Honestly, I've always felt iffy about the item systems of Mario Parties 2 through 4, mainly due to the imbalanced prices. Although it's appealing that Mini-Game victors get to REALLY utilize their earnings before bad luck bites hard, the glorious Magic Lamp and Boo Bell/Ball are always far too cheap, rendering most other items redundant. Don't get me wrong, the lesser items all have their uses but the majority are far too circumstantial to invest in- how often will a Bowser Suit trump a Boo Bell at robbery? Who's gonna spend 10/15 bucks on a Plunder Chest or Swap Card when items worth stealing aren't much more pricey? Who's gonna spend 10/15 bucks on a Lucky Lamp or Chomp Call when opponents can easily warp straight to stars. Along with monopolizing the item market in these games, the Magic Lamp and Boo Bell/Ball also nullify the boards somewhat- why bother devoting several turns to reaching stars when genies and ghosts make them obtainable from anywhere?
Handed out for free, the capsules of Mario Party 5 can have effects throughout a game's entire duration thanks to the ability to place them on the board (for the wealthy there is the option to pay and use them on yourself). They can unleash quite a range of results and although many are just as circumstantial as items of the previous games, the fact that they're randomly handed out and don't disappear from the board after a single use means all capsule types will likely serve some purpose and essentially make for a different board each and every game. Each capsule action is also carried out by a different character or object, bringing a variety of life to the game whereas built in board events/interactions tend to get tiresome if playing for 30+ turns. With most of MP5's boards containing a few forks, the capsule system makes for more decisions than there were in previous games. Throughout the series, players have had to decide whether heading towards a star is worth landing on a Bowser space- in MP5, such concerns crop up often with long stretches of a board potentially coated in coin munching Piranha Plants! Players may even wish to sacrifice one of their own capsules to cover up something nasty just ahead of them. Memory is also valuable as many capsule events (good or bad) are indistinguishable when on the board. Y'see, inability to buy items hasn't robbed the board play of ALL strategy and even if largely due to the luck of the dice, it's still so satisfying when your traps screw someone over...
Which leads me to a bit of tweaking the majority probably feel would benefit the game- as in the 2 followup games, capsule spaces should belong to whoever placed them. As a capsule user will be just as affected by their trap as anyone else (and just as likely to land on it at some point) there's rarely any motivation to toss them other than decorating the board, nor any strategy beyond tossing them down a route you aren't taking at that time.
Something the 2 followups didn't implement but I wish they had- capsule spaces should cost a little to replace. Quite often in 6 & 7 someone will invest quite heavily in a nasty trap, only for someone else to chuck their own trap on top of it soon after... this ability shouldn't come so cheap! Even just 10 coins would make a decision out of whether or not to cover an opponent's space.
Before I move onto my final desired tweak, I'll briefly summarize the other aspects and content that for me elevate this game above the previous MP installments:
- The boards are finally fully 3D after the flatscapes of previous games.
- It's got a story mode distinct from the standard board play and which doesn't demand too much time. Bowser and his minions are also at their funniest in this game.
- Aside from the slow-as-sin rocket rides of the Future Dream, this game is fairly free from irritating mechanics as well as rare/inconsequential board events, flaws I feel MP4 was particularly guilty of.
- For me, MP3's Duel mode is the only extra content from earlier in the series that competes with the Ice Hockey and Beach Volleyball bonuses of this game.
Now... if/when MP5 is considered for some kind of re-release, it would really benefit from another little tweak- the option to create a CUSTOM mini-game list. I'll never get my head around why this feature was dropped after MP4- surely Hudson didn't believe this game's entire library was beyond reproach? Hell, they included some themed lists of their own, all of which are bizarrely tiny, exclude some gems and contain some turds. I'd be surprised if any of those lists are anywhere near anyone's ideal. As much as everyone has their own tastes in mini-games, there aren't many advocates of the numerous brainless button bashers (Will Flower, Manic Mallets, Tug-o-Dorrie, Pump 'n' Jump, Merry Poppings, Wind Wavers, Submarathon) or the swarm of purely luck "F*CK" inducers (Lucky Lineup, Random Ride, Head Waiter, Pound Peril, the much maligned Get a Rope... all of which exist within either the Battle or Duel category, as if the high-stakes weren't nerve-racking enough). In my clique, no one advocates either of the aforementioned MG types, yet we have to put up with them in every damn entry in the series?! Give players the choice!
MP5 has extensive enough a mini-game library to survive some trimming (my ideal set for this game would be substantially larger than my custom list for MP4). Doubtful Nintendo would ever re-release the game for the sake of "minor" changes but... a graphically enhanced remake? Maybe? I really reckon they ought to try updating/improving/combining the older games of the series rather than continuing to stray further from the successful formula as has been happening in the last few entries.