Overall, Mario Party 4 has improved immensely from it's previous predecessor.
The presentation of Mario Party 4 is pretty much the same from the first three parties. You have story, party, mini-game, and options mode. However, there have been some changes to Mario Party 4. First, in party mode, you can finally have partners on your team and share items with each other. Second, several new items are utilized if different ways. For example, you can use a mushroom to grow into a giant and steal the player's coins once you bypass them. Unfortunately, if you pass a star while you're a giant, then you can't even buy it. The character selection is the same from Mario Party 3. You still have Daisy and Waluigi in there. There are also some new mini-game modes. For instance, your objective is to collect the most coins and walk around the board. There are no stars to collect and mini-games in this mode. Whoever collects the most coins wins. You can also go from ten, twenty, or thirty turns.
The biggest change in Mario Party 4 is the graphics. From the first three parties, the graphics were exactly the same, and the characters looked blocky. This time the characters and environments have been more detailed, and they all look smooth like they should be. The water effects also look very realistic compared to the water effects from the Nintendo 64. To sum it all up, everything just looks fantastic. Although it doesn't have realistic graphics like Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero, the cartoonish graphics still look great. There are also no signs of any frame rate of problems with glitches.
The sounds in this game have also been changed slightly. The music fits good overall. The character voices were well done, but they still can get a bit repetitive sometimes because their speech is still greatly limited.
The core game play of Mario Party 4 has been improved, but not much. The controls are still precise and responsive like its counterparts. The new mini-games have been utilized differently, and has been varied. The difficulty level of the boards and mini-games is not too easy, but not too difficult either. You may also find it a bit challenging just to collect the stars on the boards because they are hard to reach sometimes.
The lasting approval is still a fun mulitplayer experience. Just like its previous games, it's always better to play with a friend than by yourself. Mario Party fans should definitely buy this game because it has been improved a lot. It's disappointing that Gamecube never had online play back then, but I'm not deducting points for that. The modes still may feel a bit limited to several players.
the good- improved graphics and overall core game play, team modes are always a welcome addition
the bad- still somewhat limited modes and character selections, character voices are still redundant
presentation - 8
graphics - 8
sound - 7
game play - 10
lasting approval - 7
Overall 8.0 out of 10