I had high hopes for this game, but it just didn't deliver.
The best way to describe this game is a mix of Mario Party and Drawn to Life, and Pokemon . However, this game share's one of Mario Party's biggest flaws. No, not luck, but button mashing minigames. I'll get into that later.
The story is about how you've been sent to Amazing Island to fend off this Black Evil who has been turning all of the natives evil. To fend off the evil you need to create a monster. This is the Drawn to Life part of the game. Monster creating is fun and it's one of the high points of the game. However, you are limited in design in the beginning of the and that's why most of your monsters will look like insects. However, there are objects that will increase your monster's stats which adds depth to the accesories you put on. This is where Pokemon comes in.....kinda. To customize your monster you draw shapes on the designs for the skins.
When your monster is created, you have to go fight off the evil. How do you do this, you might ask? By playing MINIGAMES! This is where Mario Party comes in. The minigames involve a foot race, skipping over water, and more. It's fun during the beginning, but later in the game they start reusing minigames, which leaves me to imply the developers were lazy. They do add extra rules to the recycled games, which is acceptable.
Before you start a game you are given rules but they are vague. The controls mostly involve button mashing in the minigames, in fact they were in a lot. See, in Mario Party, not all the games were button mashers. There was variety in the games you played which made everything feel fresh. But in this game, no. Also there is no 4 Player multiplayer! You can only play up to 2 players. That is unexcusable for a party game like this, especially with the games that they have!
The visuals do look good. They look very colorful and it's another thing I enjoyed in this game.
The Verdict!
Overall, this game felt like two games that don't belong with each other slapped on to one title. I wanted to like this game but I really couldn't. But this game isn't terrible. The monster creator did save this game, as well as the visuals. I think this game was meant for younger kids, but if you had a choice I say if you are looking for a good party game for the Gamecube buy any of the Mario Party games for the Gamecube. You will enjoy them more. If you don't, you should probably just rent this game.
Final Score
6- Fair.