Mario Party 8

Use to play 3,4 and 5 on a mixture of the GameCube and N64. Still very good with some very funny mini games. I hoped for some more classic mini games but they are all fun anyhow.
The only problem i have found is that the boards have changed. The Donkey Kong board has the same layout as the orginal but it has some new boards with some new ideas, may just need getting use to. 2nd best game for Wii, on par with Rayman Raving Rabbids.
Up to 4 players can play together.
You do NOT need nunchucks for this game. So 4 WiiMotes do the trick fine :)

Seeing as there a few dull weeks left before the school year starts up, and there are no "real" Wii games that interest me available yet, I decided to pick up MP8.

For anyone who is thinking about buying the game, here is my opinion on the subject...

Despite the critisism against it; having touched-up GameCube graphics, non-widescreen, etc dissapointing setup...
I actually enjoy the game.

The Graphics aren't as "bad" as people say, okay the characters look a tad "square", I noticed this on some characters such as Waluigi but the backgrounds are very detailed.

The single player is really quite a challenge at times, even on Normal difficulty its frustratingly hard to win a game, but I enjoy that because when I win I feel that I've achieved something.

As for the non-widescreen "barriers" that appear down the side of the screen...well...if you turn off Widescreen mode in your Wii settings, they don't appear and your TV adjusts the picture, so in fact it has a type of faux-Widescreen and it looks fine. So I don't know what the huge fuss was about....?

The multiplayer interface isn't too bad either and some of the features are actually pretty cool.

My only problems with the game are the following -

No non-pointer support, aka, you have to use the IR pointer almost all the time to select levels and buttons, and its fact that the IR pointer drains your Wiimote batteries faster than just using the D-pad to select buttons on-screen. Very annoying, especially for someone like me who has Wiimote skins...which are particularly difficult to remove to access the batteries.

When playing against the computer, the COM player will often get minigame challenges, during this time you have to helplessly sit back and watch the computer play a minigame to itself, which you can't skip, as much as I cheer when the computer fails a minigame...it can be incredibly boring to watch.

During the level selection menus, you see an areial long-shot of the Star Carnival (where the game is set), during this you see 2D Koopas, ShyGuys and Goombas walking around between attractions. Its understandable that 2D images take less CPU to generate and move....but to me it looks a bit cheap...(especially for the Wii) I'm talking about original Doom Enemies-Cheap.
Okay, sure its just a menu but I have seen Nintendo put so much more into their game menus over the years.

The characters have limited responses to winning/losing/suprised/running.

For example, Waluigi (my favourite character who I play as constantly) will only have to walk a few steps during a cut-scene, but he runs fast, only covering a few steps....its hard to describe but again it looks cheap.

As for winning and losing, you can pretty much bet on what your character is going to say, they only have a total of two responses each. It would have been interesting to mix it up a bit...

Some of the minigames are so short and pointless. But some others are really awesome to play, so it balances out quite nicely.

Overall I think the game should have spent a bit more time in production, rather than being rushed.
When playing you can feel by the gameplay that full time wasn't taken to make it, I mean, I recognise alot of the animation from Mario Sunshine, so they probably just ported over the movement scripts and made up a few basic ones on the spot.

Despite being only a Mario Party game, it should have been better, seeing as this is the games transition from GameCube to this next Gen console.

Apart from that its enjoyable to play with multiple people and will leave you hooked.

I give it a 7/10.

Thanks for Reading

At first, I couldn't wait to get this game for Christmas, but now that I played on it, I realise what a terrible mistake I had made. Everything about the game seems perfect, until you click on the start button on the front page. This strange creature with a talking hat pops up on the screen, and talks like what seems forever. Finally, you reach a menu with 5 categories. One of which being the extra zone. Here you can play minigames. But what is so annoying about this game, is that you have to wait for ages just to start the minigames.

There is another section where you can play all the minigames that you have collected. But what the adverts didn't tell you, was that you have to play a ridiculously tedious and boring board game, that takes way too long to complete. The story line is an absolute disgrace to Mario. The game maked out that it is minigame fun, but it is not. You have to play the board games for numerous hours. I played it for about 2 hours and only received 10 minigames. I should not have to dig for fun in a game. There should just be minigames and scrap the board games because it absolutely destroys the game.

I would only get this game if you are patient and under the age of 8. A disappointment and let down to Nintendo.

I Was very excited when this game was coming out i thought great! I loved the gamecube version so with the use of the wii remote it wll make this so much fun, but i was wrong the graphics are very poor barely gamecube standards and the gameplay is so repetitive you just end up shaking the remote for 90% of the games Just Boring!
maybe ok for kids but i thought this was a big let down!

This game is easily one of the best currently available for the WII. Considering the weaker hardware of the WII, the graphics in this game are excellent. The models are detailed and the textures are lush and vivid. Having avoided the N64 and the Gamecube, this game was my first experience of Mario being brought from 2d to 3d and I was totally thrilled with the result that Nintendo have achieved. The comical cartoony look of the game, combined with humourous animations and characters enchant audiences young and old alike.

The controls are very simple and the game talks you through it step by step, without hindering experienced players. The selection of board games is good, each board with its own playing style and set of rules. The minigames are hilarious and very entertaining in multiplayer, and a nice feature is that you are able to access your favourite minigames without having to play the board games if you wish.

The only weakness of this game is single player, as I found the COM to be of little challenge, especially in the minigames, so I recommend setting the difficulty to hard once you have got a feel for the game. But remember that this game is Mario PARTY, and the whole point is to play it with other people, and for that entertainment purpose it excels.