My Mario Party 8 Review

It's time for my review of Mario Party 8. I bought the game on Sunday I believe it was and have been playing it since. Overall, many video gaming sites have given the game pretty low scores. IGN gave it a 5.2/10, 1Up gave it a 5.5/10, and GameSpot gave it a 6.5/10, among other sites. Because of all the negative things I was hearing about the game, I decided to not buy it. Then, NES_Shadow-Mario247 on the NES Online forums made a review for the game and said it was worth a buy. I had played all the Mario Party games except for 6 and 7 and thought they were all great, so I decided to buy Mario Party 8. I am very glad I did.


Boards
I was pleasantly surprised to find lots of things to do in the game. The game features a regular party mode that has 6 boards (one of which needs to be unlocked and I have yet to do that). Each of those boards has different ways of getting stars. Only the DK board is like past Mario Party games where you must get to the star location and pay 20 coins to get the star. Even so, I love playing in all 5 of the boards. They each bring a refreshing way to play Mario Party and are lots of fun. I have two younger sisters, both of whom like Mario Party games, and I frequently play Mario Party 8 with them. We all really enjoy the game.

There's also a single player mode. You have to go through the 5 boards and beat all of them to beat the single player mode. Once you do, you unlock something. I am actually on the 3rd or 4th board, so I haven't unlocked anything yet. I don't play this mode much because the multi-player is so much more fun. I really like what I've played so far and I give the boards part a 9.5/10.

Minigames
Overall, I really like the minigames. There are some minigames that are really creative in their use of the Wii Remote. Unfortunately, most of the minigames require you to turn the Wii Remote sideways and just press buttons or just point the Wii Remote and press A or B to do something. Don't get me wrong, those games are fun, but I wish they would have spent more time adding more motion features to the minigames. Also, there are a few minigames that are kind of hard to control. Even so, there are still many fun minigames and I love playing just the minigames sometimes. I give the minigames a 7.5/10.


Graphics
This is probably the worst part about the game. The graphics are in no way bad. They're just not great. I buy games for the gameplay, rather than really good graphics. Even so, I can't help but notice sometimes that this game looks like a GameCube game because of its graphics. There are some things that have graphics that prove that it is a Wii game, but those moments are few. I give the graphics a 5/10.

Sound
The sounds in this game are great, and are especially good thanks to the Wii Remote's speaker. First off, the music in the board games and minigames are great. I also like the music when you get a star or win a minigame. Lots of catchy tunes in this game. Also, when it's your turn in a board game, your character says something from the Wii Remote's speaker to let you know when it's your turn. I just wish there was a tad bit more variety in what the characters would say, since that does get boring and sometimes annoying after a while. For the most part thought, the sound is great in this game, and so I give it a 9/10.


Extras
There are many extra things that you can do in Mario Party 8. For one, you get carnival cards everytime you play a board game or minigames. Using the carnival cards, you can unlock fun things like minigames, sound tests, and collectible figurines. One of the things I've unlocked are the taunts. Usually in Mario Party games you have to press a button (I believe it was the "L" button in Mario Party 5) when it's another player's turn and your character will do its taunt. With Mario Party 8, you shake your Wii Remote and your character's taunt is heard from the speaker on the Wii Remote and the TV. Definitely an added plus, though it is kind of annoying after a while.

Another cool extra is that there are a few minigames that you can use your Mii's in. My favorite is a racing game where you race against lots of characters from Mario games. The best part is that you can use your Mii in the game and it looks so great to have yourself racing against Mario characters. That's definitely one of my favorite uses for the Mii's. All in all, I love the extras that were put into the game, though there aren't too many. I give the extras a 9.5/10.

Final Score: 8.1/10
This game is worth a buy, and is definitely worth a buy if you have siblings or friends that are fans of the Mario Party series. I'm glad I listened to NES_Shadow-Mario247 and bought this game because me and my sisters really enjoy it.