From its inception, Mario Party has always been a digital board game. Players roll a die and move a number of spaces. The end goal is to be the player with the most stars. On the way to each star are many obstacles on the game board itself. Plenty of circle spaces abound with events and mini-games. It’s these mini-games (mostly multiplayer) that keep the game somewhat entertaining. All of the extra fluff drags down the experience by taking forever for the various animations shown at each player’s turn. While most of the game is up to chance and luck, the one thing a player can always count on is a mini-game after everyone has moved on the board. Mario Party 5 boasts over 60 “new” mini-games. Sure, some of them are brand new to the series, but many of them don’t feel new. There might be a new background or a new objective, but the painfully silly button mashing is back, giving many older gamers flashbacks of Track & Field on the NES. I found the majority of the mini-games weren’t as enjoyable as in past Mario Party games despite the added content.

The graphics are slightly updated over Mario Party 4. Probably the biggest improvement can be found in the game boards themselves. They are now fully 3D and more exciting to explore. Fans of previous games will surely note that Toad is now a playable character. In order to make room for him on the roster, Donkey Kong has been taken out and given his own space on the board. Trust me, you’ll want to land on his space if you can since something lucky always happens. The 1 player aspect of the game has always been a letdown, but Nintendo does get props for adding a competent story mode to the game. It gives sole players some meat and potatoes to the game, but the real deal has always been playing with 3 other friends.

Mario Party has always been about playing with friends. The beautiful part of this game’s simplistic controls is that anyone, like your Mom or your 3-year old nephew, can partake in the game and actually have fun. Likewise, the games have always made excellent drinking games for those of legal age. The problem with Mario Party 5 is there’s been almost no innovation to the series since the first one appeared on the N64. Perhaps the problem not only lies with Nintendo for publishing the same game over and over, but more so with the developer, Hudson. Hudson is the master of rehash. One look at the many Bomberman games out there will show that the developers don’t believe in straying from a winning formula. Unfortunately, the Mario Party series has never had a slam-dunk winning formula. Ever since the first game came out people complained about the slowness of the game, the randomness of the events, and the rather ho-hum graphics. One glaringly annoying aspect of Mario Party 5 is one animation in particular that takes forever. There’s a space on the board where if you land on it a Paratroopa comes along to take coins from each player. So, instead of simply showing coins disappearing from the other 3 players, we have to sit and watch a 10 second animation for each player of him taking coins. There’s no point to this at all and every single time this happened (probably about 5 times the last time I played) every player groaned in frustration and set his controller down. These small oversights are what bog the game down. Each new game brings promise of the developers creating something new and unique. Apparently adding new mini-games every time is supposed to be enough.

I have been rather harsh in my review of Mario Party 5, and yet my grade falls at a C-. That’s because I think this game does have a market. Fans of past games will like this new one. In addition, I think the extremely casual gamers out there who never play games at all will still find some enjoyment in this game, which is a feat in itself. During holidays or other times when a bunch of friends or family are around looking for something to do, even the most inept person can pick up a controller and have fun with Mario Party 5. My only hope is that Mario Party 6 (and we all know one will come out) takes an extra year off to add some truly innovative play mechanics.