Mario Party 8

10 Review to this product

• 

  A. Hiestand
  June 11th, 2007 on 6:22 pm

  Rating

  My 6-year-old daughter wanted this game and saved her allowance and birthday money to buy it. She and I have had the best time playing this. I am not an avid gamer so it is just the right speed for she and I. There are some games that are so funny that she is laughing so hard while playing. She asks me all day long if I will play MP8 with her. My 11-year-old will butt in and play with us as well.

  We’ve only had it about a week and have opened up about 98% of the mini games but are still having a blast with it.

  I’ve seen some complaints about the computer always rolling 10s and getting the good prizes and squares but I have not noticed this. I find the game play to be pretty competitive. We have beat the computer characters many times and there have been times where it is neck in neck and pretty exciting right to the very end.

  I’ve even played this by myself while the kids were at school one day! Loads of fun.
• 

  C. Tegen
  July 12th, 2007 on 6:46 am

  Rating

  I usually don’t like any of the Mario games. But I bought this one for my husband and surprisingly I love it! It makes great use of the Wii remote, is simple enough for anyone to play, and there are lots of great mini-games to play. Great to be able to play with other people but also be able to play solo. But like many of the other Wii games, it is addictive and you’ll find that time has passed you buy quite quickly! Highly recommended.
• 

  Tammy Olson
  September 4th, 2007 on 3:28 am

  Rating

  Nintendo has done a great job with the Wii. The only problem is that most of the games for it only allow one to two players at any given time, so Nintendo comes out with MARIO PARTY 8! this game is a 4 out of 5 stars in one player mode, but when you get three or four people playing, it ROCKS!!!! this is a SPECTACULAR game to play with your friends. It will entertain you and your guests for hours! The Wii remote is the key to this games great multiplayer action. you can enjoy different kinds of gameplay like 1 on 3, 2 on 2, or every man for himself. each type of gameplay has games that are unique it. Like one of the 1 on 3 games is, one person shoots snowballs at the other three, and another is the three trying to stop the one from making it it the top of a tower. So, in summery, THIS IS AN AWESOME GAME TO PLAY WITH FRIENDS!!!!!!!
• 

  K. Yonts
  October 10th, 2007 on 2:56 pm

  Rating

  My grandkids (ages 4-8) always want to play this when they come over. It is hard to get them away from it for dinner. They play with their 26 year old uncle and can even beat him sometimes. The game seems to create an even playing field for all ages once they learn what to do. They don’t sit down the entire time that they are playing and cheer each other on.
• 

  Big Daddy K
  May 13th, 2008 on 11:15 pm

  Rating

  I have been playing this with my family a couple fo times a week, and it is a blast.

  For those of you new to Mario Party, like I was, it is basically an animated board game style of play with mini games after each round. There are a few different boards to play on and tons of mini games that most any age can handle. My kindergartener has no problem competing against “normal” difficulty computer opponents, and easily beats the “easy” level in the mini games.

  I fully recommend this for family entertainment. The only down side to it is the minimum number of turns is 10. For two players playing as a team against the computer, that means your game is going to be about 1 hour minimum. On the positive side, even my 6 year old does not get bored with it in that hour.

  As an adult party game, it can be just as entertaining and very challanging. You will enjoy all the smack talking and strategy as you try to gather those stars. Just remember to never give up because you can spin around and win with just the right role or piece of candy.
• 

  Todd Justman
  May 16th, 2008 on 7:37 am

  Rating

  This is the first Wii game we’ve gotten that really engaged our 4-year-old boy. Ultimately up to now he could care less about our other Wii titles such as Cars, Carnival Games, and Playground Games.

  Our boy loves that he can play a lot of this out of the box. He can choose his character and move him around the board. Because the game leverages the Wii controller quite well he can get into the mini-games. The best feature is that you can practice each mini-game as much as you want, which is good because some of them take a few tries. The variety of games alone satisfies our short attention span family quite well. There is a train map that just hooked him big-time, so if you have a boy between the ages of 3-8 it will likely hook your boy too.

  The professional reviewers have to be taken with a grain of salt. The comic-book-guy reviewers with lame beards and questionable hygiene are not going to like a game that a 4-year-old does. One reviewer noted that much of the game is left to chance instead of skill. This is actually a big plus for parents with small kids. I am hyper-competitive so it’s not my first instinct to let the kid (or Wookie) win. But with this game my little boy came in second place on his own, so between the game itself and the adjustable difficulty levels, my kid can kick my butt at a much younger age, which keeps me in check!
• 

  K. Lee
  February 2nd, 2009 on 12:58 pm

  Rating

  I got this game for Christmas from all the reviews about how fun for the entire family this was and it did not disappoint.

  My 6 year and 4 year old are having a blast with it. The mini-games can be challenging even for grown-ups but it all in the name of good fun. This is one of the few games in my collection that is constantly being played.
• 

  Teresa Iodice
  February 25th, 2009 on 10:34 am

  Rating

  One of the greatest, most fun games I bought for my children (ages 6 and 8). It is over a month that they have it and they have yet to get bored of it. Each time they play, they discover something new which spikes their interest all over again. Great buy.
• 

  Nightmare
  April 8th, 2009 on 2:04 am

  Rating

  This is the first Mario Party game I have played since the original, and it’s the first that I owned. Coming into it I knew what to expect for the most part, but I didn’t know how things had changed over the course of the previous 7 titles. After playing this game for many hours over a few weeks, I must say that I am not disappointed.

  The board game aspect of Mario Party 8 is the biggest draw, IMO (but if you don’t want to play boardgame style you can choose to play without the board in a few other modes that are pretty cool). There are six different boards to play on (five available from the start), and each one offers a unique take on the ultimate goal–gaining the most power stars in the alotted number of turns. One is pretty basic with multiple paths to choose from as you head towards the star (after spending 20 coins for the star it appears somewhere else on the board). Another involves making the most laps down a single-path board that ultimately leads to a free star. One of my favorites involves investing money in hotels that provide stars to the player who has invested the most coins. In other words, the variety of boards is very satisfying.

  Minigames are played at the end of each round (after all four players have taken a turn). It could be a 4 player free for all, 3 vs. 1, 2 vs. 2 (the winner(s) of any of these earns coins), or a battle minigame in which players pool a certain amount of money in and compete for the lion’s share. You can play each board as teams if you wish, which is great if there’s a poor loser in your family.;) There is also a VS. mode where only two players compete, but it’s not that interesting because you rarely participate in any minigames since you must land on a specific type of square to initiate them.

  There is a “story” mode (although there’s not really a story to speak of) for one player, but it’s a series of VS matches which gets kind tiring.

  Minigames come in a large variety. Some are played by pointing/shooting, tilting the remote, shaking the remote, holding it side ways like a standard controller, and a few others. The motion controls work flawlessly, and are used to make some pretty neat minigames. Sometimes I just decide on some I want to play and go to the Minigame Tent to play them individually.

  Replay value excels in Mario Party 8. You can play different boards for variety, have some friends over to spice things up, and each play through is always different. You never know what’s going to happen.

  The only real negative I have is that some minigames require pure luck. They are rare, but they can be the most important. But luck is a part of a board game anyway, so that’s really not a game breaker.

  Overall, I highly recommend this game if you enjoy board games, playing with friends/family, or love minigames. This 22 year old gamer is very pleased.
• 

  H. Rivers
  June 19th, 2009 on 8:57 pm

  Rating

  I’m not a lifelong gamer – the Wii is the first gaming system I’ve ever owned and I have a 6 year old and a 9 year old son. So I don’t know about the long history of Mario games – I’ve certainly heard of Mario, but the Mario franchise is new to me. So I was a little nervous buying into the game – would I have to know all sorts of back story to play it? No, not a bit.

  The game format is simple. Up to four players (living or computer) can play a board game in which you roll dice (the Wii remote), move around a board and play little 1 minute mini games to earn prizes. The goal is usually to collect Stars but how you do that changes from game to game. Games can last for 10-50 turns (a typical 10 turn game is about 30 minutes), and players can be handicapped (so I can let the kids start out with two extra stars and then play as well as I want to, as I try to beat them).

  The mini games are pretty fun – everyone has their favorites and everyone has games that they hate. The mini games get picked at random, so you never know what you’ll get. One thing I love is that you can practice a game before you play it for real. So when friends come over, they have a chance to see how the game is played before jumping in and getting their butts kicked by my kids (who have played many times). It’s a great leveling field. The games are also designed to have a fair bit of randomness in them (a few of the games are completely luck). While there’s skill, you can still see that luck plays a role and when you’ve got a 40-year old vs. a 6-year old that’s a really good thing.

  The game boards feature different game goals and scenes. The boys like the variety: ghosts in a spooky house, dolphins on the beachside, a space station. And you can make the computer players as smart or as dumb as you want, so there’s a lot of room to create a game that everyone will enjoy. Also, while it’s really great as a group game you can play alone – my 6 year old likes to practice by himself and will give himself a smart computer partner so that he can kick butt.

  We’ve really enjoyed it and I’ve purchased it as a gift, too. I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it again – it’s a keeper.