Mario Party: A 15 Year Celebration

Take a trip through each of the Mario Party games in this anniversary jamboree!

By Kyle England. Posted 02/10/2014 09:00 3 Comments     ShareThis

Mario Party 6

GameCube (2004)
Boards: 6 Party Boards and 3 Solo Boards
Minigames: 82 (4 are bonus games)

They just keep adding more minigames! Mario Party 6 beats 5 in minigame variety, but unfortunately doesn’t compare with game modes. You might also remember that the sixth game included a microphone in the box. It was… neat, but not used very heavily. You might have fun yelling stuff at the game for an hour or so before you want to get back to your raucous ways, you party crazy maniac.

There are only six new boards in the game, but each one has a day/night system where everything can totally change! Even minigames can be affected by the time of day on the board. Mario Party 6 also experimented on boards with a couple new ways to obtain stars, as Hudson must have been tired with the “bring 20 coins to host” shtick.

The story mode has been streamlined even more this time, with what is perhaps the best story mode in the Mario Party console games. Players can beat it in a couple hours, and it begs for replays! You can also snag secret minigames when you go it alone. Another huge improvement that Mario Party 6 brought was on the reform of the capsule system. Capsules are renamed orbs, and they can be bought in shops again and used like normal, which takes some of the randomness out of item gathering.

Mario Party 6 hovers around $20 for GameCube, and a microphone is just a few bucks more.

The Good:

  • Day/Night system adds life to the boards
  • So. Many. Minigames.
  • Toadette!

The Bad:

  • Not as many modes as the previous game
  • The microphone is pretty much a gimmick

Stand-out Minigames: Circuit Maximus, Jump the Gun, Insectiride, Life Leapers

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

3 Responses to “Mario Party: A 15 Year Celebration”

  • 111 points
    roykoopa64 says...

    Wow, excellent job stepping through the whole (console) history of the series! I remember hearing you mention you would be working on this feature when I listened to a recent episode (10, I think) of the podcast (oops, I’ve missed some of the newer episodes). My experience with the Mario Party series is rather limited, so I found it interesting to read about the changes made along the way.

    So DK is not a playable character starting with Mario Party 5? I was wondering why he showed up on the box covers in some of the later games. Looking it up online now, I see he becomes a non-playable character you interact with on certain boards. I wonder why they did that? Even Mario Kart 7 still has features the burly ape as a playable character.

    • 819 points
      Toadlord says...

      Removing DK as a playable character always bummed me out, too. Especially when they go to great lengths to make you hate the guy, like when he gives a free star to someone who doesn’t need it. I know when I was playing the GameCube Mario Party titles, I viewed him on-par with Bowser in terms of annoyance.

      Truth be told, there’s not much that could get me to buy a new Mario Party nowadays. I’m just not in the position to play with many people for local multiplayer, and online would have to be done really well for me to consider it.

      • 285 points
        Kyle England says...

        Glad you guys liked the feature! I was never a huge DK fan in Mario Party, but it was odd that he became an event guy from 5 onwards. His minigames were always tough to unlock if you wanted 100% as well.

        80% of the fun in Mario Party does come from being with your friends. I can’t see that level of energy being replicated through online play any time soon. The fact that I can still play Mario Party 15 years later and have fun with it now that I’m older really speaks to that.

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Log In 0 points Log in or register to grow your Ninja Score while interacting with our site.
Nintendojo's RSS Feeds

All Updates Podcast
News Comments
Like and follow usFacebookTwitter Friend Code Exchange + Game with Us Join the Team!