Mario Party 10 (for Wii U)

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Pros Plenty of enjoyable and whimsical mini-games. Game maps are all distinct and quirky. New modes give the game much-needed variety.

Cons Amiibo Party is cumbersome to play, and requires multiple amiibos to be enjoyable. Bowser Party has too few mini-games, and lacks balance. Wii Remotes are required to play. Bottom Line Mario Party 10 tightens and polishes the series' mini-game shenanigans and introduces new game modes, for better and for worse.

By Gabriel Zamora

The Mario Party titles are mini-game filled board games that feature four players competing against one another to reach a goal and earn the highest score. Mario Party 9 shook up the formula by putting all the players in one vehicle, so that they travel together rather than individually on the board. Mario Party 10 for Wii U continues this style of progression for its standard Mario Party mode, but it also introduces Amiibo Party for players who preferred the solitary movement of earlier games, and Bowser Party, which pits four Wii Remote-using players against a GamePad-wielding Bowser player. These new game modes lack the polish of the standard Mario Party mode, but they do feature interesting gimmicks and mechanics that would be great to see again in future titles, if they're retooled.

Breathing Life to a Stagnant Party
In Mario Party mode four players share a vehicle and take turns rolling dice to make progress on a game board. In classic Mario Party style, different spots on the game board correspond to different mini-games, penalties, and conditions. Though you all share the vehicle, you are also competing with one another for mini-stars, which are tallied at the end of the game.

To earn these stars you must actively screw over your friends by carefully selecting special dice blocks for ideal rolls, or utterly crushing them in a variety of contests. Naturally, the fierce competition, sabotage, and sheer luck involved can create some hilarious and emotionally charged Mario Party sessions.

The Party Crasher
Bowser Party is new and unique to the Mario Party series, and comes thanks to the Wii U GamePad functionality. Instead of competing for mini-stars, four players armed with Wii Remotes cooperate to earn and preserve hearts. A fifth player, armed with the Wii U GamePad, plays as Bowser and does his or her best to chase, sabotage, and tag other players through a variety of villainous mini-games. Wii Remote players win if at least one of them makes it to the end of the game board with hearts. The Bowser player wins if he or she manages to deplete all the other players' hearts. This mode is extremely fun and exciting, but is also noticeably unbalanced in Bowser's favor. It is far too easy for Bowser to catch up to the other players, especially as they get closer to the end of the board.

Bowser Party mode also suffers from repetition. When compared to Mario Party mode, which offers more than 50 free-for-all, 2-Vs-2 and 1-Vs-3 mini-games in total, Bowser Party is disappointingly limited with just 10 mini-games. Of the five game boards in Mario Party, only three of them can be selected in Bowser Party.

Partying With Models
Amiibo Party is the second new game mode in Mario Party 10, and it utilizes the unique NFC properties of the Wii U GamePad and amiibo figurines. This mode plays like the Mario Party games of old. Each player takes a turn rolling a die and moving around the board at his or her own pace, trying to earn a high score. As you play, you earn tokens that you can use to handicap other players or give yourself perks.

The board you play on depends entirely on the amiibo you use to initiate Amiibo Party. Each of the boards can be customized, and each features a gimmick to spice up the game. The token system lets players play strategically, and frequent mini-games keep the game engaging.

That said, Amiibo Party has its shortcomings, too. You only need one amiibo to initiate the mode, which is great except that non-amiibo players cannot earn or use tokens. Since using tokens adds to Amiibo Party's excitement and stategy, this shortcoming makes the mode much less fun when playing with a limited number of amiibo.

Though the boards can be customized to a degree, they are far too small and straightforward. Perhaps this was intentional, so as to keep the game session focused and concise, but larger boards with branching pathways would have made Amiibo Party more interesting. I also would've appreciated an option to adjust the number of turns beyond ten.

Lastly, being tethered to an amiibo is not very fun. Clearly, Nintendo intended for Amiibo Party to play as a hybridized digital/physical board game. Players must tap their amiibo onto the NFC sensor to input actions, much as you move your piece on a real game board. Nearly every action requires amiibo inputs. This quickly becomes grating, since the gameplay simply boils down to constantly pressing the "confirm" button with a physical toy. Having to shuffle between using the GamePad for inputs, and the Wii Remote to play mini-games, quickly becomes tedious.

A Fun, Flawed Party
Still, Mario Party is enjoyable, despite the new modes' flaws. Bowser Party could have benefitted from more mini-games, as well as the freedom to use all game boards. Amiibo Party, being much more experimental, needs a bit more work to polish up, but it could eventually serve as a fantastic alternative to the standard Mario Party mode. There is plenty of fun to be had in Mario Party 10, though the party falls flat at times.

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