![]() The technology of the the Nintendo DS makes a number of whimsical games possible, and most are still held together with the whole “miniaturized” thread. While peripheral to the main gameplay of nearly every Mario Party game, we all know that the minigames lie at the heart and soul of the experience. The boards are particularly intrusive here, perpetually stealing coins, teleporting players all over the board, and otherwise putting stars just that much further out of reach.Ī simple but great minigame where the player builds up speed with the stylus for a long jump. I’d say that Mario Party DS leans a little heavier towards luck than most of its brethren, but it’s still fun if not slightly frustrating. And like so many other installments in Mario Party, there’s one completely uncontrollable factor always in the forefront: luck. There is an extremely irritating stage, Kamek’s Library, that requires the player to blindly teleport around in the board in desperate hopes of landing a star, but otherwise I find the variety well planned and entertaining.Ī big part of collecting stars is having enough coins to do so, and winning minigames is a big part of collecting coins. The miniature theme is kept intact throughout, and ties the game together better than many other examples from the series. There are only 5 different game boards, but this isn’t so bad for a portable. Sometimes the stars are changing price other times a player may buy as many as they wish when they reach the correct spot. Like Mario Party 8(the direct predecessor to DS), this game keeps things interesting by using a different approach to star-gathering on each game board. The teleportation madness is beyond frustrating. All of this is Mario Party 101, and most anyone who’s played will know exactly what’s in store. Facilitating and hindering this process are coins, specialized board spaces, and items that can be bought or found by the players. The gang takes turns moving around a game board with the intention of collecting stars. ![]() In most respects Mario Party DS follows other recent games in the series. It’s not all that important, but the miniaturized theme sets the stage for the visuals. The flimsy storyline has the crew shrunk down to miniature size and in search of pieces of a Sky Crystal in order to stop Bowser from doing…something or another. Released just after Mario Party 8and just before 9, DS marks Hudson Soft’s final involvement with the series. Sitting on solid middle ground, we’ve got a marginally unique entry in the Mario Party canon that does its best to suit the capabilities of the Nintendo DS. Mario Party DS isn’t one of the strongest in the series, but it isn’t one of the weakest either. This review might be a little lighter on comparisons than my previous articles on the series since I don’t have so many other games rattling around in my head. But the other day, I set aside a couple of hours to refamiliarize myself with this installment. For whatever reason, I never got around to reviewing Mario Party DS back when I was on my major Mario Party binge.
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