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| Mario Party 6 Reviewed by Pirate Yoshi Over-view: The Mario Party series began on the N64, with a board game-style collection of short challenges after each turn. It ends today with a voice recognition feature and a card-slot microphone. ALright, so Nintendo hasn't planned to end the Party just yet. In fact, Nintendo seems to only be expecting more additions to the series! Two games ago, I was predicting the greatest Mario Party to date; one game ago, I was preparing for the horrific demise of the entire series. 5 was a pretty wretched party, thereby ensuring that the 6th HAD to be better....right? Read on and find out just how this Party compares to the last...and those before it. Graphics: 9.4/10 As always, Mario Party 6 boasts some fine graphics, beautiful boards, and smoothly-designed characters. The games have some very snazzy intros, and even the menus seem to be a bit snappier than last time. I am much pleased with 6 in this catagory, although I can't exactly say I ever feared that it would do poorly here.... Sound: 9.5/10 As is the case with EVERY Mario Party to date, this one, too, possesses fantastic music and voice acting. I haven't even listened to the entire sound test yet (I'm trying to be strong and hold out!), yet I vividly can remember about half the songs I've heard already, and I've only been playing for a few hours before writing this review. Clever, bouncy tunes play for fitting games, while dark, eerie songs sound off for scary, more suitable games. The voices are what you expect from any Mario title: Charles Martinet, Dolores Rogers, Kazumi Tataka... Nothing too surprising here. Controls: 9.9/10 I can only come up with one (well, maybe two) things to complain about here. First of all, I *REALLY* don't like how right and left change whether you are using a capsule or rolling the dice on your turn (seems inverted...maybe it's just me? I always turn the wrong way!). Second of all, the voice commands (obviously) aren't perfect to your character's movement, so there's often a delay that could really put an end to your game. After all, most mic responses not captured don't tend to end well..... Challenge: 9/10 Awwwww, heck, how much challenge is there for real? This is a hard catagory to decide, and the more I review these new games, the more glad I am that I'm dropping this completely out of all reviews come New Year's Day. Though you must buy them, Hard and Brutal difficulties are certain to give you all the challenge you could possibly want out of the game. However, since you really can't *lose*, and can even save and replay turns over and over until your luck returns, there will always be a way to cheat around the system to victory. Gameplay: 9.7/10 FINALLY! This is much better than has been seen as of late in the series. The mini-games are finally hitting the nail on the head, too--just about every one of 'em are worth playing, and none are especially horrible! There are even several that are outright fun to play no matter who against and what your odds of winning are! Of course, there's some pretty miserable games, too, but every Party's got its games, right? The boards, as always, are clever and precise, and the items are smartly scattered in to ensure that no game ends how it starts. Finally, the Microphone (of course!) adds a whole new dimension to the game, and even though you actually barely use it during a normal Mario Party round (it was hyped up to be a huge part of the game), you can play bonus games, including a great Quiz contest (ideal for parties full of people), that are funny, fast-paced, and surprisingly challenging! Mario Party 6 has finally dragged the series to its feet here! Replay: 9.8/10 I have no doubt that this New Years, we'll all be playing Mario Party 4 again for at least one round (probably at Goomba's Gala, as always >_<). That said, there's a new party in town that's going to be taking over such festivities, I think, and that's the sixth of the series! With the microphone addition, plenty of side-games, and some of the best mini-games yet, this is a title worth playing over...and over....and over....and over.... **Story: .3/1 Ohhhhhhhhhhhh boy. Here we go. Though it may sound better than some of the predicted storylines our YS staff came up with (check our videos, they're pretty disturbed), search your feelings, Luke: you know it be crap. "Brighton and Twila argued furiously about who was more popular and impressive. The sky thundered with the fury of their cataclysmic squabble! Mario and his party-hearty friends tried to get them to make up, but nothing they said could settle the spat in the sky. That's when Mario came up with a brilliant plan to harness the power of the Stars to end the feud!" Perhaps it's just me, but my thinking is that if the sun and moon stood face-to-face and argued, the moon would light on fire, scream (if, as we assume, it was given humanistic qualities, as was implied by their capability to stand and argue), and fry away into nothingness. That's just the sort of affect the sun has on people, when standing several feet away from them. All jokes aside, this is better than last year's storyline, and better even than Mario Party 4's, but I can only wonder when someone at Nintendo will be able to come up with a Mario Party storyline that isn't dangerously cheesey. **Multiplayer: 1/1 If it were meant for any less than four people at once, it'd be called "Mario-in-a-closet-by-himself Fun Time!"....which probably would be forbidden by parents, due to "Suggestive Themes"...... Graphics: 9.4/10 Sound: 9.5/10 Controls: 9.9/10 Challenge: 9/10 Gameplay: 9.7/10 Replay: 9.8/10 **Story: .3/1 **Multiplayer: 1/1 Total Score: 9.8 Score Explanation: This is rather high, even though I have few complaints for Mario Party 6, and if I were to take out Challenge (this will be done eventually), the Total Score changes by +.1--a 9.9, and only one-tenth of a point away from being a "perfect game." Although some people will argue that a 10 means there are simply no real flaws in a game, others will insist that a 10 only goes to an unimprovable game. Myself, I'm starting to consider the former of the two, because I have given away multiple 10s now, and I can only assume that I'll continue to find games that score "the perfect score." I would dock a catagory here to keep MP6 a little lower, but I can't find anything wrong with the other catagories, at least to the point where I should deduct more than I already have (I obviously did not give any catagory full credit except for the Multiplayer bonus). A sticky situation indeed, but deserving, none the less. Definitely keep this title in mind for your New Year's Party....both for this year, and next year...and the year after.....and the year after that.... |