Can you believe Mario’s been hosting parties for more than 15 years, but does he still
have what it takes or is it starting to get a little stale?
Well, Mario Party 10 attempts to breathe-new-life into the party-scene by featuring 3 very different
ways of playing.
There’s Mario Party mode, which follows in the same footsteps as Mario Party 9, Bowser
Party, in which one person plays as Bowser and attempts to take out the other 4 players,
and amiibo party, which is a throwback to how the Mario Party series used to play--assuming
you have at least one of the supported amiibo in which to unlock this mode
So let’s first start with the game’s namesake, Mario Party mode, in which you and 3-others
ride in a car together as a group, taking turns as the vehicle’s captain in an effort
to be the one with the most stars by the end of the board.
And as captain, you assume full responsibility for everything that happens on your watch,
including what type of dice are rolled, which direction to take, as well as reaping whatever
rewards--or pitfalls that happen during your turn.
But here’s the thing--I just made it sound far more exciting than I found it to be.
And that’s largely due to how simple the Mario Party mode really is, as there’s rarely
much for you to do on your turn.
The boards are largely linear, with only the occasional alternate path--and even when you
do have some kind of choice--the fact that you’re only in control 1/4 of the time means
it’s nearly impossible to play strategically beyond the next move, as compared to the older
Mario Parties, I was often planning ahead for the next dozen or so turns
As a result, I found the board game portion be almost entirely random--and arbitrary..
Which means that the only part of this mode where I felt that I truly had some kind of
meaningful input is in the mini-games.
And to the mode’s credit, the mini games do seem to appear more frequently than in
Mario Party 9.
As for the mini-games themselves, well they’re your typical Mario Party fare.
Some are quite fun, like Rapid River Race where it’s a constant struggle between going
faster at the risk of hitting obstacles, whereas others are hopelessly lame, like Goomba Gallop,
where you’re counting Goomas.
Now historically, the board game aspect of Mario Party are what gave the mini-games meaning--after
all, winning the mini-games are what allowed you to have success out on the board, which
gave each mini-game some amount of tension.
But because the board game this time around is so random and seemingly arbitrary, that,
in turn, makes the mini games less exciting too, because the results don’t really matter
that much.
And to top it all off, not only are there slightly fewer mini-games too as compared
to Mario Party 9, but there fewer boards too, with only 5, as opposed to 7
With all that being said, I didn’t hate the Mario Party mode.
Believe it or not, I actually did have *some* dumb fun with it--emphases on dumb.
But there’s only so many times I can play a game in which neither strategy nor skill
nor really matter before it just grows really dull and repetitive.
Thankfully, Mario Party 10 switches things up quite a bit in Bowser Party--a 5-Player
mode in which one person plays as Bowser using the Gamepad and attempts to destroy the other
4-players, who form Team Mario, before they can make it to the end.
Here’s how it works: For Team Mario, the gameplay is largely similar to the main Mario
Party mode, with each of them taking turns as Captain rolling dice--and though their
ultimate goal is to make it to the end, in the near-term, their more pressing objective
is to get as far away from Bowser as possible.
Because once Team Mario finishes up, it’s then Bowser’s turn to roll 4-dice at once
to try and catch-up--and if he does, a special Bowser mini-game will start.
Now these work a little differently than normal.
Because there’s no true winner or loser, per se.
Instead, each time Bowser successfully lands an attack on someone, it’ll deal damage
to that player, which carry-over between the board game and mini games.
So once a player runs out of hearts, he’s out for good--unless the rest of the time
find some extra health somewhere.
It’s actually a really cool idea that attempts to build on the asynchronous multiplayer seen
in Nintendo Land.
Unfortunately, the result doesn’t quite live-up to the promise for a number of reasons.
And one of those is the fact that Bowser Party might as well play itself--at least if you’re
Bowser, because you have almost no influence during the board game portion.
Bowser always follows a pre-determined path, with the only real variable being the dice
roll--which of course is entirely random.
The only time Bowser has any real control is during the mini-games themselves.
Outside of that there are only a few instances where Bowser is provided with a little more
to do on the board game, such as choosing where to place boobytraps in a set area, or
drawing on the screen in an effort to trick the other players into choosing the worst
prize.
And it can be pretty fun to play mindgames with your opponents.
But these events are exceedingly rare, and relatively inconsequential--particularly when
the game is often ends before you can even get to that point, since the whole mode is
so heavily weighted in Bowser’s favor.
And that’s primarily because it’s waaay too easy for Bowser to catch up to Team Mario.
You see, because Bowser rolls 4-dice at a time, he can often catch-up to Team Mario
in a single turn.
And that’s not even accounting for the fact that Team Mario will often be slowed-down
in various ways, whether it’s getting stuck at a boss, or the fact that they’ll be down
a dice roll for every team member Bowser takes out.
And because that’s such a harsh penalty, it’s in Bowser’s best interest to focus
on taking down a single-team member at a time to take them out as fast as possible--which
then greatly compromises the rest of the team.
And if that happens, it’s pretty much impossible for Team Mario to out-run Bowser he can out-roll
them so easily.
And it doesn’t help that, in the event Bowser does rolls low enough that he can’t catch
up, the game will then give him the option to try rolling once more--albeit at the slight
risk that he could end up rolling lower.
So just how hard is it for Team Mario to win?
Out of 4-games I played with my friends, Team Mario won exactly...0 of them.
In fact, one of the games was over in just a couple of turns.
Needless to say, we all enjoyed playing as Bowser a lot more than Team Mario.
On the upside, some of the Bowser Party minigames are pretty fun, like Bowser Painball where
Team Mario had to dodge the pinballs Bowser’s hitting around.
But here’s the catch--there are only 10 Bowser games, which means you’ll be playing
the same ones over and over.
And when you consider that Bowser Party is only available on 3 boards--well, it’s a
mode that’s sure to become repetitive in almost every way.
With that being said, the mode is pretty novel and I did have some fun with it--again, in
that dumb-fun kind of way.
Finally, there’s amiibo party, in which you can play on any one of 10 different boards--assuming
you have the supported amiibo.
Now if you don’t have any then that grayed-out block will forever haunt you by taking up
a good chunk of the main menu.
Now amiibo party actually plays quite a bit differently from the other two modes for several
reasons.
One, the boards are entirely different, more resembling a Monopoly board than the usual
Mario Party.
Secondly, instead of collecting stars, you’re now collecting--okay, well Stars.
But different ones!
These stars are a lot harder to come by this time because you need to first reach them
on the board and then purchase them this time at a cost of 20-coins--coins that primarily
earn by playing mini games that occur after every turn.
Now if that sounds familiar--congratulations, you’re old--because it plays just like the
classic Mario Parties--at least in concept.
Which is awesome--I mean, I loved the old Mario Parties.
But that’s about where the similarities end.
Because even though the core gameplay is nearly identical to the original games, the boards
themselves are almost entirely linear--again, like Monopoly.
There are no alternate paths, excepting the Warp spots, no item shops, and really very
little of anything of interest to do at all.
Which means that, outside of the minigames, your fate is almost entirely in the hands
of luck again.
But even with a potential 10 boards at you disposal--again, assuming you have the supported
amiibo--they all play basically the same, with only the occasional board-based mini-game
changing things up.
So the entire mode just feels...bland--the boards are about as lifeless as the amiibo-based
game pieces
But the worst thing about it is how you interact with the board itself.
Because every player that dares to use an amiibo--which means at least one of you--has
to scan their amiibo on the Gamepad at least once during every turn in order to roll the
dice--or sometimes even more, in order to make some selections--for no good reason.
This, despite the fact that everyone is already holding a Wii Remote anyway.
It’s just a giant inconvenience.
I mean, either everyone has to crowd uncomfortably close around the Gamepad to scan in their
amiibo or that you’ll have to pass the Gamepad around the room to each individual player
on their turn.
Regardless of how you handle it, it greatly slows the pace of what is already a pretty
dull game, and ultimately made the experience an exercise in tedium more than anything else.
And this really is no reason for this, because outside of finding the very occasional token
item--nothing is actually saved to the amiibo during this time.
I honestly have no clue what the developers were thinking.
Mario Party 10 does to do some new things, and I admire them for trying.
But none of the things it tries to do are done particularly well.
Mario Party mode is just a slightly improved version of Mario Party 9, but with fewer boards
to play on.
Bowser Party is novel, but extremely unbalanced and sullied by repetition, and amiibo Party
is just completely baffling.
Like I said before, I did have some fun with everything besides amiibo party--but not *that*
much fun--and not for *that* long, which left me feeling meh about the game as a whole.
Thanks for watching and make sure to stay-tuned to GameXplain.com for more on Mario Party
10 and other things gaming too.