The 'Shroom:Issue LXI/Should Have Been
What should have been in this game?
Starting off, what I probably dislike most about the game is that Minigames are no longer played at the end of every turn. Minigames are, in my opinion, a very big part of the Mario Party series, and now they're just activated by landing on spaces, or in a few other ways. Usually, I find myself either not feeling I've played enough minigames, or just landing on the spaces all of the time, and not moving forward in the board enough. Having minigames at the end of every turn worked well in the past games, so I don't see why this couldn't have happened in this game.
Next, I felt the boards were way too linear. I liked the idea of having Bosses and Mini-Bosses on the boards, but I'm pretty sure they could have fitted those in if there wasn't an end to the board. I don't think being linear is what the Mario Party games are about, so I think the boards shouldn't have had an end, and the game should've just ended after a certain amount of turns. I think the car probably also contributed to this problem. The car was a pretty nice innovation, but I much prefer characters moving singularly, rather than just cramped together in a vehicle.
Next, I don't really like how Green Spaces do nothing. To be honest, I think this was just lazy on the part of the designers. Why couldn't they have been like Blue Spaces in the older games? If they gave out Mini-Stars, I don't feel it would be too much of a change, and wouldn't take long to program at all. I also don't like Backwards Spaces, but I guess I can't complain about them much, as they do what they're supposed to: be annoying.
A lot of the game, to me, seems to be based on luck, and hitting Dice Blocks, mostly. I don't really like things based on luck - I mean, just one low roll and you could potentially be losing a lot of Mini-Stars. For example, on Boo's Horror Castle, I felt the Boos were pretty unfair, especially since there were a lot of them, and every one took away half of your Mini-Stars. You could only escape them by rolling high enough on the dice (or by using a Special Dice Block), which, if they're just behind you, means that you have about 1/2 a chance of losing half of your Mini-Stars. Again, I think they could have been more fair with this, and not just made you lose Mini-Stars for rolling a bad number on a dice.
For the most part, I loved the Minigames in this game. But there were a few that I didn't like:
- Pianta Pool - Most of what I didn't like about this is how random it was. It's mostly based on where the Pianta throws the rings, which is random, and based on luck. There wasn't too much gameplay to it and it wasn't really fun.File:Side by Side Zone.jpgMore or less all of the Captain Event spaces are something like this.
- Mecha Choice - This one is entirely luck based. If you can't tell yet, I don't like luck based games.
- Deck Dry Bones - It's pretty fun, I guess, but I find it very hard to remember which card is where, especially with Dry Bones swapping around cards and whatnot.
I guess I'm being a bit picky with the second and third, though. Finally, I feel the Captain Events were all too similar, and, again, too luck based. Well, I guess I haven't got too much more to say, so, in conclusion, it's a good game, but it relies too much on luck, and just feels a bit too different. I hope there isn't another game in the series like this. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it's still a heck of a lot better than Mario Party 8.
Beta elements
So, I guess that's all. Thanks for reading, and, if you want me to talk about a certain game for this, be sure to send off a message to me!
