Keane said:
I've been on a Mario Party marathon, and it's making me wonder why people act like all the post-N64 titles were bad. MP6 & especially MP7 are fine games: decent minigames, aesthetically pleasing boards, interesting gimmicks, etc.
I 100% agree! These two are great party games, and have pretty clever idea in their mini-games and mechanisms.
I think the "hate" they received is because they kept the same formula, and there was nearly one by year. They all have some gimmicks, but it was still in the boundaries of a Mario Party game. Though, developers were aware of that: as I said, mini-games from one episode to another were actually creative, and could be quite complex while remaining accessible.
The two Wii ones were terrible, in that regard. 8 was, well, a poor experimentation with the Wiimote. Shaking, shaking, pointing, shaking… In wonderful 4/3 mini-games!
But the one I really don't like is the 9. And I'm as well surprised that so many people consider it as an "improvement"! Yes, it changed completely the formula, which in itself isn't bad… Except that it over-simplified the rules to let only a single factor of success: luck. There is no more strategy on the board, no more choices that have any impact, no more balance to keep between coins and stars… It's almost only rolling the dice. And random events have so much effect that everything that happens during a game has no importance, since a single event can change the total ranking… Players actions are thus irrelevant, until last turn. Same thing for the mini-games: man are they poor! Sure, no motion-control, hooray, but we're back to button smashing, avoiding blocks, pressing the indicated button, and running to a goal… There have been so many years of improvements in mini-games since the first Mario Party (and I don't talk about Nintendo games only: in more than ten year, party-games have evolved a lot), and this game just ignores all of that to serve something that looks like it was released in 2000!
The defense I see the most for those points is “Its 'a Party game, it shouldn't be complicated. There is no room for strategy or shit, the game must be accessible for everyone, and mustn't let anyone loosing too much. Deeper mechanics are incompatible with this purpose.”.
But the GC Mario Party are a proof that this is not the case! The series sure has created some more complex rules, with items to buy, special rules for each board, etc… But was still fun and accessible because it maintained a great balance between complexity and simple goals! And the mini-games remained simple to learn, but creative in the interactions they offer and even rich for some.
These games never revolutionized anything in the core formula, and that's probably why they are considered bad sequels. But they improved each time the initial game, and as add-on, I think they would have been well received (if it was technically possible on GC). Mario Party 6 is my favorite Mario Party, because it kept all the good concepts of the previous ones, and added some little other ideas. This makes it a way funnier party-game that the attempt to change and simplify everything that came later.
Though, in a totally different series, Wii Party has some good ideas. Might be one of the few party-game that use cleverly motion-control! I wish Mario Party had gone in that direction.
Even if the narration is still odd sometimes (with characters explaining several time every aspect of the intrigue so that the player is never lost), exploring the different storylines and trying to figure out what's going on and where to go next is really enjoyable.
