So if anyone is questioning why this game is a Mario Party here is the proof! Mario is in this game… Enough for me anyway.
I really like this one. The game is just fun to play.
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Do the point values for different pieces change from game to game? If not it’s a bit unfortunate, since you’d have no real reason to make a caveman outfit unless you happened to get all the pieces before any others.
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no they don’t change. I believe they stay the same no matter what.
They do stay the same. Its all about what you can make with the certain clothes you manage to collect. You probably aren’t purposefully making the caveman outfit but it might be all you have.
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I don’t know how I stopped tracking this thread, BUT
Wow, Wii Party U looks a lot more fun than I assumed it was. I feel ashamed for overlooking it.
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Good. It actually is a lot of fun. It of course has its flaws as well. Some of the modes aren’t much fun or require more then two players to play. Otherwise its a fun game to pull out when you have a group of 4-ish friends or so.
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If you would like to see more of Wii Party U, we had streamed it for a bit in our June 25/26 live stream which should be up in our playlists somewhere.
But Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. We have one more special video for this season before Mario Party 4 starts. And it’s one that we really enjoy just for how cute it is. It isn’t as traditional as the other Mario Party games but I feel like it still fits in some way.
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This is the last day without a Mario Party Update for now. But I do have something I’d like to share if for no other reason than I spend a long time animating our sprite movements for this.
I’m not posting this here for the big Patreon reason, though it’d be cool if people did donate. The main thing is it talks about and links to our new Discord which is another place to talk more about Mario Party and such, and to see the people who aren’t voting within this thread.
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Phew. Almost didn’t make it. If I’d actually tried to do what I originally wanted to I definitely wouldn’t have made it.
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And now we finally move on to the next stage of the games. We’ll be beginning with the story mode once again.
And we are voting right away! Next time we are doing a bonus board. So who do you think will win? Michael? Calli? Or the Computer?
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I’m not terribly fond of the board aesthetics in 4, in that the path you travel feels like it’s disconnected from the background. I remember the minigames looking pretty fun at least. That being said, I have far more experience with the game’s flash website, which was the best thing when I was a kid, than the actual game itself. MP6 and DS were more my jam.
I do not remember what the bonus boards in this game are, so I’m just gonna guess Calli.
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Gonna go with my gut and say that Calli will win this.
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This is exactly the thing. On one hand I like that it looks more like a board game. On the other, I miss how the the boards felt like an actual place.
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I think Calli’s enthusiasm is gonna propel her to victory!
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I’m gonna jump on the bandwagon and throw in another vote for Calli.
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Everyone seems to be voting for Calli. Which is fair. Even I would do that.
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Said it before and I’ll say it again: happening spaces that move you around the board without any input from the player suck. They’re just a little bit worse than boards with a tiny loop at the beginning that some players will be ushered down for reasons they can’t control.
My fundamental issue with the mini/mega system is more that it also comes at the same time as a large-scale gutting of the items from the previous party. The only mushrooms you can get are mini or mega mushrooms, which both have frustrating downsides that punish you for using them in the first place; and yet the mega mushroom is still the superior choice. On top of that, almost every other item aside from the crystal ball and, in the most dire of circumstances, the chomp whistle, is barely worth using; if you even have space in your inventory for a non-mushroom item with all the mushrooms the game forces on you.
The obvious solution is to always be using mushrooms, like the previous game that also had a million opportunities to get items, but, again, using either of the two items you are most likely to get for 95% of a standard game comes with an automatic penalty. The developers really want to create a board game where everybody is using items at all times to either mitigate elements of luck, even the odds, or to cause additional chaos, but there’s always something they get wrong and have to try to course correct in the following game. I’ll put a pin in that sentence and come back to it in, oh, let’s say 18 months.
My actual biggest aesthetic gripe with Mario Party from the Gamecube onwards, though, isn’t the board floating above the skybox like a Super Monkey Ball level, it’s the way the dice blocks look and sound. I liked the whirring sound and constant flickering of numbers on the N64 dice blocks; the ringing bells and slow ticking of the GCN dice blocks just feels off to me for some reason.
Other than that, MP4 is actually mostly fine. The specific layout of the boards are about as good as any other party, from what I remember (basically nothing), duels being reworked into boss battles lets them get some semblance of a story mode, as well as an actual Bowser section, some of the best/most involved minigames in the series are in this one, and it has a bunch of cool extras. I just wish there was a way to make it not move at an utterly glacial pace.
I think Michael could take the bonus board, also.
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It might just be a bunch of nostalgia, but I really do still like Mario Party 4. At least I’ll say that before we get to 4-7 which I didn’t play as much. Maybe they’re actually really really really good. Like what happened with 3 for the most part. But I can agree with a lot there about the item system not being that great, especially when they can put stars behind the pipes.
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So much of that opening cutscene made me think it was a tech demo. That close-up shot of Mario’s face, where his eyes move to follow the floating bag, just screams to me, “Look at the graphical power of the Gamecube!!!” Plus, there was that Koopa dancing around. You weren’t getting that on an N64, that’s for sure!
For some reason, I assumed I hadn’t played Mario Party 4 because I don’t remember anything about it, but seeing the Mini and Mega Mushrooms again reminded me of just how impossible it was to get anywhere you needed a Mini Mushroom to access. I look forward to seeing more boards and finding out what else I forgot about.
In the meantime, I’m gonna vote for Michael. That’s just what my gut tells me.
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This is not untrue. Actually no. This is very true. The mini and mega mushrooms make it impossible to accomplish anything in this game. Its hard to get into the pipes to go to certain areas with one mini mushroom, you usually need two or three to make it into the pipe otherwise you under shot with them or over shot without. The mega mushrooms are a hassle since they make you skip things such as shops and even the star itself. There really is no winning with either of the mushrooms. I’m sure you will find there are other items and maps of interest that will make you say “Aw yes the Mario Party 4”