Once upon a time I completely believed that there was nothing better than a Mario Party game.
I thought I could play the franchise forever, and I looked forward to each new addition to the series with great excitement. But then something happened, (I think it was probably around Mario Party 4), Gasp! the Mario Party formula started getting a little stale for me.

Once More...With Feeling

Ya' know the Mario Party series has attempted to leave the living room before- with a game called "Mario Party Advance." It wasn't exactly a wonderful experience; in fact it was a dud! Thankfully with "Mario Party DS", Nintendo has finally given us a full party experience on a handheld. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

In this game, Bowser is throwing a party with lots of food and he invites Mario and all his buddies over to join in on the fun as a way to apologize for "being such a jerk" all these years. Yeah, right! Mario and crew get a party invite from Bowser - and accept? I guess free eats can't be beat.

It's a trap of course! Mario and his friends find themselves shrunken down to shrinky-dink size by Bowser. Gullible fools!
You know, you'd think years of defeat would get to a guy, but Bowser just doesn't give up!

If you've played any of the Mario Party's in the past, on the N64, GameCube or Wii, then you should have a good idea of how the game plays. The DS game doesn't tinker with this formula at all, so if you have never liked any of the Mario Party games before, it is doubtful that "Mario Party DS" will change your mind. It really is a love or hate thing - hitting up dice, taking turns moving around a board, setting hexes to trip other players up, spending coins to purchase those all-important stars.

He likes to move it, move it

"Mario Party DS" has some of the best minigames around; (second to Warioware of course) they are simple, quirky, and fun. The sheer number of them by itself is very impressive. There are over 70 of them! From now on, if a DS party game has anything less than 70 mini-games, it's officially a rip-off to me!

Mario Party games has always been a huge time commitment.
The good news is, they've picked up pace of the game just a bit for the handheld version. This is definitely a good thing, I was able to play a full 10 turn game in just under 30 minutes.

In the end, it is still Mario Party and it does what it does. Again and again...and again.

What's in your Pocket? Why it's a-me Mario!