Mario Party games aren’t exactly bastions of innovation, but with the right group of players they can be an absolute blast.
The series’ tenth outing – fourteenth, if you include the non-numbered handheld and e-Reader entries – is just about exactly what you’d expect from the first Wii U Mario Party: a collection of boards with familiar themes, dozens of nearly instantly intuitive mini-games, and new modes designed to take advantage of a couple of the console’s defining features: asymmetrical play and Amiibo figurines.
It probably doesn’t sound like a must-have, and for many it won’t be.
But Mario Party 10 is a good example of the old adage that something can be greater than the sum of its parts. Play it with a few good friends or family members and it can be the video game equivalent of a bowl of soup for your soul, leaving you smiling, content, and just generally feeling pretty good.
It’s broken into three main modes, plus a heaping helping of extras in the form of one-off side games, mini-game tournaments for up to eight people, a photo booth, and a store where you can spend the virtual cash you earn on bonuses like new playable characters and vehicles. We’ll take a look at each of the three main modes in turn.
The first mode, Amiibo Party, is the only one in which you can put your collection of Amiibo to use – assuming you have one. If you don’t, you can buy a collector’s edition of the game for $10 more ($69.99) that comes with one Amiibo figure included, which will save you a few dollars off the cost of buying one separately.
Amiibo games take place on a simple square board. At the start of the game the board’s theme and its corresponding special events are based on a single character (the Mario board is red, with special events that might see characters jumping up to break bricks to earn coins). But quadrants of the board can change during play to match other characters.
Besides that, it’s actually a pretty classic take on Mario Party. You’ll roll dice to move around the board, land on special squares that could initiate events or award coins, play an assortment of mini-games using Wiimotes, and use the coins you earn to buy golden stars that appear randomly around the board. The player with the most stars at the end of the tenth turn wins.
How do Amiibo factor in? You tap them on the Gamepad to roll dice. Plus, your Amiibo character’s likeness will replace the default 2D character token that you’d otherwise move around the board. And at the end of each game you’ll unlock new bases (the flat, circular pedestals upon which your character stands) as well as special single-use ability tokens that can give you an advantage – like throwing five dice instead of one – while playing.
My family didn’t see much appeal in using Amiibo. They grew tired of picking them up and setting them down each turn. Midway through the first game they handed me their figurines and had me do all their rolling for them.
I, on the other hand, found using the Amiibo to be kind of fun. They created a welcome physical interaction typically absent in virtual board games. I liked grabbing and moving something real.
I was sad, though, when I discovered I needed to wipe previous game data from my Amiibo in order to use them with Mario Party 10. Plus, you can only use Amiibo that match the game’s handful of playable characters. Folks who filled their Amiibo collections with Samus, Link, Zelda, and characters from other non-Mario franchises will be out of luck here.
The next mode we tried was Mario Party, which feels strikingly like the main mode in 2012’s Mario Party 9.
Choosing from about half a dozen boards with classic Mario themes – all of which, happily, are unlocked from the outset – players work as both a team and in competition with one another.
You’ll all pile into a vehicle together and take turns rolling the dice to move as a group across the board. Your goal is to earn mini stars, the bulk of which are rewarded in four-player mini-games.
Many of these are reworked takes on the obligatory last-man-standing and racing mini-games that appear in all Mario Party games. But there are also a few notably original activities, like trying to set off a chain reaction of Bob-Ombs; letting go of a spinning pole at just the right moment – kind of like a hammer throw – to make your character land in a specific spot on a mat; and trying to push your pals out of the way on a platform in order to get the best position/pose in a photo shoot.
Occasionally you’ll also need to work together to defeat Bowser and his minions in periodic boss battles. These fights – a particularly memorable one involves running through a bomb filled maze to get to the biggest cannon and cause the most damage – provide a nice mix of competition and cooperation (but mostly competition).
As in other Mario Party games, chance plays a hefty role in determining winners. If, for example, you’re the unlucky SOB who rolls the last unrolled number between one and six you’ll let Bowser out of his jail and get clobbered, losing half your stars.
But we found the person who came out on top was generally one of the players who performed best rather than someone who lucked out at the very end and stole everyone else’s stars.
The first two modes are fun in bursts, but the final mode – Bowser Party – is the one my family and I spent the most time playing, ringing up nearly a dozen games in just four days. It’s where the bulk of Mario Party 10‘s asymmetrical play – which you’ve likely seen promoted in the game’s TV spots – happens.
Four players band together as a team to move their shared vehicle down the board as fast as possible (big rolls are almost always better in this mode), while a fifth takes on the role of Bowser and uses the gamepad to roll a quartet of dice and chase down the others.
Whenever Bowser catches the runners a four-against-one mini-game is triggered in which Bowser tries to relieve his foes of their hearts. If all the runners lose all their hearts before reaching the finish line and grabbing the golden star, Bowser wins.
This mode stands out for a few reasons.
First, it’s just fun being Bowser. My wife, who at first refused to give up playing as Peach, found a dark pleasure in taking on the role of Mario’s shelled nemesis. He’s satisfyingly powerful, smashing through everything on the board before leaping upon Mario and friends with a malicious grin.
Plus, he cheats. If you don’t like what he rolled you can have him roll again. And he can try to mislead players choosing which path to follow or chest to open by scrawling pictures on the screen that might alter what a player chooses to do. His evilness just feels right. Bowser-y.
Second, playing as a true team of four with no competition within the group is a bonding experience. There were plenty of times when our band of four was reduced to one – which means just one die to roll compared to Bowser’s four – and everyone was legitimately rooting for the sole survivor. (You can revive your teammates at certain spots on the board – assuming you can make it to them.)
Third, Bowser’s lopsided mini-games are some of the most engaging in the whole game. Avoiding Bowser’s giant hammer, flaming logs, fiery breath, and huge claws is hard – especially since they’re controlled by a human who can choose to focus all of his or her attention on specific characters (likely the one with the most hearts).
Even fluke-fuelled challenges – like a slot machine that shoots Bullet Bills at whichever characters pop up on the display, and a bingo game that has Bowser rolling a six-sided die five times in an attempt to black out his foes’ cards – are weirdly intense thanks to the four-on-one dynamic.
In our experience, Bowser won far more often than he lost. The odds really seem stacked against the foursome – especially at the end of each board, where nearly every square seems to hold some sort of peril, and you have only a one-in-three chance of winning even if you reach the final square (you’ll find out why when you play).
But we didn’t much mind. The challenge made the bond between players on the team even tighter, and the lone player in the role of Bowser was never less than gleeful in his or her dominance.
Nintendo
The most important ingredient in any Mario Party session is always going to be the people with whom you play. But the game acts as the conduit for social interactions, flavouring the experience.
The rudiments are more or less the same as usual in Mario Party 10. You’ve got boards, mini-games, and dice. But Bowser Party mode adds a spicy tinge that encourages a quartet of players to unify while allowing a fifth to revel alone in obscene power. It’s a welcome new taste.
Mario Party 10 doesn’t reinvent the party game, and it’s not going to win any awards this fall, but I’d be surprised if I play many other games in 2015 that facilitate a local social experience that’s as much fun or as fulfilling.
