Mario Party 8 brings the classic party game experience to the Wii with a burst of motion controls. While the zany minigames are as chaotic and hilarious as ever, some minigames feel hampered by overly simplistic Wii Remote usage. The boards offer creative themes and fun twists, and unlocking everything keeps you entertained with friends. If you're seeking a classic party game with some Wii-era novelty, Mario Party 8 might be your ticket, but be prepared for some frustrations along the way.
They made a Mario Party on the Wii, so of course they had to heavily feature motion controls. I personally never found the controls frustrating, but I certainly know plenty of people who did. Definitely past the point at which MP had exhausted itself, the boards are mostly retreads of ideas from the previous game, although it undoes some of the bad ideas from the late GC era. Doesn't achieve the heights of the N64 games, but is probably the MP I've played the most since its on a newer console.
Mario Party 8 is a weird one. It has the shiny new graphics of the Wii and some decently cool visuals undercut by this weird semi-realistic artstyle and the game being forced into 4:3 as a result of being rushed onto the Wii last-minute (even though Mario Strikers ran at 16:9 on GameCube). The orb system is replaced with candies that are basically worse versions of the items from 2 through 4 but the transformations are charming. There are some really good minigames with the most obnoxious forced motion controls a Wii game released in 2007 can have. Koopa's Tycoon Town is a top 5 board in the series and the rest of the boards are either straight lines or bad.
I kinda like it. It certainly has its charm, but it clearly had a lot of troubles in development and is a major step down from 6 and 7.
I kinda like it. It certainly has its charm, but it clearly had a lot of troubles in development and is a major step down from 6 and 7.
With the success of the Wii, a Mario Party installment on the system was pretty much an inevitability. And although I haven't played it in a long time, I remember it being another fun entry for the series. The board variety kept up strongly too ---- racing to buy up hotels in Koopa's Tycoon Town & hurrying to the end of Goomba's Booty Boardwalk stand out in my mind for sure.
I haven't played the bowser map yet, but based on playing the others, this is a really nice Mario Party game. The mini-games are not the highest quality, but there are plenty of fun ones, and the boards help make up for it (though some are too linear and lacking in unique mechanics). Easily prefer 5-7, but this game has its own value as one to play from time to time and mix up the rotation. Some of the gamecube mario party games have a problem with their mini-games where it boils down to button mashing, button inputs, or luck, rather than unique, trainable, gameplay mechanics. Despite being clunky, the dimension added by motion controls help alleviate monotony. That's why this isn't higher than a 6. Shame Mario Party 9 was so bad, because this was a great beta test to eventually make a really fun Wii Mario Party game. The worst part of the game is the declined quality. In many ways, the graphics somehow look worse than 6 and 7, and it was clearly rushed by Nintendo to have a flagship party game for their new console. The best part is probably the presentation, love the entire vibe of the game from the board theming, to the character roster, and the carnival setting.
For GCN/Wii MPs, 6 > 7 > 5 > 8 > 4 > 9
For GCN/Wii MPs, 6 > 7 > 5 > 8 > 4 > 9