I thought the single player Monkey Ball was ok, but I HATED the party games.

I have MP7, and based on the review of MP8 I think I'll wait for 9 when they fully utilize the finctionality of the Wii-mote - if they ever make a 9. Hmmm... I'll have to think about this one... perhaps I'll go completly different and get Excite Truck. I just like the idea behind multi-player party games. Renting a couple of them is a good idea.

well, get Wii-Play, which has a few decent ones. If you don't like the game disc, sell it, make some money, and keep the controller

My boys absolutely love MP8. I've played it a little bit, and it's not much of a departure from the previous games, other than making use of the wiimote.

That should be at my house today - ordered from Amazon last week.

I've owned all of the Mario Party games at one time or another, and have loved all 8 of them.

Sure they are more of the same, but I like seeing the new games and the new boards, as well as the new playable characters and the changing items/candy.

I'll keep on buying them as long as Nintendo keeps making them.

I still think they should make a "Greatest Hits" MP game, with minigames from all the different versions. As long as they brought back Bumper Balls, I'd be happy.

I really like the variety of the game boards in this game

Same here. Imagine a pool of five or six hundred minigames all in one game.

sounds good and all


but I'm sure it would hurt the series sales in the long run

The single player Star Battle option is actually kind of fun. They shut down areas of the board and make them smaller and give you a task that you have to complete (get to the end of the board with a certain number of coins/stars, etc.) and limit you to duels and single player mini-games to get coins.

I actually lost the "Hotel" board once before getting the 4 stars to win it.

... and by winning the Star Battle you...

Here is a cool video showing a tour of the game boards of Mario Party 8:

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part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BSEw4KtJ6o

Thanks for that...narrator was mildly annoying, but overall, it was interesting and has me looking forward to the game.

I had anticipated selling it since the reviews were somewhat marginal. Now, I'm beginning to think that the guys at IGN just don't get the Wii and should be reviewing games for the more traditional systems since that's clearly what they like.

The problem(?) is that a lot of reviewers were reviewing it based on it's past. That is, they gave it low scores because they felt it didn't change enough from the previous version. I think 1UP basically said they intentionally gave it a lower score because they felt it didn't change enough from the previous version...

Now that's all fine and good for those people who have played previous MP games, but I have never played any of them. I just want to know how Mario Party 8 stands on it's own.

Maybe they should have had 2 scores -- 1 for newcomers to the series and 1 for those who own previous versions (i.e. is it worth upgrading).

Yeah those boards actually look like some of the best since the original, which has been my biggest gripe in the series.

I've got this baby out for review right now - should have something up within a week once I get more games under my belt.

As someone who has only played the 1st one - this one definitely has a leg up thanks to the motion sensing.

Yep, EGM and 1up started a policy of scoring sequels a point or two lower if they don't add enough to the franchise.

I like it personally, as it's an accurate score for those that are tired of a series and need a change to get back into it, and newcomers can know they'd probably like it more since it's new the them and can add a point or two to the score.

Of course, the flaw is not everyone read the editorials announcing the change, and thus wouldn't know to keep that in mind when reading the reviews.

Of course, they never punish EA, etc for putting out "new" sports games with different rosters...

EGM did with their Madden 07 review. Didn't win game of the month for the first time in years because of the new policy.

Sure they do. A quick check for PS2 shows Madden 04 and 05 were rated a 9.5, and fell to 8.3 for 07. NBA Live 07 fell to a 4.9.

Of course, I thought there were definitely a lot more then just "roster updates" a few years back in Madden and the scores were warranted.

I like it as well. If they aren't going to add enough to warrant the $50+ price tag than it shouldn't be worth a high rating when it releases.

I understand the policy, but it does no good to newcomers unless they can can say, "add 2 points if you're new to the series."

True, they probably should say something like that since not everyone is aware of the policy.

But at the same time, if the scare new comers away and hurt sales it may force developers to quit shitting out yearly updates with little new added and actually innovate some.

Kind of a moot point though as reviews have pretty much no impact on sales of established franchises anyway.

Yeah... I guess people aren't like me. I pretty much avoid low-scored games. But because there's not a ton on the Wii right now, I'll rent them to check them out. I do actually find some medicore-scored games fun... but later in the life-cycle I don't waste my time with games unless they average 8s.

I plan on renting Mario Party and Big Brain. I'm always in the market for some games my wife and I can play against each other.

Big Brain - Another budget title being sold at full price. I want to get it because I know it'll be fun on the Wii, but I just can't justify it by any stretch of the imagination.