Mario Party 8
From Mario - NeoWiki
| Mario Party 8 | |
|---|---|
Box Art | |
| Developer | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Platform | Wii |
| Release Date(s) | NA May 29, 2007 EU June 22, 2007 |
| Rating | 3+ |
Mario Party 8 is the ninth game in the Mario Party series (counting Mario Party Advance). It's the first Mario Party game to be released on the Wii.
Contents |
Story
In Mario Party 8, the Star Carnival has come into town. Ballyhoo and his talking top hat Big Top challenge everyone to the “Star Battle”, in which the winner will receive a year’s worth of candy, the relic the Star Rod and the title Superstar. When Boswer visits, he steals the Star Rod and it’s up to the player to get the Star Rod back in order to save the Carnival.
Gameplay
- Like any Mario party game, Mario Party 8 is made up of many minigames that can be played on six different game boards. None of these minigames are repeats from the past, and there are 8 types of minigames: 4-player, 1 player vs. 3 players, 2 players vs. 2 players, Battl, Duel, Challenge, Extra and Last. The controls vary from pressing a, to using the Wiimote and to using buttons. There are no Bowser minigames, although you can face Bowser in one minigame. Hit the Dice Block to advance around the board, collect Stars and coins. The winner is the person with the most Stars at the end of the game. There are five ways to play the minigames: Party Tent
- Star Battle Arena
- Minigame Tent
- Extras Zone
- Fun Bazaar Party Tent – Here you can play either a Battle Royale, Tag Battle or Duel Battle. They all use the six game boards (if you have unlocked Bowser’s world), but change with the number of players. Battle Royale is played with four players; Tag Battle is two players vs. two players and a Duel Battle is one player vs. another. Star Battle Arena – Here you will play against a computer on all six game boards (with Bowser’s board being last). If you win all the rounds, you will win a year’s supply of candy! Once you have beaten Hammer Bros. or Blooper, you will face Bowser. Minigame Tent – This is straight minigames with no board. You can only play minigames you’ve played before hand. The Free Play Arcade allows you to select a minigame you’ve played previously to play. In the Crown Showdown, the player will try to win as many minigames as they can to rack in the most wins. Flip Out Frenzy allows the player to play minigames while trying to control most of the tiles. Tic Tac Drop is versus another player. You aim to get three in a row, like Tic Tac To. Lastly, Test for the Best is a series of minigames in which you get ranked. The higher the rank, the higher your balloon will soar. Extras Zone – This is an area where you can play with your Mii characters. These minigames are not found anywhere else, and some must be bought from the Fun Bazaar. Fun Bazaar – The Fun Bazaar is made up of many little stores. Carnival Wagon displays any figures you’ve bought using Carnival Cards. At the Minigame Wagon, give Shy Guy Carnival Cards to purchase minigames not yet played. The Record Board displays players and staff results at certain minigames. At the Surprise Wagon, you can trade Carnival Cards for various minigames, figures and other miscellaneous things. Lastly, at the Carnival Calliope, you can listen to voices and music from the games. There are six boards, which you can play on:
- DK’s Treetop Temple
- Goomba’s Booty Boardwalk
- King Boo’s Haunted Hideaway
- Shy Guy’s Perplex Express
- Koopa’s Tycoon Town
- Bowser’s Warped Orbit DK’s Treetop Temple – Collect Stars by passing the Star location. You will need 20 coins to be able to purchase a Star. Once it has been bought, the Star will move to another location. DK Barrel Cannon’s will blast you to a location throught out the board, and it cost 5 coins. The DK Space will throw you to the Star spot, and the Bowser space will change the location of the Star. The Lucky Space takes you behind the DK statue for an automatic free star and lots of coins. Goomba’s Booty Boardwalk – Collect the most Stars by reaching King Goomba at the end of the board multiple times. The DK spaces will take 5 coins from you. You shake the 5 coins to give you more coins. The Bowser space will have three fireballs surround you. These will take coins from you. Dolphin spaces will advance you more forward on the board at a price. The Lucky square takes you to a private island that gives you an automatic free star. King Boo’s Haunted Hideway – Find King Boo in his labriynth, and purchase a star for 10 coins. The map is not shown, unless you have visited a room. The Bowser square will steal a star from you, and if not, give you 10 coins. The DK square will make deadends turn into a place where you can obtain a free star. The Lucky square takes you upstairs with loads of coins and a direct path to King Boo to purchase the Star. Shy Guy’s Perplex Express – You must trade 20 coins for a Star at the front of the train with Shy Guy. The DK Square will change the front of the train. He will be there giving one free star. The Bowser square is the opposite, he will steal a Star or coins if you reach him. The Lucky Square will drop you off for an automatic star and free coins. Koopa’s Tycoon Town – Invest coins in hotels for the most Stars. The more coins invested in a hotel, the more it can get upgraded. Hotels can be upgraded to 3-star hotels. You can steal people’s hotels by investing more coins in the hotel than they did. You cannot exceed a solo investment of 100 coins by a player. DK Square will invest 20 coins into somewhere you have already invested. Bowser square will steal coins from a hotel. The Lucky square will drive you to one of two secret hotels. You can get free coins, and an investment of 3 stars for 1 coin. Bowser’s Warped Orbit – You begin with Stars, and must steal everyone else’s Stars to win. You will need lots of Bowser and Bullet candy. DK squares will give you free candy. Bowser squares will steal a Star from you. The Lucky square will take you to a secret part of the board for free coins and both a Boswer and Bullet candy. The remaining squares can be either blue, red or ?. Blue squares will give you an additional 3 coins, and red squares will take away 3 coins. Each player will begin with 10 coins. The ? squares may or may not help a player. While playing, you will pass Candy stores. These will allow you to purchase one Candy at a time to help a player throughout the game.
Controls
- Wiimote D-Pad: Used in select minigames when the Wiimote is held sideways
- A Button: Used to select and navigate through menu’s/settings, and used in most games
- B Button: Used in some minigames as an alternate for the A button
- Minus: Used to exit in a minigame practise
- Plus: Brings up the Pause Menu. This will allow you to customize setting during the game, or from here you can quit. During Party Mode, you can choose which groups of minigames to play, choosing to skip computer’s minigames, change computer difficulty, change message speed, or to change the kind of players (computer to human or vice versa). In Star Battle Arena, you only choose to skip computer’s minigames and message speed.
- Home: Brings up the Wiimote Home screen. This can enable the user to check battery life, check if Wiimotes are properly synced, turn on and off sound/rumble and you can go back to the Wii menu.
- 1 Button: Sometimes used in minigames
- 2 Button: Sometimes used in minigames
Boards
While some of the game boards are classic Mario Party in nature, with players attempting to reach locations where 20 coins can be traded for a star, others are more varied. For example, "Koopa's Tycoon Town" involves players investing coins into hotels (as in Monopoly) in order to earn stars, with each hotel only providing stars to the player with the highest current investment.
As always, all boards include a number of random elements which can greatly influence the course of the game. Notable for this is "Shy Guy's Perplex Express", where the train cars which make up the game board can be re-ordered as the result of landing on a certain space, completely changing the relative positions of all players. There are six boards total in Mario Party 8.
Playable Characters
Playable characters returning from the previous titles include Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, Birdo, Dry Bones, Boo, Toad, and Toadette. In addition, two new characters have been added to the roster: Blooper and Hammer Bro. This provides a total of 14 playable characters once all have been unlocked. Bowser, Donkey Kong, King Boo, Shy Guys, Koopa Troopas and Goombas have secondary roles throughout mini games, boards and menus. Other Mario characters and enemies make minor appearance, for example Bob-omb's appear in a mini game.
Players can also use Miis in any "Extras Zone" mini games unlocked via the "Fun Bazaar", although Miis are not otherwise usable during normal game play. Miis can also be seen in the background of the Minigames Tent and in mini games.
Rune Ripper on 20:01; 30 July 2008 
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