the Wii U and the NX the better chance they had people would get excited for it, which we largely are doing. However if they had kept making games for Wii U it would have taken money and resources away from NX teams and that would be a bad situation plus Mario Party wasn't going to stand out it just had one last year, those other consoles had annual Mario Party releases but since Wii that has not been the case.

[Phil]

I was thinking the Xbox way of confronting someone who stole your hard-earned star online. Calling them a [REDACTED].

Oops! Sorry, Khush. I thought bleeping most of it out would work, so that's good to know for the future!

[Khushrenada]

I just thought it was best to remove it. I don't think I have a swear filter on since I usually see other poster's cursing so I imagine you added the asterisks in the word but I still thought it best to delete it anyways especially with the trouble that happened with Lucario a few months back.

[Phil]

Good call. It wasn't really productive to the topic anyway.

[ThePerm]

What if there was a Metroid Party game?

[Khushrenada]

Just Dance Samus edition.

[Kairon]

What if there was a Metroid Party game?

Betrayalton

Just Dance Samus edition.

Shut up and take my money.

But seriously, I guess Mario Party slowing down is also affected by the disappearnace of Hudson? In truth, I find it hard to mourn too much over this because Mario Party got horribly annaulized didn't it? As a player I'd prefer for there to be only one or two per generation, (they're seriously low on my radar) and maybe Nintendo needed those dev resources to finish up Pikmin 3? Also, if they do a single Mario Party game right it would be befter if it achieved evergreen sales and sells itself with no additional development over the course of the next couple years.

[ThePerm]

Maybe the Party franchise could just switch mascots over the years? I would do that to both spot lite franchises and limit franchise overexposure. Mario Party and Mario Kart and Mario Tennis and Mario Golf all kinda overexpose Mario. Generationally, it should switch to a different mascot.

Like for Metroid, there hasn't been a Metroid game in years. It would be an interesting way to put a spot lite on the series. They sort of did this with Metroid Pinball.

[Kairon]

Maybe the Party franchise could just switch mascots over the years? I would do that to both spot lite franchises and limit franchise overexposure. Mario Party and Mario Kart and Mario Tennis and Mario Golf all kinda overexpose Mario. Generationally, it should switch to a different mascot.

Like for Metroid, there hasn't been a Metroid game in years. It would be an interesting way to put a spot lite on the series. They sort of did this with Metroid Pinball.

I really like this idea!

C'mon Zelda Party!

[UncleBob]

I usually only buy one Mario Party a generation at full price.  They don't get played enough to justify multiples.

[ThePerm]

The last Mario Party game I got was for Gamecube. Which, sadly to me, does not feel like that long ago.

[Khushrenada]

Maybe the Party franchise could just switch mascots over the years? I would do that to both spot lite franchises and limit franchise overexposure. Mario Party and Mario Kart and Mario Tennis and Mario Golf all kinda overexpose Mario. Generationally, it should switch to a different mascot.

Like for Metroid, there hasn't been a Metroid game in years. It would be an interesting way to put a spot lite on the series. They sort of did this with Metroid Pinball.

I really like this idea!

C'mon Zelda Party!

Yeah! And then when Metroid Party and F-Zero Party don't sell, Nintendo can be like "This is why we don't make games for these franchises anymore. They just don't sell."

The problem with Mario Party is that the last few console games haven't been that good. My favorite Mario Party games are 5, 6, and 7. The series put out some good stuff then. Mario Party 8 was alright but the minigames were so-so with the Wii brand new and so the motion control stuff is a bit basic / dated. Then they completely switched up the formula which garnered a more negative reception with Mario Party 9 and then stuck with it in Mario Party 10 as well as shrinking the number of selectable characters and hiding the traditional style of Mario Party behind an Amiibo purchase. Not that the traditional map is that interesting since it is just a square shape for any Amiibo you buy. While the handheld Mario Party games seem to be a bit better reviewed, Mario Party isn't a single player game to me so playing against CPUs isn't that interesting. If I am going to play multiplayer, I'd rather do it on a big screen with friends than us all sitting around looking at our handhelds. Basically the Wii killed Mario Party and it is just another sin of that cursed console. At least we got Fortune Street to make up for the dismal Mario Party offerings.

[Wah]

Because since Mario Party 10 all of them have sucked realllly bad.

[Wah]

Fav Mario Party was Mario Party DS.

[Kairon]

If they stop annualizing the game then it can be made at a higher quality, and not need to be replaced every year. I bet they can still keep Amiino tie-ins, but as a form of physical DLC where specific amiibo are needed to access (not play) special themed boards.