Mario Party 10 Wii U Video Game Review

Mario Party 10, Nintendo's latest entry in the long running series, was a fun distraction for me. Offering a bright, colorful and entertaining digital board game experience and bolstering the already solid local co-operative/competitive multiplayer Wii U game library. With 3 main modes, Mario Party, Bowser Party and Amiibo Party, dozens of mini games and some extra sub-modes (with their own mini games). Mario Party 10 contains a solid amount of lighthearted content for board game fans.

Mario Party

The original, classic mode all Mario Party fans will be familiar with. The latest iteration of this mode sees all 4 players moving around the game board in unison, with each player having their own turn to roll the dice and reap the rewards of landing on a rewarding space or suffering the consequence of a detrimental one. With the coveted star in sight, it can get competitive as each player attempts to earn more points along the way.

The first board you'll find in Mario Party.Courtesy of Nintendo

You're not alone on the board though. Bowser is trapped behind bars watching the action and with each number on the dice rolled, a bar of his cell is removed. Once all bars are removed, Bowser is set free to wreak havoc on the game board, with his eyes first set on which ever player removed the last bar from his cell.

On top of all this, mini-games are strewn across the game board which range from 1 vs 3, 2 vs 2 and everyone for themselves. These mini games - and there's dozens of them - offer great variety and keep things entertaining. Some good laughs are had if playing with your friends as you try and escape Bowser's massive hammer in a whack-a-mole game or try to kill approaching fish while invincible with star power. Mini Boss Battles show up as well. These are some of my favorite moments, as everyone works together to take out the enemy, while also competing against each other for a high score.

Unlimited Star Power - who can kill the most fish! Courtesy of Nintendo

With all players moving around the game board in unison, with each roll, it keeps the pacing up as you can complete each of the game boards in a very reasonable 30 minutes. If there's a dent in the Mario Party mode it's that the Gamepad support is basically nonexistent.

Bowser Party

Mixing up the formula, Bowser Party is an asymmetrical 1 - 5 player mode that puts Bowser on the map as a controllable, constant threat against the 4 players attempting to complete the board. It puts the Gamepad to good use as well. Blowing into the Gamepad while aiming to spit fire-breath at your opponents or using it secretly set traps out of site from your friends is just a sample of what you'll be doing.

Bowser attempts to steal your hearts before you nab the star in Bowser Party mode.Courtesy of Nintendo

After each normal players turn, Bowser gets a turn to roll. You roll his dice by holding ZL and ZR on the Gamepad and then raising the Gamepad quickly to send them bouncing onto the board, hoping to roll a high enough number to catch up to the normal players ahead. Each time Bowser does catch up, he snatches up the other players and tosses them into various mini-games where he always has the upper hand.

The ultimate goal as Bowser is to deplete all players hearts, knocking them out of the game before they reach the star. It was a very enjoyable experience to control the big baddie here and crush my friends as they attempted to strategize and land on rewarding spaces. Sounds evil, but I had a massive grin on my face every time I watched Bowser stomp his way over the board and launch himself at my friends characters. I'd be lying if I said I didn't let out a little maniacal laugh as well.

The boss battle mini-games were some of my favorites.Courtesy of Nintendo

Bowser Party would probably be the mode I played the most if it wasn't for one caveat. There are only 3 boards open with a total of 10 mini games available in this mode which means you'll be playing the same mini games multiple times during your race across the boards. By comparison, during the Mario Party mode, you won't see a repeated mini-game the entire time. This repetition hurts the mode slightly overall, but what's there is good fun.

Amiibo Party

Amiibo Party mode is a bit of let down for me mainly due to the Amiibo integration and not the board game aspect itself. First the good news. The board game is actually pretty neat. Amiibo Party is played like a classic board game. With each player taking a turn and moving around separately. There's only one board layout, but that board can be tweaked with different themes and each segment offers different features and segments which can be changed with game altering tokens.

The Amiibo Mode game board.Courtesy of Nintendo

Your Amiibos become your pieces to move around the board and it's neat to see them appear in game. You place your Amiibo on the Gamepad to move your character and collect tokens & coins found on the board. Coins can be exchanged for stars at designated spaces on the board as well. All-in-all, Amiibo Party is a nice addition but I have one big issue with it...

Now the bad news. Using an Amiibo with this mode means you'll need to wipe whatever is already on there. So if you've been building up your Smash Bros. Amiibo, you'd be advised not to let said Amiibo partake in the shenanigans unless you don't mind losing that progress. This may not be a problem for those collectors with every Amiibo and doubles of some. But the average person with maybe just a few - my current situation - deciding to wipe the memory of one in order to play this mode is a tough sell.

While fun for those willing to partake, I couldn't help but feel like this was a mode built to entice Mario Party owners into purchasing doubles of their favorite Amiibos in order to fully embrace Amiibo Party.

Extra Modes

There are quite a few extra modes to be found in Mario Party some worthwhile, others not so much. My favorite two are a puzzle game called Jewel Drop, where you must line up four matching colored jewels to make them disappear as more drop from above (I played more of this mode than I care to admit) and a much welcomed Photo Mode. Photo mode has you spend your built up Mario Party points (earned while playing the main modes) to purchase characters, poses and backgrounds and then gives you a virtual camera via the Gamepad, complete with zoom, pan and depth of field control. Saving and sharing pictures to Miiverse is a simple and enjoyable experience. Free Play mode is also available, which allows you to play the mini-games from the gameboards on their own.

Mario Party 10, available only on Wii UCourtesy of Nintendo

Final Thoughts

Nintendo doesn't change the formula for Mario Party 10 all that much but there's enough of a shake-up to separate it from past games. With 5 visually pleasing game boards, 3 unique main modes, dozens of entertaining mini-games and a few worthy extra modes like Jewel Drop and Photo mode. Mario Party 10 will please those looking for a digital board game experience on Wii U, whether playing solo or with friends.

Mario Party 10 Wii U Game Review:

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