Mario Party VIII - Sorry, No Gunblades found here.
 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55...oPartyScan.jpg

Just in case you can't read the text, it would seem that EGM is confirming a Hammer Brother and a Blooper as playable characters...

Now...a Hammer Brother would be kind of cool. But a freaking Blooper?! That's gotta be an error on their part, and if not then WTF?

Anyways - I've never played a Mario party game before. I've heard 1-3 are good, 4 is OK but notable for the formula starting to get old and 5 and 6 are awful, and 7 is "meh". Personally I think the Mario Parties are stale, but with the series now being on the Wii and there being an all new way to control and do practically everything, Hudson and Nintendo FINALLY have a golden opportunity to go in a new direction and make this series interesting and appealing for all players.

Think it could work? What would you like to see done here? Opinions?

That looks alright. I've played 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 (i.e. all but 4) and, like you said, 1-3 are the best, the first being the pinnacle of the series. Innovative, good graphics, good sound (Mitsuda-san) and great gameplay. The graphics and sound obviously improve with time, but it's the gameplay that's suffered. Hopefully this installment will spin the series around; a little more innovation couldn't hurt and I can't see how they can't try some new things with the Wii.

Regardless, I've enjoyed all Mario Party games I've played, and I think I might be getting a Wii soon so...win-win!

Edit: Sweet graphics in the bottom-right images.

Psh, 3 and 7 are the best. I hate the random duel awards, but 7 has the best minigames, and that's what really counts. Don't know where you heard it was meh. 1 is the most overrated, but the music was good. 4 sucked, easily the weakest of the GC ones.

If the Wii remote is going to be used, those games better be refined to hell. Quite a large number of Banana Blitz games were more annoying than fun because of the controls.

I think it can work. I haven't played Mario Party 7. But from what I played in the other MP, it may turn into a "let's add new mini-games and make some cash", but I rather see a single MP game on Wii, with mini-games you can purchase with the Wii Points, new worlds, etc.

I stopped with this series at 3. To me, that game was the best of the franchise, and it doesn't need to be challenged. (yeah, i actually just never had an oppertunity to play the others.)

Seeing as how this one will be on the Wii, Nintnedo had better seize this oppertunity to change the game for the better.

This has to be online playable. It must be online playable. Mario Party online would be the absolute best thing ever.

As far as the mini-games and other portions of this game are concerned, I don't see why they don't make some of them require the Wiimote, and some of them require the classic controller. By the time this releases, most people will have a classic controller, and they can easily be switched in and out of the Wiimotes for use for the mini-games depending on which one is chosen.

There's a lot of ways they can take this.

Well, it shouldn't really be a big surprise that the Wii will innovate the Mario Party game play in some way. I mean, I enjoy the press [some button letter] repeatedly, collect X items, etc. minigames that are found in pretty much all Mario Parties, but it's somewhat of a disappointment to see the same old minigame with only a new look. This is especially true if the game basically appears twice in the same Mario Party.

The Wii controller should be able to bring some new ideas needed for this series.

Nintendo won't do that with this one. Knowing Nintendo they will most likely use ONLINE ABILITIES as a way to boost sales for Mario Party 9, 10 11 or 12.

Four was the best of the series. All the other ones can go fuck themselves.

I hope this one doesn't have gimmicky games like the ones that used the mic. Those were awful.

If it has any loser games like "pull a rope", I am done having any hope for this series.

Four was a pile. 5 is my favorite. My friends and I still play it constantly. I can't wait for this to come out. It looks like it will be an absolute blast!

Agree with sprout, 4 is EASILY the worst in the series while 5 could just be the best. If it's coming out in March it wont have online, online would be nice but definitely not a priority of Nintendos for a party game.

I would agree with that, but the Wii already has four normal multiplayer Mario Party titles available for it with the inclusion of the Gamecube being backwards compatible. To release another one with what would end up being only slightly better graphics and updated play with the controller would be no better than Mario Party 8 on the Gamecube with a motion sensitive microphone peripheral.

They have to take it up a notch now. There's no excuse at this point since they have the capability to do it. It is what Nintendo games in general are missing now, the ability to really capture the essence of their multiplayer titles by making it online multiplayer.

If they do cop out of giving 8 online play, to me it would be the biggest disappointment ever. There's no reason to have fresh technology to work with if you're not going to use it.

This may be the final justification I need for spending my hard earned dough on a Wii.

7> 6 > 2 > 4 > 3 > 5 > 1

7 is best because it has the best maps -- Pogoda's Peak where you climb to the top to obtain the star. Also the treasure map where there are 3 treasures and 1 contains the star, another has 20 coins and the last one has a bomb. The duel games are great as well.

6 is 2nd best because it also has great maps. The one where you can buy a maximum of five. Also the day & night scheme is pretty cool.

2 is the 3rd best because it is an improvement of 1 with items. It is a fair MP game in my opinion. It's well balanced.

4 was okay with its mega mushroom idea.

3 had a lot of items.

5 had some of the best mini games of the series.

Mario Party 8 Minigame Montage

The minigames look pretty good so far, but not stellar. The apple target minigame appeals to me so far with what appears to be a random set of targets to shoot at with the Wiimote. However, the game wouldn't be quite as fun if the targets weren't random since it would simply resort to memorizing the target patterns every time it is played.

The soda bottle-shaking and the flag-raising minigames look like the least exciting of the bunch, although the soda bottle minigame looks like it would be exhausting to play, even once.

Ugh, repeating what these minigames are would be tons easier with the names. If anybody could help with that, I would be grateful.

Oh god I'm actually frothing.

The Soda Shake and Flag Raising seem like your standard button-mashers (controller shakers now lol what), but I can see myself and a couple friends shaking our controllers like complete idiots having fun with it. The apple shooting one, and the tube one where you fill them with glowing ball thingies look awesome as well. Can't wait for this one.

I get the feeling that 8 is just going to be a dip in the water to see how well MP on Wii will be received and that they'll continue in the same trend as the recent MPs have been. I mean they were all fun, but as you go on in the series, they sort of seem rather gimmicky with the mic. Keep a couple button mashing games, coin collecting games, put different characters to block your way on boards, etc. I hope that one day, they'll make a Mario Party with so many minigames, that'll it'll be hard to remember them all.

Just a heads up for anyone interested in nabbing this at a low price.

Toys R' Us has Mario Party 8 for the Wii up for pre-order for $29.99 as of this posting. If you haven't ever used Google Checkout before they're offering $10 off any purchase over $10 for new Google Checkout accounts which can be applied to the Mario Party 8 preorder purchase.

My final total for everything was like $27.70 with Ground shipping. Whether or not that'll be honored I couldn't say, but it certainly is worth a shot.

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EDIT: Deal now dead as of this morning. They shot the price back up to $49.99 and now it's listed as backordered. Congrats to those of you who got in on this.