Launch Station: Mario Party 9

While the storm of releases is over, there are quite a few noteworthy releases coming in the next few weeks.  It is not as crazy as what we have seen for the past month, but at least the game release schedule is starting to be more spaced out rather than dropping all at once like last week.  To start of this week, we will be taking a look at the newest entry in Nintendo's long-running party game series, Mario Party 9, which released yesterday.

It has been close to five years since we have seen a new entry in the Mario Party series.  This time around Nintendo has handed the series over to the team at Nd Cube.  With the new developer, there have been some changes to the regular Mario Party formula in the ninth entry in the series.  Now players move around the game boards at the same time as they travel on a vehicle.  Coins and stars are no longer the key to winning a game of Mario Party anymore as Mini Stars have replaced them.  As players collect Mini Stars, they also have to avoid Mini Ztars, that will take away some of your Mini Stars if touched.  In Mario Party 9, mini-games no longer appear at the end of each turn.  You can only trigger one of Mario Party 9's 80 mini-games once a player ends up on the corresponding space.  Each board culminates in a boss battle followed by a final tally of Mini Stars to determine who won the game.

For the first time in a long time and with the help of Nd Cube, Nintendo has injected some new life in this rather stagnant series.  For Mario Party purists, the changes in Mario Party 9 might turn them off, but it will definitely bring in a new audience that may have never played a Mario Party game before.  Mario Party is an excellent game with four people sitting on the same couch.  Personally, I believe you only need one Mario Party game in your gaming collection be it on the N64 or Gamecube or Wii.  My brothers and I already own Mario Party 6 for the Gamecube and that is all the Mario Party that I honestly need.  So as big of Nintendo fan as I am, honestly I am not going to pick up Mario Party 9.  For those who have never played a Mario Party in their life or casual gamers look for a great party game, they should definitely consider picking up Mario Party 9.