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Mario Party DS Hands-On

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  • DS
By Brad Shoemaker, GameSpot, Posted Oct 16, 2007 3:20 am GMT

The DS has been out far too long with no Mario Party game, but Nintendo will soon fix that little oversight.

No Nintendo platform worth its salt is without a Mario Party game for long, and indeed the Japanese powerhouse has siphoned off a tiny fraction of its mammoth cash flow to fund development on Mario Party DS for, uh, the DS. The game is due out in the middle of next month, and we got to try it out briefly at a recent Nintendo press event to see what's new and what's old. The brief introductory sequences show Bowser and that no-good son of his luring Mario and the whole gang (even Wario!) to his castle with the promise of tasty snacks. Instead of snacks, they get shrunk. Tiny Mario, tiny game system. Get it?

You'll therefore play through a bunch of minigames that have you interacting with real-life objects inflated to huge proportions. The first traditional Mario Party-style board game we played had us hopping squares and rolling dice in an oversized garden setting, and there will naturally be others of this nature. In addition to the standard board-game interface this series is known for, you can also access the minigames directly once you've unlocked them, whether it's to play them for fun or for a high score. In any mode involving minigames, you'll be able to filter the games you'll encounter. For example, you can choose not to play any minigames involving the microphone, or only stick to the simplest games, presumably for younger players. Finally, a puzzle mode will also offer you the chance to play a variety of classic puzzle minigames from past Mario Party games.

As you'd expect, the minigames themselves will largely depend on the DS's unique input features. We played one game that had us racing little wind-up cars across a cluttered table. However, each car would only go a few inches before needing a rewind, so we'd have to steer a little bit, then wind with the stylus, then steer a little bit more. Other minigames relied on more classic controls, including one where we had to hop across a series of logs by pressing the button indicated on each log, and we had to do it faster than our artificial-intelligence opponent could. Based on the minigame-selection screen, it looks as if there will be several dozen minigames in the final package, once you've unlocked everything.

From what we could tell, Mario Party DS is standard Mario Party through and through. Considering that this is such a multiplayer-focused game, the most impressive thing we noticed about the DS version is that you'll be able to play a full four-player board game with only one cartridge via download play. We'll let you know how that feature works (along with everything else) when Mario Party DS ships next month.

42 Comments

  • daleksec911

    Posted Nov 17, 2007 12:40 am GMT

    eventually it's out for the DS

  • toptom924

    Posted Oct 31, 2007 9:05 am GMT

    great i can play it with my mates single card play great work but i hpoe its WI-FI too

  • greater_bird

    Posted Oct 28, 2007 2:27 pm GMT

    If this really allows multi-player games with one cartridge (as opposed to, say, a crippled selection of mini-games) then I'll almost certainly purchase. Otherwise, I can do without. There are plenty of good single-player mini-game titles already out for the DS. Mario Party is great for playing with other people, but the expense of buying multiple cartridges isn't worth it. Wi-Fi would be okay, but I'd really rather play with people I know - the verbal sparring adds to the gameplay.

  • luke141eels

    Posted Oct 26, 2007 10:51 pm GMT

    i would buy this and hopefully there could be sequels

  • thrashunreal

    Posted Oct 22, 2007 10:18 am GMT

    I wouldn't count out Wi-Fi just yet... it is still in production. But who cares? The single-card playability is awesome!

  • tin_can_man

    Posted Oct 21, 2007 3:44 pm GMT

    if there isn't any wi-fi i'm not getting it

  • Simpsonsfan2

    Posted Oct 20, 2007 11:30 am GMT

    I hope it doesn't have candies. I hope orbs come back. Also, it would be cool if you could play on Wi-Fi.

  • thps48

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 6:18 pm GMT

    Yeah, candy sucks. Orbs/Capsules need to come back

  • chaos12391

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 2:20 pm GMT

    let's hope this isn't as bad as mario party 8

  • JohntheExile

    Posted Oct 19, 2007 1:46 pm GMT

    Now we need super smash bros ds

  • sure2not

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 4:57 pm GMT

    wifi or not, im gettin it.

  • Mr_Zesturhouse

    Posted Oct 18, 2007 4:17 pm GMT

    Great success!

  • Agreb91

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 5:19 pm GMT

    Mario Party on the go. Much fun.

  • Gamer-XZ

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 5:08 pm GMT

    Seems That Nintendo Is Putting Actual Effort Into This Mario Party. We'll See If This Is Better Than The Others...

  • Younggun135

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 4:00 pm GMT

    too everyone: there is no wifi.

  • DrummerDude1010

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 3:08 pm GMT

    This is really cool. Hopefully it will have wifi. That would be AMAZING!

  • santiagochile

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 10:13 am GMT

    where is the Wifi?

  • Phazevariance

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 10:00 am GMT

    The best part of all this is the 4 players with one card. That's like ... odd that they didn't limit anything.

  • SonicX56

    Posted Oct 17, 2007 8:41 am GMT

    yeah this sounds like it will be great,i beat mario party 4 and thats the last one i ever played..hmm i miss the series though,i loved all of them up to 4,when 5,6,7 and 8 become released in a value pack ill buy em,kbut $50 for 4 year old games is to much

  • kornrocker666

    Posted Oct 16, 2007 9:40 pm GMT

    awesome. Im surprised this one wasnt as anticipated as some other games. This will be a nice addition to my ds library

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