I've always talked about nostalgia and how I can't relate to it as much as "90's kids" could, but the Mario Party series continues to grow in popularity from the first installment of Mario Party in 1998 to the present with the most recent Mario Party, Mario Party 9. It was released this year in the United States on March 11. It has always been a classic video game, where players choose their favorite character and travel across a board collecting coins to buy stars and become the "superstar" by collecting the most stars. This Monopoly-styled game is very fun. The game can change in numerous ways, such as buying and using items on yourself or other players, winning minigames for coins, using the dice to land on a desired spot, etc.
Here is a picture of the front cover of Mario Party 9, which I got on Monday this week:
You may be thinking, how has this series lasted through nine games and still remain popular? Well, for many reasons! Each game has an addition of new minigames, items, maps, characters, and many more to make it even more exciting than before. But, this all takes a big turn in Mario Party 9. Mario Party 9 probably brought the most changes from one game to the next. First off, in the others, players traveled seperately, but now everyone travels together in a vehicle. This doesn't allow much strategy for some other players; for example, if you want to turn left when the player whose turn it is (the captain) wants to go right, you are goin' right. Second, in the other games in the series, you could set a limit to how many turns everyone takes. Now, you go from start to finish, meaning games could range from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Third, usually after everyone takes a turn, a minigame is played. Now, a minigame is only played if you land on the specific space on the board that starts a minigame. And fourth, the creators this time tried to incorporate "boss battles" into the game. You can't lose them, and it is basically a minigame. You have to understand that this game was designed for younger kids, and inside, I am. They have used many ideas from other Mario games to make it more interesting.
Don't run off thinking I hate this game, because I don't. I just enjoyed the original style Mario Party games, where players try to get coins to get stars and have a set amount of turns each. This is obviously not my favorite Mario Party game, but there are some good things about it. One thing is the exciting music. With the growing rate of techno music, Mario Party 9 has also used some techno-dubsteppy music to suit minigames. Just listen:
While this is very upbeat and catchy, I actually enjoy a specific song from Mario Party 7. It is the theme of the board, Pagoda Peak. It is a Chinese-style board, with gongs, mountains, pagodas, and a koopa master. This is the theme of the board:
I recommend purchasing this game if you enjoy Mario games, especially the Mario Party series. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as I do. Also, try buying one of the older Mario Party games to have a different experience! Have fun!
My question for the week is...
What do you think of the differences?
