I reviewed this game a while back and have decided that I was too harsh on it. I recently gave it a second chance.
When I first started playing this game I was admittedly annoyed by the music and general sound effects due to the fact that it was marketed heavily towards the new generation of children. But once you get past the adorable intro and all the cutesy tunes you can find a well-designed game with plenty of features that make it a decent party game. Some of the newer features that improve from the original are the ability to store an item and the characters where themed costumes that go with the land (board). These include a pirate themed board as well as a horror and Wild West theme among others. The mini games are the best improvement and there are about 60 or so plus other challenges that happen when you or another player land on certain spaces. Bowser is as diabolical as ever, having baby bowser there to take coins as you pass. When you land on a bowser space he does a number of different things ranging from taking all your coins or dividing all the players' coins amongst themselves evenly. The items are pretty cool and many of them are total game changers during the last few terms. King Boo makes an appearance in each of the board and can be hired to steal coins and stars for a hefty price. All in all this game is very simple and fun and there is board strategy to be mastered.
I'd like to talk about the mini-games for a bit; there are 3 types of mini-games which are 4 player, 2 v 2 and 1 v 3. They range from memory games, who can tap a button the fastest, good timing etc. I liked how some our just pure luck so that a person who is not doing too well still has somewhat of a chance. My favorite mini-games are the one in which two players are pit against the other two players and teamwork is essential. An example is a submarine game in which one person controls the sub and the other player guides torpedoes at targets. The team with the most hit targets wins. Unfortunately many of these mini-games are boring and often get repeated too much.