Mario Party 9 Review | 7.2/10
Review by IGN (7.0/10 – Good)
Mario Party 9 is the best Mario Party since the series reached its heights in the early GameCube days (for the record, Mario Party 5 and Mario Party 6 are my favorites). But throughout its many generations, Mario Party has carried a fatal flaw, buried deep in its DNA: In spite of your proficiency at mini-games, or penchant for board game strategy, Mario Party is dictated by the dice roll. Randomness, which Mario Party 9 flaunts with a particularly annoying brand of euphoric abandon, ultimately ruins what could be a very good game.
And yes, I’m bitter about losing half of my stars. First to last place — right at the fracking end!
The goal of Mario Party 9 is to amass stars, which represent a sort of high score tally at the end of each round.
Review by The Official Nintendo Magazine (85%/100%)
The way in which players move around the level has also been changed for Mario Party 9. Rather than everyone rolling their own dice and going their own way, all four players now travel around the map together in a vehicle, taking turns to be the ‘captain’ and to roll the dice.
While you’re captain, anything the vehicle lands on – Mini Stars, Bowser squares, special Toad houses – only happens to you, so even though you’re travelling around together, everyone will still be looking out for themselves and making sure they’re in control when the vehicle lands on a good spot.
The large increase in the frequency of special dice items isn’t a coincidence, as travelling around the board is much more tactical now. If an opponent has stopped the car right in front of a bunch of hazards and it’s your turn, you’ll want to have the special dice that only rolls a 0 or a 1 to try to get a 0 and pass the danger onto the next player.
Review by UGO (A-)
Nothing can bring friends to war quite like Mario Party.
Mario Party as a series has always been important to my group of friends. Whenever a new version comes out, we get together and take out all of our passive aggression towards one another via minigames, star coveting and a mutual hatred of Bowser and his mischief. The series continues to be one of our favorite games to play together and Mario Party 9 might be the best yet. Nothing is true in Mario Party 9, everything is permitted, so you’re going to have to get down and dirty in this great cutthroat game of ministar collecting. The bottom line is don’t go it alone, this game shines in multiplayer.
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