With the almost endless barrage of mediocre Wii minigame games, Mario Party 8 looked to bring in a new era of party games capable of taking advantage of Wii's party-perfect control methods. Unfortunately, Mario's latest party falls short of former glory and is unable to meet the minigame standards it had previously set during past generations.
All-a-Board
Mario Party 8's main mode has players competing on a virtual game board, with the end goal being to obtain more stars than everyone else. Unlike most other Mario Party games, every board in Mario Party 8 has it's own set of rules. You've got a standard board where players attempt to buy stars from randomly placed locations, a couple boards where the stars are in a fix location, and even a Monopoly-esq board where players get stars by outbidding other players on hotels. The variety of game modes is definitely a refreshing way to play, but it would have been even better if each board could have supported multiple game modes rather than forcing a single mode for each.
Mario Hates Playing Alone
As in past Mario Party games, Mario Part 8 is definitely not a single player experience. You can play the boards and minigames alone or compete during a one player only duel board, but you'll quickly be wishing you didn't have to play through them to unlock certain goodies. If you don't have friends to play with, you'd be better off spending your money buying some than buying this game.
It's All About the Games
Party games (and especially Mario Party games), generally succeed or fail based on the fun of the minigames packed within. Mario Party 8 comes with a decent helping of minigames, but there's not quite as many as Mario Party 7, and sadly, there really aren't many games that break beyond just being "ok". There may not be too many stinkers in the batch, but without any real gems, the game as a whole never really hits any memorable high notes. This is truly a sad realization when imagining all the possibilities that could have been had with the Wii remote's ability to introduce a variety of new gameplay experiences. Instead of each minigame being a brilliant interactive joyfest, you're left with many stale game types that you've likely seem many times before.
Some Fun and Games
Mario Party 8 is not a great game - it's barely even a good game. The fairly inventive boards and Nintendo's patent-pending quality presentation help disguise the failing initially, but you and your friends will quickly get bored by the uninspired minigames and lack of any true innovation. If you're looking for a party game, I'd suggest you wait for Mario Party 9 or perhaps even try out Sonic and the Secret Rings (at least that way you'll get a decent single player game along with your mediocre party game).