As I've said a few times prior to this I think the Mario party series needed to die off after the first game, which was awesome, but the sequels that followed were less than stellar. To be honest I would have never played this DS version and in the long scheme of things I could have gone on living without ever having played it but in the next breath it was better than I thought it would be and almost makes up for the missteps the series has taken as a whole.
The game has a nice visual style going for it but I found the boards to be a bit bland and uninspired. Yeah, the Mario theme is present and all but there are only 5 boards and they seem needlessly complex with repeat routes and stuff and too complex for no real reason.
I only messed around with the story mode in this game so I can't really comment on any multiplayer features or anything like that but as usually that should be expected from me as I always state I don't know a single soul with a DS and half the time no one is on-line when I am.
So, the story mode allows you to pick from 6 or so characters. There are no unlockable ones and the plot is always the same so that doesn't matter, even the ending is the same for everyone and it isn't exactly an interesting story and I must say I hate Bowser JR, he's annoyingly lame.
So anyway, the idea of the game is to collect coins and stars and have the most. You roll a die and move that many blocks. Depending on the type of block and its color depends on rewards and how you will be placed in a mini game. Two people on red and two on blue means it will be a tag team effort and a single person on red and three on blue means three against one.
The main draw of the series has always mean the quick mini games and to be fair they are decent this time around but I was really hoping for more stylus control and really the game has very little of that so that was a let down but some games just don't work it out that well (more on that in my next DS review...)
So, with only five boards the game is over quickly. The one cool new feature is boss fights which are a mini game and if you lose you need to replay the board again which really sucks a big one but oh well, maybe that is why the game is so short. The bosses are fun and amusing but I see no reason to ever play them again.
I'd recommend this to fans of the series, as it's a quick game to just pick up and play. It is short and lacks any real unlockables outside of mini games but it is still fun to play in small bursts. I personally wouldn't run out and buy it but it was decent enough.
Story - 5/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 8/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 7/10
Replay value - 6/10
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