Mario Party 6
We’ve seen Mario defeat enemies, play tennis, golf, cart, and now we see him again as pawn on a gameboard in Mario Party 6. Is the game after 5 previous episodes still interesting or can we leave laying on store shelves ?
Of course there’s no beautiful story or anything, the goal is to have a party and have fun, as the title suggested. With a maximum of 4 (computer-controlled or real players) you need to go over the gameboards and collect coins and stars.
During each round, the players need to move a couple of squares. The amount is determined by a roll of the dice. You end on one of them and it’s possible that it will be a dual square where you need to play against one of the other players. When arriving at a question mark, you don’t know in advance what will be requested.
There are also regularly colored squares that determine the teams at the end of a round. During your turn you can set traps that will work as a disadvantage for the others. Luckily there are also many items that help you against these. You’ll have to adapt your strategy from time to time as there’s a day/night cycle and the gameboard adapts accordingly.
At the end of each round, a minigame is played and everyone has to participate. Depending the color the gamers have landed, the teams are made. Then randomly one of over 60 minigames is chosen, some explanation is given, and you can start.
It may sound things go pretty quick but unfortunately this is all but true. I can remember having been occupied in a game for already a long time, pressed “start” to see how many rounds I still had to do, and to my surprise noticed I wasn’t even halfway after which I boredly turned off my GC.
This doesn’t mean that MP6 is boring but there’s just a bit too little action. You throw a dice, move, wait 3 turns, play a minigame, etc. You’re doing nothing for quite a long time and Mario Party 6 isn’t really a game that’s enjoying yo watch.
A nice addition is the accompanying microphone. This is plugged into your memory card slot and can be used for 5 minigames. Not a lot, but it’s cool to see what they can do with speech technology. There’s a game where you perform different attacks by saying the accompanying number, while the goal of your opponents who play with the controller is to escape. It’s a nice gimmick but you’ll quickly put it away as the real minigames are more fun.
On the part of sound and graphics, Mario Party 6 disappoints. The characters are made out of too little polygones and play on boring gameboards. The sounds are AGAIN the same tones we’re used from Mario & Co. A lot more work could have been put in here.
Mario Party 6 is a mediocre title. The singleplayer has little to offer seeing that building a party with the computer isn’t really easy. The multiplayer is more fun seeing you’re playing with your friends, but the action is just too slow to keep you interested.
5.0