Mario Party 6

When the original Mario Party first came out for the Nintendo 64, it was a hit. While there had been a few games with similar ideas before it, never before had players seen a party game that was consistently fun. However, after many iterations of the series those minigames are becoming stale. Now on its sixth installment, can the series rejuvenate itself and gain a whole legion of new fans?

Nintendo is using the power of the Gamecube to the maximum for this installment, as players should notice a significant graphical boost. In-game character models will now be fully rounded and show more detail then ever before, and environments will also showcase new lighting and animation. The end results should make Mario Party 6 one of the nicer looking games on the Gamecube. One thing that will remain the same for this iteration of the game is the board-game setup (a staple of the series). However, now each board will have a night/day cycle, which changes after every three turns. These add a dynamic element to the boards, as they will change based on whether it is day or night. It is unclear at this point as to how these elements will affect gameplay though.

Mario Party 6 will feature over 80 minigames, including many returning ones. Many of the minigames will be unavailable from the start, and will have to be unlocked in the Solo mode. While specific details on this mode aren’t available, hopefully there will be some kind of story to keep gameplay fresh. In addition to the return of match types from the previous games, Mario Party 6 will include one-on-one duels and challenges from certain key characters. Hopefully this will make the game more fun to play with just one friend when compared to previous versions.

The biggest news about the game would have to be that it includes a microphone controller, which will be used in several of the new minigames. Some of these will include answering quizzes, while others will have you barking commands at your characters. This new mechanic will hopefully add more to the game, and make it stand out from past games in the series.

So far, Mario Party 6 looks like it could put the series back on track. While there is still the chance that it could reuse too many of the old minigames and grow repetitive too fast, at this point in time it looks as though these issues have been taken care of. Mario Party 6 will be out on December 6th, just in time to provide entertainment over the holidays.