Mario Party 4

Admittedly, this basic description of the gameplay might not sound too exciting, and indeed if you're playing with less than three human opponents it can be pretty tedious. But play it with the full complement of non-virtual rivals and the game's infinite capacity for cheating, backstabbing, and ganging up allows it to completely transcend the humdrum sum of its parts. There's nothing terribly new in this third sequel except that the graphics are much improved and the minigames are all new, but that really misses the point: get this game out at Christmas instead of Trivial Pursuit and you'll wonder how you ever got through the holiday without it. --David Jenkins, Amazon.co.uk

Product Description
Mario Party 4 Toad, Koopa and other party-planning pranksters have hidden birthday presents for their closest friends inside the Party Cube. To win the presents, Mario, Yoshi, Peach and other favorites will have to plunge into a circus of mini-game trickery. The action zooms across crazily interactive game boards, each stocked with item shops, mystery spaces and shortcuts like roller- coaster rides. Mario Party 4 boasts 50 amazingly clever all-new mini-games. Escape icky stuff in Slime Time. Bring home a big one in Rumble Fishing. Team up for explosive action in Hide and Go BOOM! Play hard, collect coins and stars and you re well on your way to collecting birthday presents and unlocking hidden surprises. Much more than a simple board game, Mario Party 4 bristles with great innovations. The cool Mini-Mega system allows players to grow larger or smaller. Depending on your size, youll be able to access exclusive areas or trigger special events. In the Tag Battle Mode, you can team up with another player and compete in a team-versus-team struggle for the most stars. Mario and Wario, working together? Whod have thunk it! As always, keep an eye out for Bowser and his trouble-making goons. Whatever it is they are up to, it ca not be good. Even Whomp and Thwomp have rockin surprises for you in their Extra Room! Packed with great surprises, great multiplayer action and zany challenges, Mario Party 4 is your ticket to a sure-fire good time.

Mario Party 4 goes a little above and beyond its previous incarnations, and thanks to some skillful development from Hudson Soft, eight of your favorite Nintendo characters are ready to do battle through over 50 nutty mini-games in order to win a juicy prize. Lending itself to a very simple gameplay premise, Mario Party 4 is best enjoyed with four human players -- the idea is to be guy that collects the most hidden stars and gold coins at the end of a party. Each party is played over a selectable number of turns (from between ten and 50 -- ten turns takes around 30 minutes to play) on one of five themed game boards.

Some familiar faces are on hand to meet and greet the party-players. Toad, Shy Guy, Koopa, Boo, and Goomba all offer a game board with themes such as the "Seaside Soiree," the "Haunted Bash," and the "Jungle Jam." There are eight Nintendo-friendly guys and gals to choose from at the player select screen: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong, Daisy, and Waluigi. There are essentially two main modes of play in Mario Party 4.

Party mode is where the most fun occurs and involves between one to four human players getting jiggy on any of the game boards. Story mode is the single-player component of the game and pits you against three randomly selected CPU-controlled guys. If you win the game, you'll be awarded a prize, and depending on which character you were playing as, it'll be different each time (e.g. Playing as Waluigi, I won Waluigi's Shelf, which is one of many unique pieces of furniture that can be found for his mini-apartment -- viewable in the prize room).

One new feature to the series is the mini-mega system -- which manifests itself in the form of two different mushroom-based items. These items can be taken before you roll the die at the beginning of turn. A mini-mushroom will shrink you down, allowing you to access other areas of the board, but it'll limit your maximum die roll to five instead of six. Being mini will allow you to tackle some special "mini" mini-games too.

Going the other route and taking a mega-mushroom, will in contrast increase the size of your guy, and it'll give you a combined roll of two dice, increasing your ability to travel further around the board. You'll also squish any players that you travel past, causing them to hemorrhage value gold coins. Being large also means you'll be immune to any event spaces on the board. The mini-mega system is cool in theory, but in actuality, it doesn't really add that much to the gameplay.

There are a ton of new items, events, traps, and bonuses that are scattered through the game -- such as the Genie Lamp which costs 30 coins to buy -- but it'll warp you straight to the current star on the board. All these factors throw more uncertainty into the mix, with the final game experience getting more and more random compared to the first three games in the series. Is this a bad thing? It depends on your point of view, but it can be pretty frustrating to be on top for most of the game and then have it all snatched away at the last minute. There are a few constants; these arrive at the very end of the game in the form of stars awarded to the player that collected the most coins, won the most mini-games, and triggered the most event features.

There's no doubt that Mario Party 4 sports classic multiplayer fun and all of the mini-games are a blast in their own right, but there's one hugely annoying factor -- the CPU controlled characters. In the single-player mode, you'll be forced to watch the CPU guys take their individual turns.

This happens at a mind-numbingly slow pace, and after a few games you'll be begging to have bamboo shoots inserted under your fingernails to alleviate the tedium. Essentially, the single-player game exists to let you win the prizes -- something that becomes very unimportant all too quickly.

Huge Mario gets ready to squash the others. Putting those issues aside, Mario Party 4 as an actual party game, works really well. Teamwork, smack talk, and cajoling come heavily into play, and it's certainly the best in the series to date. The GameCube provides the graphical grunt to take Mario Party 4 to the next level and all of the characters, boards, and mini-games display slick animation, special effects, and a sweet bouncy-cartoony look and feel. Controls for the most part are extremely simplistic, but this really only adds to the pick-up-and-play nature of the game as a whole. There's a myriad of nice Nintendo-tastic tunes, voices, and sound effects, which wrap the game up into a well-presented, good-looking game.

For those that enjoy Nintendo's rich characters and imagination, Mario Party 4 is a great game to have. With four-players in tow, it's a total blast, but for those that are looking for some solid, non-anger-inducing solo play, you'd do well to swerve away from this one for sure.

The Lowdown: More of the same great Mario Party multiplayer action.

Pros: It looks great; the mini-games are a hoot; really good fun with four players.

Cons: More features aren't necessarily a good thing; there's little fun when flying solo.

BIG DAN's OVERALL RATING - 7.5/10


Simply The Best.   June 22, 2006
Etc. (Florida)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Ah, yes. Many years of playing Mario Party games, this one can only be dubbed Number 1 in the Mario Party series. I've played most of these games, let alone Mario Party 6 (Provided with the information from so many people that it sucks so much), and of all of them, THIS is the one to buy. We could go into detail on it, so I might. Mario Party, Mario party 2, and #5 are the only ones that may come close to this one. Trust me, 3 was really.......odd. 7 Is a great game, but let's face it folks, microphone games aren't everyone's thing. Now, Mario Party 4 has a few playable characters, but just in case you don't want that 'Ugly Gorilla', Donkey Kong, there might be something else for you. Then there is the 'Happenings (Question mark spaces, remember those?)' of the game. Building that little Koopa's cabana/resort is usually worth the money, he's cool. But what makes that thing a challenge is that if you land on a Question Mark space, bam. Gone.

Theres lots of great minigames in this particular Mario Party. If you're looking for fun, this game is for you.


Another 4-Player Funfest   December 8, 2002
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

Well what did we expect from the latest Mario Party game. There are many other games that tried to imitate these series' successful achievement of delivering an accessible fun and simple 4 player game has failed and this latest addition effortlessly beats the rest of the competition. Well technically it doesn't look very good at all by today's standards and sounds quite annoying but those points are quite irrelevant because this game is simply about multiplayer mayhem. Alone this game is OK but is so much better when there is 2-4 of you playing. I recommend this to anyone looking for a good multiplayer game which doesn't require so much skill but which still provides great entertainment for any kind of gamer.
Graphics:6
Sound:5
Gameplay-1 PLayer:8
Multiplayer:10
Value:10


A very addictive game   October 24, 2002
RLD (Scottsdale, AZ USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

If you are a fan of the Mario Party series, you will love the newest installment, Mario Party 4. It is the same premise as past Mario Party games: You can compete against up to 3 different players (which is highly recommended) in trying to collect stars and coins. You begin in a board game setting, but the real fun begins with the mini games. There are over 50 here, and some of the highlights include a basketball throw game, a skiing game, a speedboat/parasailing game, and a co-op dungeon escape game. These pit player against player or have you team up with your opponents. These are highly addictive and you will find yourself playing for hours to try and uncover new ones.

You also have a 1 player option in which you face off against 3 computer opponents, so if you're not hanging out w 1, 2 or 3 of your friends, you can still play. There is even a new option, offering more mini games if you have exhausted the regular ones.

For those of you who have not played the previous Mario Party titles, this is a very fun and addictive game that is optimally enjoyed if played with friends. For those of you who have played past Mario Party games, it has more mini-games, more options, and improved graphics. If you enjoyed previous versions, you will really like this one. If you haven't liked past Mario Party's, give this one a shot. You will not regret it.


A pretty good game, but what's new?   December 14, 2002
obryanstars
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

Well, I don't own a GC, but I love and play it daily and at various friend's houses. Well, one of my friend's picked this up and played it with me. I was amazed by several things, but it did have a few problems:

1. Graphics: Fantastic! I can't beleive how good this game looks. The N64, my friends, was a good system, but its graphics were anything from good. It showed in the first 3 Mario's (on the N64). But finally, Mario is given some justice. This game looks awsome, and exploits what the N64 could only dream of! The characters, backgrounds, coins, levels, everything is so sharp. There is no framerate slow-down here (for those who don't know, where the game gets REALLY slow for a few seconds) and the worlds seem to feel and look HUGE compared to pasts. Firy volcanic explosions, water in the swim pool, the ball swishing through the nets, the characters breathing in and out. This game ROCKED in terms of graphics, and is my favorite among the Mario Parties just for that reason.

2. Gameplay: Good, as usual. All the games are extremely addictive, and there are many options to try. The classic square off between you and 3 other characters or 4 player gaming frenzy is where this game shines, keeping all the same rules, characters, and fun games from the past, and adding something new! Most games are extremely addictive, and are fun to play over and over and over... But mostly, this game is a multiplayer game. The single player gets a little old playing computer generated foes. I mean, sure, its fun for a few days. But the computer foes just never do anything new, or do really stupid things no human would ever do. You'll find yourself beating the computers every game, or getting your butt kicked the other way around. There's no real even competition against the computer. Do NOT get this game for single-player (which ROCKS!)

3. Replay Value/Depth/Controls: Well, this game is as good in terms of gameplay as the last 3, and sure, its all fun. But its beggining to get a little old. The replay value is there in multiplayer, but once beating the computer a few times, where is the fun? They haven't added a sort of record keeping system so you know what you've done (would've been cool), there are NO new characters to play as, no ADDED rules to the game. I mean, sure, a few new games here and there, but how many Mario Parties can they make? This is easily the best, but it's not much better than Mario Party 3 except for graphics. What else can be done to the Mario Party series? The graphics are awsome, there all already over 400 games, and well, its just getting a bit overwhelming. A good buy, but don't expect anything real NEW here.

Overall, if you are new to Nintendo systems, Mario Party 4 is great for Multiplayer fun, or even single player. Its easily better than Mario Party 3, but its not a HUGE improvement as some might put it. This game is fun, and if you have 2 or 3 friends over to play it every day, this game will rock! But by yourself, you'll beat all the games, and find you never take it out of its case. It has several new awsome games, the graphics are a HUGE improvement, and the classic formula of fun from the original Mario Party still sticks to the fourth sequel.

I would buy this game when the price drops, and buy it for multiplayer. Its a good game, impoves a little on everything. and is a blast in multiplayer. Your choice this X-mas, but don't expect greatness over the first 3, or to spend dozens of hours playing it buy yourself. Good game, but in my opinion, not great.

Hope this helped!