Mario Party has been a staple of Nintendo home consoles since the Nintendo 64 days, spawning seven sequels in the process – including the best-selling Mario Party 8 for Wii. Now you can take the Party on the road with Mario Party DS, the handheld version of Mario’s get-together that stays faithful to the franchise’s roots.
If you wanted to be so bold, you could say Mario Party DS is even better than the console versions because of the portability factor. To host a game for up to four players, all you need is one copy of Mario Party DS. Your guests simply need a DS to join the fun via DS Download Play. Whether you want to play a match on one of the five new game boards, best each other in mini-game marathons or quickies or compete in one of the many Mario Party puzzle games, you can start a Party anywhere you go.
Mario’s previous Party on-the-go, Mario Party Advance for Game Boy Advance, lacked a multiplayer element. Not only does the wireless functionality of the Nintendo DS allow for multiplayer, it nails it. Every game mode and every setting available in the single-player campaign is available in the multiplayer realm, as are the various puzzle games. The multiplayer options also feature two additional two-player games - one competitive and the other cooperative. Plus, connection between the guests and the host only takes about 15 seconds, so you’ll jump right into the game.
The gameplay itself is classic Mario Party fun at its best. The five new game boards are filled with fun rewards and pitfalls. At the beginning of your turn, a 10-sided Dice Block scrolls through random numbers, and you touch the die with your stylus to stop its cycling. Whichever number it lands on is the number of spaces your character moves. When you land on a space, you’ll receive either a reward (coins), punishment (loss of coins) or a chance to duel another player in a mini-game.
At the end of each round, you and your fellow board conquerors battle in a mini-game with the winner collecting valuable coins that can be used to buy Stars at Star spaces on the board. The one with the most Stars at the end of the match is declared the Superstar.
While travelling on the boards, you will discover various Hexes. At the beginning of your turn, you can place a Hex on the board, and if an opponent lands on that Hex, you benefit big-time. Sometimes you’ll take coins from your opponents, other times you’ll nab all-important stars. If you’re unlucky, you’ll land on spaces Bowser controls. Needless to say, he takes no mercy on you when you’re on his spot.
The mini-games, the heart and soul of the Mario party experience, are both fun and varied thanks to the multifunctional DS. In the more than 60 mini-games, you’ll use the built-in microphone, Touch Screen and traditional buttons to defeat your rivals and earn coins. There are times when you’ll need to pay attention to both screens, but mostly you’ll focus on one over the other.
One microphone-based mini-game, Short Fuse, challenges you to carefully blow into the microphone. Each player takes their turn at blowing on a bomb fuse. As the player blows, the fuse gets shorter and shorter until the bomb explodes. Since you don’t want to be the one to have the bomb blow up in your face, you have to determine how much you need to blow into the microphone in order to stifle your opponents. If you don’t blow into the microphone, the DS will know, and the bomb will blow up on you.
On the Touch Screen side of things, you’ll run into mini-games like Peek-A-Boo. In this game, you get a top-down look at a room full of Boos, all wearing different costumes. You need to use the +Control Pad to scan the room and tap the target Boo when you spot it.
There’s no doubt that fans of the Mario Party franchise will enjoy the DS version as it holds true to what has made the franchise popular. However, it’s the portability factor combined with the full multiplayer experience that really cements the status of Mario Party DS as a standout title.
Mario Party DS will be in shops 23 November, only on Nintendo DS.
