Mario Party 5

This completely put me off the idea of Mario Party 5, however Nintendo have really developed the franchise so that it doesn't completely revolve around the 'Party Mode' board game action.
One frustrating thing with the prior games was the fact that single player mode, was exactly like playing with three other mates, but with all the fun extracted. Mario Party 5 has a completely re-vamped and shortened (for the better) story mode, which has you competing with three mini-bowsers in a race to deplete each others coin stash. The gameplay flows a lot better for the most part and you'll play tons of duel matches on each single player board game.

Mario Party 5 has also done itself justice by including extra 'Bonus Mode' games. They are truly superb games including a short Card game, a Volleyball game and best of all, an Ice Hockey game, which plays similar to the EA Sports NHL franchise, just with a bit of Nintendo magic added.

To top it all, they've also added different board game styles, such as a race track, where the first kart to pass the finish line is the winner. Also, the main Game Boards are actually 3D in style and shape, rather than the flat nature of the game-boards in all previous Mario Party Games.

Overall, Mario Party 5 is a worthy purchase. Again, having friends to play with is still an important factor, but theres no doubt that this game has taken Mario's Parties to the next step.

The major change with this instalment is the rehashed single player mode. The single player has always been mario partys down fall. With a single map lasting over an hour, failure was extreemly annoying, this has been altered so that now a typical story mode map lasts around 15 mins. For some this may be disserpointing, but a standard map can still be played with 3 cpu comtroled rivals, so its not like your missing anything is it?

Multiplayer is were the game really shines. the same old collect the stars routine is still the order of the day, but the borads have been changed to make it far easier to get a star, which makes the comotion far more close, as in the previous (and possibly weakest) instalment, the typicaly 20 turn game would end with around 3 stars bought overall. now there is norm aly at least 3 per player, as smaller boreds make high scoring easy.

There have been several changes in the game, the most bizzar is that DK is no longer selecatable. Though he does appare and have a special space which leads to events, it seems odd that a different nintendo caracter was not used. But with DK leaving, baby bowser, toad and strangly Boo are now controlable, which gives players more choice, though none of these are as popular as DK.

The second major diffrence is that items shops are no longer used. Instead, a capsual machine deals you a rondom item that you can either place on the bored to be used on who ever lands on it, or pay to use it on your self. This can seem frustrating at first, parcicularly when you have a large amount of coins and want to be able to buy a short cut to the star, but after a while, it becomes clear that it makes the game more competative. No longer do the rich rule the game.

The mini games are always the most important aspect of mario party, and 5 has a good deal of corkers, wether your racing up a beanstalk, trying to make your ice cream the biggest or seeing how close you dare let a chomp get to you, its always good fun. the mini games are mostly very good, there are a few small exceptions, but for the most part, the games are simple but fun, and you will soon find a favorite.

The biggest improvment from 4 to 5 is the boards. In 4, these were all rather dull with bland set peices and little going on. 5 returns them to there glory, with colourful back grounds, and well thought out events. The boards now all seem to have a good helping of the nintendo charm and magic that the company is famous for.

In conclushion, mario party 5 is a great party game, though on your own it feels a little dull at times, its a great social experience, with alliences and back stabbing worth of a reality TV show. If only the costumes from mario party 2 remained.