The microphone improves a little the franchise but everything else is the same and feels weaker this time around...
Introducing the new characters Brighton the Sun and Twila The Moon that are the hosts of the game and thanks to them we have the day and night system. Solo mode plays the same like Mario Party 5, in which you have to go against the koopa kids in minigames and if you take out all of his coins he is defeated. All the characters from the last Mario Party game are there, plus you can unlock Toadette, in which no one knows from where she came from.
In this version we have these orbs that look very familiar to the capsules on Mario Party 5. In which you can use in yourself to give you extra dice, invincibility, let you swipe coins from an opponent or get a star quickly. Also you can throw orbs in near by spaces to swipe coins of the opponent's who land in that space. You can buy them in the store of orbs called the orb hunts.
Day and Night: On some boards, spaces will move when there is day or night. Prices of stars might change, Minigames change in appearance or availability. Certain games even flip upside down and even the proprietors of orb hunts change.
Microphone Mode: You can speak up in a quiz game, order a character to grab a star and run in star print, or choose from 5 1 vs. 3 minigames, in which a player speaks into the microphone and the other 3 made do it with controllers. I know is fun but there is problem with the microphone in responding, and they could use the idea more.
All of this is fun but in the end you will see that the minigames are simple and you feel you already played them. The microphone is a good idea, but you will find problems in it and you only can use one at the same time. Boards play like most Mario Party games and orbs are just like capsules the only change is the name and that you can now buy them.
Mario Party 6 is starting to look a bit outdated. The character models look just like the other Mario party's on the Gamecube and the backgrounds and textures in the minigames are not vibrant like other Mario party games is definitely losing his style and comparing it with Mario Power Tennis, there is not much to say about this game.
Another thing here is the sound. Everything sounds very familiar to like all the Mario Party games, thought it's not annoying, we just want to hear something new. And like all Mario Party games, there is no voice acting which has always been a problem because there is just too much reading.
Party Mode is still fun to play against other players, but sadly the multiplayer with the microphone is by taking turns, otherwise only one person can used it at the same time and some people might be tired of playing this Gameplay again and again. The good thing is that the CPU does his turns a little faster and you don't have to see there duels but you still see them hitting the block and walk all the spaces they have to do. Solo mode is the same like Mario Party 5 going against the koopa kids, and the extra things are not really interesting.
Is really hard to recommend a game that plays just like his previous ones. But for those who love the Mario Party series and wants even more then you can easily pick up this one, other wise just give it a rent. As a fan of the Mario Party franchise I found this game quite same like the other ones and if you think the microphone is really going to make the game sweet, think again when you use it. This is one of the most disappointing games of 2004.