Gameplay of all 84 minigames, though it's over 2 hours long. I skipped around and some of them look pretty fun, but I'm not sure if I want to get it if the boardgames aren't very good.
We played the 4 player minigame mode. You can compete to a number of minigame wins, 3,5, or 7. We did 7 and it lasted about an hour. It was a BLAST. It also let's you play with all the minigames from the start, I believe.
All the mini games in that mode were free for all but they were my favorite and the best 4 player mini games I have ever played, or at least the best since Mario Party 3. Some really creative ones in there.
Also no lag and the 3D works great too, except in minigames that require you to move the 3DS around.
After playing that we got some points, I don't know exactly what they do yet. I hope to play a board game with friends again to see how we like those.
Edit: are there no 2v2 or 3v1 minigames at all? Wtf that would be very disappointing!!!!
There was an interesting one where you used cards to move, but some of the cards also affected your opponents, but you also steal cards from your opponents every term. There's a Bowser card, which basically gives you shit every three turns and if you have it in your inventory, you can't win the round. So if you have it, it's like hot potato hoping someone else accidentally steals it from you. That was sort of neat.
The bullet bill board is pretty neat. The 6 on the dice is replaced with a bullet bill. Each space on the map has a space is in the path of a firing bullet bill. Above each space is a separate space that's safe from bullet bill. So basically if you roll a 5, you have a choice between taking the 5 and ending up in Bullet Bill's path, or taking a 4 and using your last move to hide in a cave. But since only one player can hide in a cave at a time, you might end up sticking them in BB's path. And since every other player rolls before it's your turn again, the odds are fairly high you'll get wasted if you don't hide in a cave.
The unlockable final board (play every other board at least once)
is a Bowser themed board that uses the second Bowser level music from Mario 64. You win by being the last to reach the goal, not the first. Winning a minigame gets you a low-moving dice, not a high moving. Bowser basically just gives you shit the whole round. Easily the best board. And it ends with Bowser using a hammer to knock the loser off the face of the earth.
There's only one unlockable board and one unlockable character (beat single player Bowser Tower, get
Bowser Jr
). All the other stuff you can purchase with your points are like, little figurines and soundboards. The soundboards are mostly useful for making perverted noises.
In general the boards are pretty short which I think would be nice for, like, if you met up with someone at an event and wanted a quick 15 minute Mario Party session, but if you have friends over for an evening of playing they feel a little bit flimsy. Most boards have multiple rounds of movement between minigames, so you feel like you aren't playing enough minigames.
But I think the fatal flaw is that all the boards save one make you win by moving to the end. I'm sure all the various ways to win stars in earlier Mario Party games were random and dumb, but it gave those games a sort of false depth and engagement. This one seems pretty shallow by comparison. I also felt the boards in 9, even though you moved together, felt more interactive and dynamic and vibrant.
I do like most of the minigames though. The microphone ones are hilariously broken. In general I think you'll be happy with the balance of the minigames but disappointed with the board selections, computer AI, and unlockables.
I hope my impressions have been valuable for people. I'm not trying to shit on the game or anything, it's just I've played every game in the series and so I feel like I have a good comparative sense of how each game improves or doesn't on previous ones. I definitely think DS is the better portable game, and if you want MP on your current gen machine, play MP9 on your Wii U's Wii Mode.
Im really not liking this at all. Should have read the reviews for once. The minigames are fine, but there are times where you literally play one minigame, how is that fun? And even with the others you're talking about a handful of games.
I really like Mario Party, but the boards are simplistic to the point of bleh. It's still fun, and better than Mario Party 9 (no more going in the same car and collecting dozens of stars until they've lost all meaning), but the boards resemble Candy Land in depth (GET TO THE END!).
Not the worst MP, but definitely not the best. Everyone I play with shares a distinct lack of enthusiasm.
It got respectable reviews. I'm playing it, and I like how they changed up each board so you're not doing the same thing. I don't like how you have to use the stylus for some games.
