Looking Ahead: Mario Party 8

Despite the fact that Mario Party will soon be delivering its eighth revision, I still love this series. However, since I can identify the fact that the formula is getting tired, I have hopeful expectations for Mario Party 8. Today, Joystiq featured a preliminary hands-on article, in which they talked about a couple of the mini games to be featured. Judging from the comments of that article, I noticed a few things. First of all, most people are much less forgiving of this franchise than I. I have really had some fun times with friends and this game, even going back as far as high school. I guess you could say, I am a Mario Party softie. Secondly, most people went as far as actually demanding online playability. Don’t hold your breath. I’m guessing Nintendo would have said something about it by now, if it were to be online enabled. However, it really would be a perfect game to launch online playability, so I guess we’ll see. The game has been pushed back to the second Quarter, which could be evidence of adding this functionality. But as we all know, it's Nintendo. They are always late to the Party. ;) Finally, most people there seemed to be overly tired of mini-games on the Wii. I can almost agree with them, we’ve seen Rayman, Super Monkey Ball, and Wario Ware, and soon Wii Play, all rife with mini games. But I have to say, Mario Party 8 is the best time for Nintendo to come up with something new. I’m sure we will see lots of motion inspired mini-games. But I really feel this could be a pivotal title for the series. The games need to be fun and something new, the presentation has to be top notch, and a new board level strategy should be introduced. Mario Party 8 has the unique opportunity to either breathe new life into the series, or kill it.