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 | Mario Party 6 Gamecube Nintendo  If you listen to most Xbox/PS2 fanboys they'll tell you that Nintendo just keeps rolling out game after game after game of Mario: 'Mario Cart', 'Mario Tennis', 'Mario Dance Dance Revolution', and when you see that they're up to Mario Party 6, you really get the sense that perhaps Nintendo are out of ideas. Being a recent convert to the big N and its Gamecube I have never had the opportunity to play 'Mario Party' and thought I'd give it a go, if only to see if the Xbox fanboy in me was right about Nintendo. I couldn't have been more wrong. 'Mario Party 6' is an incredibly fun party game that will keep a bunch of kids (or even late-20-somethings) up until all hours. The main part of the game is a 3D board game: you roll electronic dice and move about a virtual board, competing with three other players (if there are less than four human players, the other characters are computer controlled). You collect or lose coins as you move about the board and these coins are used to buy stars when you pass the star square, and whoever has the most stars at the end of the game is the winner. Sounds simple, right? Well, there are a few things that throw a spanner into the works. There are different mushroom orbs that can be brought from stores, or gained by passing certain board squares, and these can be used in a number of ways. It can make the dice roll slower, it allows you to steal money from other players, send them back to the start square and a host of other possibilities. This new addition adds a greater level of strategy to the game. On top of this, you've got day and night cycles, and during the day things are pretty bright and happy: land on a Donkey Kong square, for example, and you get lots of bonuses; but at night Donkey Kong squares turn into Bowser Squares, and Bowser can take away coins and stars. And then there are the mini-games which occur at the end of every round. These involve button mashing, or good timing, or good control of on-screen characters - and with the microphone, even good singing skills! They are heaps of fun, and each time you play and win, you unlock it to play at your leisure. When you up the AI's intelligence they can be very difficult to beat; luckily you get the option to practice as much as you want before playing for keeps. These reward you with more coins to buy stars for when you land on the star square. Once the game is over it's not quite the end because there is a bucketload of stuff to unlock, including more boards to battle on, unlockable characters and a host of other things. A single, 20 round game does take a fair while to complete, and whilst you can limit the rounds you'll need a great deal of investment to actually unlock all of the the game's secrets and mini-games. I had a ball with 'Mario Party 6', as did my friends who don't normally get into games, and anything that gets people together to play games is good in my book!  | |
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