This is a tough game to formulate my thoughts on because I don't have much to contrast it with. The only other games in the series I have substantial experience with are Super and 2, and this feels very in the middle between the former's universal lameness and the laters hilarious, chaotic, fun.
I played through all the maps and I think overall there are plenty of noteworthy positives amidst an overall blandness and confusion that's omnipresent throughout the game.
Starting with the negatives, I think everyone agrees that all the boards are disappointing, both visually and layout wise. I think on every map there is an opportunity to get stuck in a small loop and have to get lucky to get out, there are a lot of coin toss moments that decide which sections of the boards you can go to, and independent of the luck-based elements I feel like it just takes a long time to maneuver to different sides of the map. Every Mario Party board in the series forces you to go in a certain direction down each path, but the identical metallic paths on every board in this game with their perfect 90 degree turns make it feel more arbitrary and time consuming which directions around the boards you can go.
The production values certainly aren't great. While they definitely modernized the look of the characters, and the models and textures are objectively higher quality with the jump to the Gamecube, I've come to love the fugly, puppeteer-esque look of the N64 graphics and the goofiness and personality it brought to Mario Party. And the music is... there I guess.
And lastly the items are kinda lame. There's not much that's interesting or outside of the series staples. The mini and mega mushroom gimmicks are fine, but there are too many paths and minigames locked behind mini mushroom paths, and it's weird how they are locked to dice rolls instead of something like skeleton keys.
But on the positive side, there's a decent selection of minigames. There are definitely quite a few groaners, but even some of the rage inducing ones like Order Up and Stamp Out lead to a lot of the classic chaotic fun of yelling at your friends. SOME are bangers though: Dungeon Duos, Mr. Blizzard's Brigade, Hop or Pop, Right Oar Left, Chain Chomp Fever, and the BEST Mario Party minigame ever: BOOKSQUIRM!!! A game of Mario Party is not complete without Booksquirm!!!
I had a lot of laughs and good memories with my friends playing through this, it's definitely a decent baseline for Mario Party. But I'm also happy to move on to hopefully more consistently fun games in the series.
I played through all the maps and I think overall there are plenty of noteworthy positives amidst an overall blandness and confusion that's omnipresent throughout the game.
Starting with the negatives, I think everyone agrees that all the boards are disappointing, both visually and layout wise. I think on every map there is an opportunity to get stuck in a small loop and have to get lucky to get out, there are a lot of coin toss moments that decide which sections of the boards you can go to, and independent of the luck-based elements I feel like it just takes a long time to maneuver to different sides of the map. Every Mario Party board in the series forces you to go in a certain direction down each path, but the identical metallic paths on every board in this game with their perfect 90 degree turns make it feel more arbitrary and time consuming which directions around the boards you can go.
The production values certainly aren't great. While they definitely modernized the look of the characters, and the models and textures are objectively higher quality with the jump to the Gamecube, I've come to love the fugly, puppeteer-esque look of the N64 graphics and the goofiness and personality it brought to Mario Party. And the music is... there I guess.
And lastly the items are kinda lame. There's not much that's interesting or outside of the series staples. The mini and mega mushroom gimmicks are fine, but there are too many paths and minigames locked behind mini mushroom paths, and it's weird how they are locked to dice rolls instead of something like skeleton keys.
But on the positive side, there's a decent selection of minigames. There are definitely quite a few groaners, but even some of the rage inducing ones like Order Up and Stamp Out lead to a lot of the classic chaotic fun of yelling at your friends. SOME are bangers though: Dungeon Duos, Mr. Blizzard's Brigade, Hop or Pop, Right Oar Left, Chain Chomp Fever, and the BEST Mario Party minigame ever: BOOKSQUIRM!!! A game of Mario Party is not complete without Booksquirm!!!
I had a lot of laughs and good memories with my friends playing through this, it's definitely a decent baseline for Mario Party. But I'm also happy to move on to hopefully more consistently fun games in the series.