Mario Party 6

Written by D'Marcus Beatty  on October 27, 2004

First Impressions: The party just won't quit.

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One of the most popular party based games is getting ready to make its return, as the most famous platform hero, Mario, takes a break from rescuing the princess to face his friends and foes in various challenges. Mario Party 6 is the latest entry in the long running series that takes the Mario characters and places them in multiplayer mini-game madness, all in the interest of partying.

Mario Party 6 brings a lot of improvements and innovations to the series. The first and strangest innovation is the inclusion of a microphone in the packaging of Mario Party 6. Although it would seem the Nintendo is taking a cue from games like Karaoke Revolution and Get On Da Mic, Mario Party still, as far as we know, doesn't contain any singing or rapping mini-games. Instead, there will be mini-games based on the ability to give commands via the microphone, a la the seminal title Lifeline. One player will be able to challenge other players in a number of games using only voice commands, although exactly how this works still remains to be seen. Obviously, since there is only one microphone packaged with the game, the microphone mini-games will probably be of the one versus three player type. The microphone plugs into the memory card slot, so there isn't a problem with it taking anyone out of the game, although only a few games will rely on the microphone. However, the idea does seem intriguing and will be an interesting addition to the clever mini-games Nintendo generally provides.

Another addition to the gameplay experience is the inclusion of an actual night and day cycle when playing on the board. Every three turns, players can expect a change from day to night and back to day. This change is deeper than just aesthetics, however, as some games are only available at night and others can be accessed only during the day. In addition to the day-night cycle, the gameplay has been sped up considerably. The characters seem to sprint across the board now, a definite improvement over the tediously slow movement from the previous Parties.

Of course, Mario Party 6 wouldn't be a true Party sequel without a slew of new mini-games, and Party 6 doesn't disappoint in delivering this. One new mini-game has one player dropping rocks into a lake where the other three players must dodge the rocks or be eliminated. However, each of the underwater players has a limited supply of oxygen, and must come up for air frequently, all while still dodging the above-water player's attacks. Another very interesting mini-game has all four character racing to the end of a stage that looks suspiciously similar to a Super Mario stage, as each player must jump onto moving platforms and go through warp pipes to reach their destination before their competitors. Yet another mini-game has players racing to smash blocks out of the way so that a pinball can reach the end of a giant pinball machine.