Played for the Tarvould's Quest Mario Party League, viewable here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNiBuIKkhNOcetedJo2kjJwenDNYqHsFt
I used to champion this game when I was younger, since I got it when it was new. Playing this after running through its predecessors, there's no question that this is one of the weaker titles in the series. Maybe the outright weakest at the time of its release, depending on how charitably you feel towards Mario Party 4. Would certainly explain why the series flipped the script with Party 9 (in addition to 8 being Hudson's last).
An issue with Hudson's later Mario Parties is how heavily the boards strayed away from conventional design and came to rely on their gimmicks. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but moving from one or two gimmick boards to nothing but gimmick boards does mean the play cycle gets distracted. If you're a fan of conventional Mario Party and want to play a conventional-ass board here, your one and only choice is DK's Treetop Temple (which isn't even that great of a traditional board - definitely wanting for an easier way to complete a loop). Every other board lives and dies by its gimmick, usually the latter. Tycoon Town is terrific fun and legitimately one of the series' strongest offerings, and I'm an apologist for Haunted Hideaway (there is a TON of untapped potential in its "Betrayal at House on the Hill"-esque board-building game design), but everything else kinda stinks. Perplex Express is less dynamic than you'd think (also, censored in the UK), Booty Boardwalk is essentially a solved puzzle, and hot hell does Warped Orbit suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Would've been an atrocious capstone to Mario Party League if we didn't invent our own fun.
We played using a mod that allows for GameCube controls, which definitely impacted our play experience - some minigames we were assured would be nightmares (particularly "Flip the Chimp") were completely inoffensive, while other mini-games were exorcised completely (probably impossible to convert). I don't think this changes my ranking a lot one way or the other, though it does go to show how surface-level the adaptation from GameCube to Wii was.
I used to champion this game when I was younger, since I got it when it was new. Playing this after running through its predecessors, there's no question that this is one of the weaker titles in the series. Maybe the outright weakest at the time of its release, depending on how charitably you feel towards Mario Party 4. Would certainly explain why the series flipped the script with Party 9 (in addition to 8 being Hudson's last).
An issue with Hudson's later Mario Parties is how heavily the boards strayed away from conventional design and came to rely on their gimmicks. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but moving from one or two gimmick boards to nothing but gimmick boards does mean the play cycle gets distracted. If you're a fan of conventional Mario Party and want to play a conventional-ass board here, your one and only choice is DK's Treetop Temple (which isn't even that great of a traditional board - definitely wanting for an easier way to complete a loop). Every other board lives and dies by its gimmick, usually the latter. Tycoon Town is terrific fun and legitimately one of the series' strongest offerings, and I'm an apologist for Haunted Hideaway (there is a TON of untapped potential in its "Betrayal at House on the Hill"-esque board-building game design), but everything else kinda stinks. Perplex Express is less dynamic than you'd think (also, censored in the UK), Booty Boardwalk is essentially a solved puzzle, and hot hell does Warped Orbit suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Would've been an atrocious capstone to Mario Party League if we didn't invent our own fun.
We played using a mod that allows for GameCube controls, which definitely impacted our play experience - some minigames we were assured would be nightmares (particularly "Flip the Chimp") were completely inoffensive, while other mini-games were exorcised completely (probably impossible to convert). I don't think this changes my ranking a lot one way or the other, though it does go to show how surface-level the adaptation from GameCube to Wii was.