This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.
Even with the GameCube treading on its last legs and ‘Cube
owners starved for new games worth buying, Nintendo’s uber-mascot, Mario,
continues to show up everywhere, including in some EA games, most notably SSX
On Tour and NBA Street Vol. 3. There’s also the upcoming Mario Strikers, but
probably the most popular multiplayer Mario game is the seemingly never-ending
Mario Party series and now we’re given another serving of it in Mario Party 7.
The Mario Party franchise has been around since the golden
days of the N64, so if you haven’t heard about the games or have no clue what
they’re about, you’ve done a fairly good job of avoiding Nintendo like the
plague. The basic premise of the game is a bunch of minigames slapped together
in the form of a board game. The objective of the game is to finish the game,
which is ended after a set number of turns of your choosing, with the most
stars. Stars can be earned in different ways, but the most obvious one is to
land on a spot where a star is sitting. Getting to where the star is, however,
is where all the adventure lies.
Those of you familiar with the series will feel very
comfortable with MP7 since it’s relatively unchanged from the previous entry as
the microphone is also bundled here. The biggest difference is that there are
new minigames to tackle including new 8-player ones. The other difference is
that the game takes place upon a cruise ship, which sets up the story. Mario
has invited all of his friends to go on a cruise with him, including Wario and
Waluigi. Bowser is angered at being left out and decides to crash the party.
This, of course, explains why Bowser is on the board to give players such a
hard time. As players rotate through their turns, a meter will slowly fill and
when it does, prepare for something nasty from the big boy. He’ll steal some
coins (and in some cases force you to buy something, which is 95% of the time
totally useless) or take away a turn or move you back a few spots; the worst
thing he can do is steal a star from you. Trust me when I say that hurts
sometimes, especially when it knocks you into a tie with someone or creates a
situation in which it’s impossible to recover. What he’ll do is random, so some
luck is required when that meter fills.
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