DS Review: Mario Party DS

Eight years and ten games after its creation, the Mario Party series hits the Nintendo DS. The franchise had been on a downhill slide in quality for a while. Mario Party 8 for the Nintendo Wii started a decent shift toward better gameplay, and thankfully the DS version does so as well. We have seen quite the amount of mini-game packages for the system, but as far as board games go Mario Party is the brand of choice, and its DS installment could very well be one of the best of the series.

Many elements of the classic Mario Party formula return. Playing as one of various Nintendo characters such as Mario, Peach, and Yoshi, you become a piece of a board game. When your turn arrives, you hit a number block and advance the specified number of spaces. When everyone has moved, a mini-game begins and one or more winners get coins. You can use this coins to buy stars, and whoever has the most stars at the end of a certain amount of turns wins the party and becomes the Super Star. You can also buy items and place traps on the board to squeeze out coins or stars out of players, or to roll two or three die consecutively, among others. Mario Party enthusiasts will feel right at home with the familiarity of things, while players new to the series won’t take long to catch up to the basics. Nicely done 3D graphics and a decent soundtrack that matches the mood of the stage or the craziness of the mini-games enhance the experience.

Mario Party DS offers a good amount of play modes. Story Mode is your standard single player experience, complete with a silly story and lots of unlockables. As you play through the game’s boards, you are challenged by three computer-controlled characters, your goal being to be the Super Star at the end of the party. If you succeed, you are faced with a mini-game boss battle. Replay value here is high; if you lose, you have to play a party all over again, but aside that there are tons of unlockables to collect. As you play Story Mode with each character you unlock unique trophies, badges, and items; these don’t do much, but perfectionists will have a ton of play time to complete their collection.

Then there’s Party Mode, if you just want to play a series of turns without advancing through Story Mode. You can also play any mini-game you have unlocked to your heart’s content, and even a variety of semi-advanced mini-games. These puzzles, found in Puzzle Mode, aren’t all that sophisticated, and they are very similar to one another; a nice diversion, but nothing worthy of special attention. The rest of the mini-games, however, are quite decent. Sure, there are a few stinkers here and there, and there’s some games which controls just don’t work right, but the majority of the 60+ mini-games are unique, entertaining, and work very well with either stylus or button controls. There are very few 100% luck-based games compared to previous Mario Party entries, making the mini-games more skill-based and, therefore, fun to play.

Unfortunately, being a Mario party title, MP DS suffers from a few flaws now standard to the series. Computer A.I. is very inconsistent; easy to beat in Normal Mode, frustratingly challenging in Hard Mode, and impossible to defeat in the unlockable Expert Mode. Not only that, but no matter which difficulty you play in, if you must undergo a 2-on-2 challenge with a computer-controlled partner, you will likely lose; CPU partners play like pre-school children, bringing your chances of victory to a very low amount.

The game’s boards are well designed and unique in some ways. A few of them offer easy access to multiple stars, while others make it very difficult to obtain them. A handy overview of the board is displayed on the top screen, making it easy to spot special places or the location of your opponents. There are items, item shops, warps and special events unique to every stage, keeping things interesting and very random, sometimes even to a harsh degree. It might appear that success in the mini-games is the determining factor of ultimate victory, but a wrong turn or an unlucky event can turn things around quite drastically. Luck is a big part of Mario Party DS, but really, most board games are like this anyway.

If you’re not into collecting seemingly useless items, and if you can’t stand the game’s bad A.I., multiplayer is the next best thing. MP DS offers one of the best single-card multiplayer options available for the system, with nearly every single aspect of the game capable of being played by multiple players using just one copy of the game and multiple DS units. Loading times are reasonable, considering the amount of data being transferred. Playing with friends flushes away inconsistent difficulty problems and makes the game feel like an authentic party, with occasional tag teaming and random events than can turn the tides in any way. Many people criticize the title for its lack of online multiplayer, but considering how difficult it would be to stay connected for extended time sessions without sore losers quitting the match, it’s quite understandable. A few online mini-games would’ve been nice though, or at least score boards. Even without them, however, Mario Party DS has a lot of value.

Mario Party DS is a decent single player game, with tons of value but some frustrating flaws that might discourage continuous single-player play, but grab a couple of friends and get the party started, with one of the DS’s best single-card multiplayer experiences. A few boards, but a lot of unique mini-games make this entry one of the best in the series, and make the game a must-have for DS-oriented families or friends.

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