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Mario Party 8 (マリオパーティ8, Mario Pāti Eito) is a party video game, the eighth installment in the Mario Party series, and it is one of the two titles in the series to be released for the Nintendo Wii. Mario Party 8 is followed by Mario Party DS.

Gameplay

During the standard game, four different characters compete on one of six themed boards. When playing with fewer than four people, players select which characters the computer will control, as well as their difficulty level and handicap. Players can also select from five different areas to play on from the Play Choices screen by selecting the Select File screen in the beginning. Here, the player is given the choices of five different areas to play on: Party Tent, Star Battle Arena, Minigame Tent, Extras Zone, and the Fun Bazaar. The Party Tent allows for characters to compete on boards in three kinds of battles: four characters compete in a Battle Royal (one to four players). They separate into two teams (one to four players) in a Tag Battle. Two characters face off (one or two players) in a Duel Battle. In the Star Battle arena mode, one player faces off against one opponent on each board in which when you get to the last board, Bowser will take the star from you and you will face against Hammer Bro or Blooper in Bowser's warped orbit, then once you defeat the character, Bowser will give you back the Star Rod and you will face in a final mini-game called Superstar Showdown. When you win the battle you win the game. In the minigame tent, players can play several non-board challenges from the minigames. The extras zone has the eight extra minigames that don't appear in board-play with you Miis. Finally, The Fun Bazaar has the player use their carnival cards to unlock minigames and other surprises. In the Fun Bazaar, there is a place where if you buy it with your carnival cards, you may listen to music and character voices. Minigame records can also be viewed here. For general board-play modes, players take turns (10 to 50 turns) rolling a dice block and moving across the game board, with the goal being to getting as many stars as possible within the alloted turn limit.

Towards the end of the game, during the last five turns, gameplay is altered slightly. This can include events such as coins being awarded to the player in last place, as well as additional coins being placed on each space. After the game has ended, three Bonus Stars (which can be enabled or disabled as a game option) may be awarded to players for various feats during play. Finally, the player with the most stars is declared the winner, with the number of coins possessed used as a tiebreaker.

Additional game modes allow players to directly compete in minigames without making use of the game board. Several of these modes tie a number of minigames together, with each minigame won moving the winning player closer to victory.

Boards

While some of the game boards are classic Mario Party in nature, with players attempting to reach locations where they can buy a star for 20 coins (10 coins in King Boo's board and in Capt. Goomba's board stars are free because of all the spaces you need to travel to get a star), others are more varied. For example, "Koopa's Tycoon Town" involves players investing coins into hotels (as in Monopoly) in order to earn stars, with each hotel only providing stars to the player with the highest current investment.

As always, all boards include a number of random elements which can greatly influence the course of the game. Notable for this is "Shy Guy's Perplex Express", where the train cars which make up the game board can be re-ordered as the result of landing on a certain space, potentially changing the relative positions of all players.

Minigames

At the heart of 'Mario Party 8' are the minigames, with one taking place at least once per turn. A number of the minigames rely on the unique capabilities of the Wii Remote, while others instead require players to hold the controller sideways and use only the buttons. There are over 80 mini-games in Mario Party 8.

There are eight different types of minigames: 4 player free-for-all, 1 vs. 3, 2 vs. 2, Battle, Duel, Challenge, Extra, and Last.

Playable characters

Censorship

The game had a launch plagued by difficulties in the United Kingdom. Originally scheduled for release on June 22, 2007, Nintendo announced on June 19, 2007 that the British version had been delayed to July 13, 2007, due to a "production issue".

Furthermore, upon release on July 13, 2007, it was then immediately recalled. In a press release, Nintendo gave the reason for the withdrawal as an assembly error, but some retailers were reporting that it was supposedly withdrawn from shelves because some copies included the word "spastic", which is considered a highly offensive word in the UK for referring to disability. Copies without the word used "erratic" instead. Just one month before, Ubisoft had the PSP game Mind Quiz pulled from the shelves because of the same word.

The game was eventually re-released in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2007.

Reception

After its North American release on May 29, 2007, the game sold 314,000 units in the United States in three days, making it the best-selling home console game in the country that month. As of May 2010, the game has sold 7.6 million copies worldwide and ranks #10 on the best-selling Wii games list.

As with most Mario Party games, reviews have been mixed. One of the biggest criticisms was the lack of wi-fi and widescreen. Matt Casamassina of IGN referred to the single-player mode as "torture" and commented on the visuals as "graphics don't even impress as a GCN title".

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References

1. ^ ‘Spastic’ video game is recalled | Metro.co.uk
2. "Mario Party 8". Nintendo Australia. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
3. Article Detail - Nintendo Wii News - QJ.NET
4. "Reviews: Mario Party 8".
5. "Mario Party 8".
6. "Mario Party 8".
7. "Mario Party 8 (Wii)".
8. "Mario Party 8".
9. "Mario Party 8".
10. ^ "Mario Party 8 Review".
11. Nintendo Power. Vol. 217. July 2007. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
12. "Mario Party 8".
13. "Mario Party 8 - WII".
14. "May Video-Game-Sales – Nintendo PWNS Everyone Again". TeamXbox.com. Retrieved 2007-06-23.

External links

• Mario Party 8 Official Website
• Mario Party 8 at Nintendo Europe
• Twin Galaxies High-Score Rankings on Mario Party 8

• 2007 video games
• Wii-only games
• Mario Universe games
• Mario Party games
• Video game controversies
• Wii games