Despite being the first Gamecube Mario Party this one feels more like an N64 version, and in many ways is even worse than 2 and 3.
For one thing the boards are still flat, but they don't even feel like they're integrated into their settings anymore. Every board just takes place on a metal walkway, with all the fun stuff being put as decoration, only interacting with any of it when an event space triggers. Even the N64 games despite their limitations managed to make most boards feel like you were walking around their actual locations, not just having a generic board with stickers slapped on it to make it feel like it fits a theme.
It has a pretty forgettable selection of minigames. And yet, some of the best in the series, like Booksquirm and Dungeon Duos, but the majority are very plain, if not annoying. Plus in terms of the big 3 (4 player, 3v1 and 2v2) it actually has less in each category than the previous 3 games, except 2v2 which it has Mario Party 1 beat. It's not by a huge amount (this game has 9 2v2 and 3v1 while I think MP3 and/or 2 has 10 each in those) but with the amount of lacklustre games, it makes them stand out more.
Maybe the worst thing about the game is the mega and mini mushroom gimmick. It's pushed hard, and while on their own they're not bad. Mega mushrooms give 2 dice rolls, can crush opponents you pass to steal 10 coins, but at the cost of skipping any optional spaces, including stars, while mini mushrooms offer unique paths, access to mini-only events and make your dice roll 1-5, which itself is a useful thing in Mario Party even without the mini aspect. The main problem is to make them feel more important than they are, there are multiple "Mushroom" spaces on every board, which will give you one of the two. This is not optional, and you cannot drop or trade items, so if you happen to find yourself unluckily getting 3 mini mushrooms with no way to strategically use them, you're SOL if you wanted to buy that magic lamp. Plus it feels like almost every board event (the ones that have arrows to "enter", not the green ? spaces) other than lotteries are locked behind mini mushrooms now, making the boards feel more empty as a result when you're not using mini-mushrooms, which is most of the time.
For one thing the boards are still flat, but they don't even feel like they're integrated into their settings anymore. Every board just takes place on a metal walkway, with all the fun stuff being put as decoration, only interacting with any of it when an event space triggers. Even the N64 games despite their limitations managed to make most boards feel like you were walking around their actual locations, not just having a generic board with stickers slapped on it to make it feel like it fits a theme.
It has a pretty forgettable selection of minigames. And yet, some of the best in the series, like Booksquirm and Dungeon Duos, but the majority are very plain, if not annoying. Plus in terms of the big 3 (4 player, 3v1 and 2v2) it actually has less in each category than the previous 3 games, except 2v2 which it has Mario Party 1 beat. It's not by a huge amount (this game has 9 2v2 and 3v1 while I think MP3 and/or 2 has 10 each in those) but with the amount of lacklustre games, it makes them stand out more.
Maybe the worst thing about the game is the mega and mini mushroom gimmick. It's pushed hard, and while on their own they're not bad. Mega mushrooms give 2 dice rolls, can crush opponents you pass to steal 10 coins, but at the cost of skipping any optional spaces, including stars, while mini mushrooms offer unique paths, access to mini-only events and make your dice roll 1-5, which itself is a useful thing in Mario Party even without the mini aspect. The main problem is to make them feel more important than they are, there are multiple "Mushroom" spaces on every board, which will give you one of the two. This is not optional, and you cannot drop or trade items, so if you happen to find yourself unluckily getting 3 mini mushrooms with no way to strategically use them, you're SOL if you wanted to buy that magic lamp. Plus it feels like almost every board event (the ones that have arrows to "enter", not the green ? spaces) other than lotteries are locked behind mini mushrooms now, making the boards feel more empty as a result when you're not using mini-mushrooms, which is most of the time.