Are you ready to party?
Are you sure?
Then get ready for May 29, 2007 because that is the day when the new Mario Party 8 is released for the Wii!
Developed by Hudson Soft this is the first game in the long running Mario Party series to hit the Wii. Unlike the last version, Mario Party 7, this game does not support eight players. The eight player system used in Mario Party 7 was a bit clunky in that players had to "share" a controller between them. It would be possible to do something on the Wii by having one player hold the Wii-remote while the other holds the nunchuk but, any game that required pointing would not work.
From all of the news I have been able to dig up about this new Mario Party game it appears that it only uses the Wii-remote. This means I can hold off on buying that fourth nunchuk for a little bit longer!
- Highlights
- Play with motion control: Players row their way through a river race, punch a statue to pieces, steer race cars, mopeds and go-karts and handle a balancing pole while walking a tightrope.
- Play using the Pointer: Shoot at Boos in a haunted house, rag and drop toppings in a cake-decorating competition, select the correct answers in game show challenges.
- Play using the Wii Remote's buttons: Players jump and pummel their way through a football brawl, hop and run across a field of spinning platforms
- Mario Party 8 also includes dozens of new minigames, six new party boards and many new game modes. In a series first, players can transform their characters into many forms, such as player-smashing boulders and coin-sucking vampires. Mario Party 8 also includes "extra-large" minigames like Star Carnival Bowling and Table Menace. One to four players can play Mario Party 8, each with a Wii Remote.
In Mario Party 8, a whimsical ringmaster has invited Mario™, Peach and the rest of the crew to his carnival, a perfect setting for the dynamic spectacle of the Wii game play. Mario Party 8 keeps the surprises coming with minigames that draw upon the Wii Remote's motion, pointing and button control in a variety of ways. Players always know how to jump into the action by watching an animated tutorial that shows how to use the Wii Remote (just like in Rayman: Raving Rabbids).
Following tradition, Mario Party 8 takes the social, strategic game play of board games and adds breaks for quick, action-oriented minigames. In the main mode, players travel across six boards in search of Stars, landing on spaces that are helpful (example: giving coins) or a hindrance (example: sending Bowser in to mess with the player). Several variations for these boards tweak the main goals to enhance game play for solo sessions, two-player games and three- to four-player games.
In addition, Mario Party 8 includes four more minigame-infused kinds of board games, such as Tic-Tac Drop, where players earn the right to put the next mark on the board by winning a minigame.
Mario Party games are a celebration of all things Mario, so you can play as 14 classic characters, the widest selection yet for the series, including newcomers Hammer Bro and Blooper. You'll also bump into many old friends and foes that span 20+ years of Mario games.
- There are two major changes in Mario Party 8
- Players can transform their character using candy power-ups. Examples: When Peach eats Bowlo Candy, she'll turn into a Peach-faced ball and bowl over characters to get their coins. When Wario™ eats Vampire Candy, he'll sprout wings and fly off to suck the coins from all other players.
- A more engaging view of the action puts the player "on the board" with his traveling character, no longer far above the whole board looking down.
I have already pre-ordered my copy of this game. I do not know if Nintendo is planning on giving out any bonus items to the pre-order folks but I don't care because I expect this game to sell out in the stores and become as hard to get as Wii Play was.
In case you are wondering, my favorite character to play as is Wario!
What can I say, I just love the big guy! It might have something to do with the far more Italian voice he sports than Mario does. I mean, just listen to him when he says, "Wa ha ha, Wario winner!" when you win a game. He sounds far more Italian than Mario does.
As an Italian myself (Northern Italy) I just can't get behind a wimpy little Mario guy with his wimpy little "winning" speech. Nope, I need that big Wario in my corner. Just so you know, I can't stand Waluigi.
- Mario Party for DS?
- Wii Video Preview: Mario Super Sluggers
- Mario Party 8: First Impressions
- Nintendo Wii News: Metroid Prime 3 trailers on the Wii!
- Nintendo News of the Day
Steve, I finally got my Wii today! ;) Now I gotta get some games.
Mario Party looks like a pretty decent multi player game …
What games do you have thus far?
Just Wii Sports! :P
I suggest Rayman raving Rabbids for multi-player and Excite truck for single player. Super swing Golf is one of the better “low price” Wii games.
Thanks for your suggestions Steve..
I think super swing golf has the same price tag as the other two games here :(
I also heard WarioWare is a good party game; have you tried it?
I did a review on Mario Ware here on the blog.
The short and sweet of Wario Ware is that it is a game that is almost there. A few of the things in it could have been done better.
Cool :P I think I may get Rayman, but I have to get the extra nunchuk first..
Mario Party sure looks pretty good, I will get that when they released.
I also have the new Zelda game but I do not play it that much. for some reason I did not get into it the way so many others did.
Agreed, all the fanboys were telling me how great Zelda was so I purchased it. While it isn’t a bad title, let’s face it…if it didn’t have the title of Zelda and came out for another system it would be considered sub par. Graphics suck, levels are amazingly linear, no online play, plot average, extremely short for an RPG, and one of my personal gripes is no spoken dialogue! You have to read mostly non-important dialogue for hours in one of the supposedly best RPGs ever. Aside from playing Wii Sports (system pack-in) and Wii Play (a very cheap/lame tech demo) with my wife once in a while the Wii really has nothing left to offer.
I purchased another party mini-game title today in WarioWare and just after bringing it home and before actually opening it, I realized it is a one player game. If anything you have to trade off controllers which is extremely weak for a first party title for a “Party” system. I am going to return it and get Mario Party 8, yup another party game. Hopefully this will keep me occupied until something better comes out like…..OK, I don’t really know if ANYTHING is coming out soon that is any good. The only other game I showed any interest in was Mama Cook Off (ANOTHER PARTY GAME!) but the controls were way too wonky for me. Would be playing Rainbow Six Vegas, Halo 3, GRAW 2, etc., right now if my 360 wasn’t broken for the 3rd time! Anyone else think the this generation of videogames is extremely lame?! I mean the 360 can’t last more than 6-12mos and the Wii can’t even play an audio disc or go online multiplayer (OR play any decent game aside from endless repetitive party games)! The PS3…well, need I say more. Good luck to all the gamers out there but I have yet to find a good time on any next gen console!