Do you think the Mario Party series needs a reboot?

Let's agree on something: Mario Party is a selling machine. It prints money. It attracts many people: young kids and adults alike (the latter, not so much, but still). Some people think that enterprises do things no matter what as long as they sell, but the truth is (I say this being a Business student and using common sense) that money isn't all companies care about; they also need to satisfy the consumers with their products.

Mario Party is a series that has been criticized in the past for repeating its formula over and over again. Until Mario Party 8, the series followed the formula of collecting Coins and then buying Stars with them, but the true blood in the veins of Mario Party consists in the mini-games.

My point here is that it's a fact that the last Mario Party games have received very bad reception. Sure, there are people who do love Mario Party 8, 9 and Mario Party: Island Tour, but I think it's safe to assume that there are more people who dislike them. It's contradictory, because people have criticized Mario Party for following the same formula for years, and when they decide to change the formula, the games are received even worse. Mario Party 9 took a chance to change the gameplay for something more family-oriented, which consisted in having all the players moving together. Island Tour has only been out for three days, but it's obvious that it will go down along with Mario Party Advance as the worst game in the series (Yesterday I had the opportunity to play it myself; it is awful). Most people would agree that the saga has indeed become stale and uncreative.

I know many people here know that I hate every single Mario Party from 4 on (well, DS is decent), so this thread might come off as a little (or very) biased, but I also have to comment that I acknowledge that some people do love all Mario Party games, so this is a general thread. I'm talking to people who hate the first games, too.

So, given the fact that people hate how that the game is always the same, and they also hate the fact that they changed the formula, do you think that the Mario Party series needs a reboot? How about starting from scratch and give it a fresh, new start? Nintendo needs its mascot and his friends starring in mini-games because they are simple and easy to play (and again, they sell a hell of a lot), but, what if they created a whole new series of mini-games with a completely new concept and let Mario Party rest in peace for good? Something not so luck-dependant? Something made by a different studio? Would you like that or would you hate it? Do you think it's impossible?

Leave your thoughts and tell us what you would like in a new Mario Party game (or a completely new Mario mini-game series). Remember to respect other people's thoughts and state in a civilized way what you think of all this.

TLR Just answer the poll and say what you think.

I don't care that it takes forever to read, but yes it does

Anser said:

It prints money.

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It's a mint? Awesome!

What's awful about Island Tour, exactly (I haven't played it)?

Mario4Ever said:

Anser said:

It prints money.

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It's a mint? Awesome!

What's awful about Island Tour, exactly (I haven't played it)?

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Instead of the car, now it's just a race to the finish, and minigames are not for mini-stars but to gain an extra dice (golden being the best, silver for second, bronze for third, and no extra dice for last). The Mini-star stuff is back as well, though I don't know what purpose they serve. Plus the character line-up is lacking pretty badly. The mini-games seem pretty enjoyable, but many of them are too gimmicky, where trouble can easily occur. It looks a little better than MP9, but it still has that MP9 feel to it, especially since much of the music is the same.

Deku Link said:

Mario4Ever said:

Anser said:

It prints money.

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It's a mint? Awesome!

What's awful about Island Tour, exactly (I haven't played it)?

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Instead of the car, now it's just a race to the finish, and minigames are not for mini-stars but to gain an extra dice (golden being the best, silver for second, bronze for third, and no extra dice for last). The Mini-star stuff is back as well, though I don't know what purpose they serve. Plus the character line-up is lacking pretty badly. The mini-games seem pretty enjoyable, but many of them are too gimmicky, where trouble can easily occur. It looks a little better than MP9, but it still has that MP9 feel to it, especially since much of the music is the same.

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This really sounds like Wii Party's Board Game Island.

Deku Link said:

Mario4Ever said:

Anser said:

It prints money.

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It's a mint? Awesome!

What's awful about Island Tour, exactly (I haven't played it)?

Click to expand...

Instead of the car, now it's just a race to the finish, and minigames are not for mini-stars but to gain an extra dice (golden being the best, silver for second, bronze for third, and no extra dice for last). The Mini-star stuff is back as well, though I don't know what purpose they serve. Plus the character line-up is lacking pretty badly. The mini-games seem pretty enjoyable, but many of them are too gimmicky, where trouble can easily occur. It looks a little better than MP9, but it still has that MP9 feel to it, especially since much of the music is the same.

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Exactly. The models and animations from Mario Party 9 we reused, as was a lot of its music. The mini-games are by far the worst in the series. I don't know if I can really say if they're worse than 8's, but if they're not worse, they're at the same level. They're uncreative, boring, and most of them are just redesigns of mini-games from past versions. I don't care that much about the roster, except for Boo, whose presence bugs me. I don't criticize the amount of characters because if I were to make a Mario Party I would make it have the exact same amount of characters. The game feels rushed and is way too gimmicky for my taste (and apparently mostly everyone's).

Glaceon said:

This really sounds like Wii Party's Board Game Island.

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Well, they were both made by Nd Cube, so that makes sense. I really think Nd Cube is doing an awful job at making Mario Party games. Hudson's last Mario Party games were bad, but I think Nd Cube's are even worse.

Mario Party 8 had meh minigames and some of the boards were boring.

For Mario Party 9, in terms of minigames, it's good but the board style is very different from the classic formula. I like both but I understand why lots of people hate the car mechanic, it just doesn't feel being Mario Party.

Mario Party: Island Tour seems ok, even if it could have been better.

If they are making a Mario Party 10 for Wii U, they should return to the classic formula, or at least make it an option. And there is definitely room for interesting minigames with the gamepad. And the most important, they should do an online mode, the spirit of Mario Party is to be played at 4 players.

If there is ever a reboot it hould definatly be developed by LJN (or Activision hence they bought LJN Nevermind this, Acclaim bought LJN).

BananaFreak said:

If there is ever a reboot it hould definatly be developed by LJN (or Activision hence they bought LJN).

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Mmmm... Personally, I would rather have Nintendo make it themselves (especially if it's Nintendo EAD). They do know how to make good, fun games. I don't trust Activision; they ruined Spyro horribly with their reboot of the franchise.

BananaFreak said:

If there is ever a reboot it hould definatly be developed by LJN (or Activision hence they bought LJN Nevermind this, Acclaim bought LJN).

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No, not Activision. They already ruined Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. We don't want them F'ing up Mario Party too.

Personally I think there's enough Mario Partys as it is, so I don't think it's necessary for a reboot.

MCS said:

Personally I think there's enough Mario Partys as it is, so I don't think it's necessary for a reboot.

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I also think that there are enough Mario Party games already, but, like I said, Nintendo needs Mario and his friends starring in mini-games because it sells a lot and it's easy for young children to pick up, so it's either that or have a most-likely awful Mario Party 10 on the Wii U pretty soon.

Um, wasn't Mario Party 9 itself a sort of reboot? And look what happened there...

Anser said:

I also think that there are enough Mario Party games already, but, like I said, Nintendo needs Mario and his friends starring in mini-games because it sells a lot and it's easy for young children to pick up, so it's either that or have a most-likely awful Mario Party 10 on the Wii U pretty soon.

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Yeah. I have to comment, though - I have a few Mario Party games myself, and they're really boring and tedious to play by yourself. Make your move, wait 3 turns, make your move...rinse and repeat (save for the occasional minigame). They're definitely meant to be for a group of people.

I wouldn't necessarily say a reboot is needed, but I feel like the luck needs to be toned down so you don't get screwed over easily. The traditional way of competing to be the Superstar would be nice since it's not as easy to get screwed over, but if they can change it up a bit (like MP6 did), that would be great. You had many tools to influence your victory back then.

I really didn't like 1, 2, 7 and 9 for their lack of control and how easy it was to be screwed over.
4, 5 & 8 had very dull, slow-paced boards.

Well-designed, innovative boards, with the Day & Night System and Orbs from MP6 and items like the Reverse Mushroom from MP3, along with mini-games we love from the various Mario Parties and online playability would probably be the perfect Mario Party for me, and I think many others would agree for the most part. =P

I swear MPIT was CRYING for online playability. There were a low-luck, high-skilled board (Shy Guy's Shuffle City)...

THAT CANNOT be played alone. You have to have 3 or 4 players locally to play on that board. If Fortune Street can have online (which can take hours), why not Mario Party? The pros would obviously outweigh the cons.

Anser said:

like I said, Nintendo needs Mario and his friends starring in mini-games because it sells a lot and it's easy for young children to pick up.

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Uh, the roster of Island Tour isn't good too. If it doesn't sell, it's a very reasonable result. Same for the Olympics.

I guess Nintendo had tried to reboot between 8 and 9 because the time interval between them is longer. Party 9 wasn't bad, but not excellent enough. I personally don't expect handheld Parties though maybe Nintendo is confident in making handheld minigames work. I'd rather wait for a new handheld Waroware.

BananaFreak said:

If there is ever a reboot it hould definatly be developed by LJN (or Activision hence they bought LJN Nevermind this, Acclaim bought LJN).

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Gotta love that Rainbow.

Anyway, I liked Mario Party 1-DS (never played Advance), even if the quality drop in Mario Party 8 is noticeable. Well, there's a reason I called myself "Mario Party X", no? I avoided Mario Party 9 because I don't want to engage in what is possibly a luck fest even worse than a Fortune Space. The biggest reason I skipped over 9, however, is the lack of cooperative play and 2 vs. 2 minigames. For someone who's lucky enough to have somebody always here to play and cooperate (my identical twin sister), this has dealt a giant blow to our interest in Mario Party 9. Eventually, we pirated the game to play its minigames (it's not worth the 50$ to buy the entire game just for its minigames) and upload a few images to MarioWiki. We had fun in 2 vs. 1 minigames (us versus Wario :D), but bad character choice and bad board design kept us away.

When Mario Party 3DS was announced, I was excited for it, that maybe ND Cube paid attention and made a game where it adheres to the older games (and we have 2 vs. 2 and cooperative play) and has Toadette. But no, it's a stupid race to the finish esque game with minigames that don't reward you that much. I thought it would be another Mario Party DS (which made good use of personal screens and touch screens), but I was sorely disappointed. So, I skipped it again.

At this rate, ND Cube is churning out garbage after trash, and I honestly think they should stop ruining Mario Party.

I have always my sister to play with me in Mario Party, which is probably why I have a fonder opinion of Mario Party than most people, so I'm biased. Mario Party is also a brutal torture prison disguised as a wacky fun house with characters hiding their excruciating pain with cutesy faces beaming with glee, which is also another reason I like it.

I hope there's a reboot or at least a game that caters to skilled players. Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 3 did a great job at that.

Someone mentioned LJN? No I hope they develop the next Yoshi game.

Anyway, I LOVE the Mario Party series. It's perfect for a sadist. Really. Until 9 screwed it up by making Wario having a chance to win for once.

You just admitted pirating Mario Party 9. You've got guts.

Here's my opinion. I've only played three Mario Party games: the one for the Wii, DS, and N64 in the that order. I've played the Wii and DS one the most, but they got boring really quickly. To the point after three hours, I really didn't feel like playing it anymore. But, when I play the one for the N64, I only played that for two hours, but I felt it was tons more fun than the others that I've played. It was last summer, so I forgot the reasons why. But whatever they did on the N64, they need to do it again.

I especially wanted to know Mario Party X's opinion, given she's the biggest Mario Party fan around here. Glad to know she agrees with me.

Candice said:

But whatever they did on the N64, they need to do it again.

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Exactly.

A lot of people said Mario Party should be killed off. I noticed why a lot of people hated 8 and 9 event though somehow had good times with both games. The only MP game I've played is 2 and it is my favorite as it was much fairer than the other games I've played (if you keep away from the Pirate and Mystery Land boards).

8 felt so slow because it added unnecessary motion controls that didn't need to be there. It had horrible minigame design as well, some are too easy to win while others use motion controls in really painful ways. I will however praise the board design for being creative but the horrible speed of the game will take you forever to get though these. If I would give this a score it would get a 6.5/10.

9 had great minigames and minigame modes but lack of 2 vs 2 and Dual minigames bugged me. 9 had the problem of having so much luck inside you can easily lose half of your mini stars right before the end on some boards and so mnay Bowser spaces are located with events that can screw you to bits. The minigames have little impact on the final result making it agame of luck. I will say that it moves at a faster pace than and the boards are themed nicely. I would give it a 7/10 and it's a bit better than 8.

I do not plan to buy Island Tour, it just looks very mediocre.

I do think Mario Party needs a reboot. Bring back the classic board play where you just pay 20 coins for a star as well as a few gimmick based boards to keep things fresh. Every turn ends with a minigame that no has control over what it is (unlike Mario Party 9). Give it a big but fair roster with characters we want. Don't make rely on luck, add skill. But one there's one thing this series needs: online play.

might be missing something here, but how can you reboot a series with no continuing storyline?

Delelelele Whoop said:

might be missing something here, but how can you reboot a series with no continuing storyline?

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He has a point...

Delelelele Whoop said:

might be missing something here, but how can you reboot a series with no continuing storyline?

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I was talking about a reboot as in restarting the series all over again. It shouldn't even be called Mario Party, and it shouldn't even follow the concept of Mario Party. I'm talking about a brand-new concept that involves mini-games; not necessarily a board game. It's creating a brand-new saga, something fresh, something unique, something original, and letting Mario Party end for good. I mean, if they came up with the idea of Mario Party 15 years ago, they can do it again, right?

Candice said:

You just admitted pirating Mario Party 9. You've got guts.

Here's my opinion. I've only played three Mario Party games: the one for the Wii, DS, and N64 in the that order. I've played the Wii and DS one the most, but they got boring really quickly. To the point after three hours, I really didn't feel like playing it anymore. But, when I play the one for the N64, I only played that for two hours, but I felt it was tons more fun than the others that I've played. It was last summer, so I forgot the reasons why. But whatever they did on the N64, they need to do it again.

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We don't even own 1, 2, and 3 (we rented them, though), so we had to get those 3 by those means. We didn't get Mario Party 1 for free. Yet. I shudder to think about how my keyboard controls will work in those control-stick games.

Again, I got the privilege of always having someone to play with, and since Mario Party is meant to be played with more than one person, judging it from a single-player view is not fair.

Mario Party 9 doesn't deserve my 50 bucks. It deserves to be free. Still, better to have this game than any given cutscene in Hotel Mario.