I used to always say Mario Party 4 was above Mario Party 5 since MP5 was a rather forgettable game for me. Mario Party 4 had a little bit more of that original feel since it still had the original item system and stuff. The minigames in MP4 were pretty good and the board concepts were decent. MP5 on the other hand was the game to pretty much ruin the item system that was made great in MP3 with the whole capsule mumbo jumbo. Some of the last 5 turn events in MP5 were ridiculous like 5 stars on the board and having capsules on every [explicite] space that could really screw up the game considering how dangerous some capsules were and considering you'd have someone hit them almost every time for 5 turns.
But...after looking back Mario Party 5 might just be the better game. It's not that I'm giving MP5 more respect, it's still a pretty forgettable game especially with MP6 being more popular for many. But I'm actually downgrading MP4 cause MP4 was quite a forgettable game as well, and it probably would be if I didn't beat story mode 8 times to get all the toys in the houses or whatever. MP4 also really lacked on board presentation. The boards had that same lame gray color to every space in every board which made the game feel so bland and unoriginal. I know it was the first gamecube MP, but I'd rather have a good product than a half-assed one. Mario Party 5 easily had better boards.
Now, I was talking about the item system from MP4 being likable...but how likable? Sure it somewhat retained the same item style from MP3, but they dramatically overhauled the item shop with new items, most of them being pretty lame items. And most importantly, one of the main gimmicks of MP4 was also one of the lamest parts of the game, the mini and mega mushrooms. The amount of emphasis put on those 2 was just too much for items that weren't even that great. MP5 had the whole capsule system, but it some ways it was a good new twist to items and I feel its more bearable than MP4's items. And yes, that even means I can bear the random as hell capsule machine because the item shop in MP4 wasn't much more forgiving considering the items available in it was really random and had no real flow.
As far as minigames, I think both games are pretty equal on minigames, both games had some fresh minigames and didn't show signs of the MP series becoming repetitive in that department yet. And MP5 actually had duel minigames. I don't know who's the idiot who took out duel minigames in MP4 but they definitely were good to have for the series. The story mode has its plusses and minuses on both games, and with them being different its hard to say which is better or worse. ]]
So which would I choose? Well, I'm not confident in my decision but right now I'd take MP5 over MP4.
But...after looking back Mario Party 5 might just be the better game. It's not that I'm giving MP5 more respect, it's still a pretty forgettable game especially with MP6 being more popular for many. But I'm actually downgrading MP4 cause MP4 was quite a forgettable game as well, and it probably would be if I didn't beat story mode 8 times to get all the toys in the houses or whatever. MP4 also really lacked on board presentation. The boards had that same lame gray color to every space in every board which made the game feel so bland and unoriginal. I know it was the first gamecube MP, but I'd rather have a good product than a half-assed one. Mario Party 5 easily had better boards.
Now, I was talking about the item system from MP4 being likable...but how likable? Sure it somewhat retained the same item style from MP3, but they dramatically overhauled the item shop with new items, most of them being pretty lame items. And most importantly, one of the main gimmicks of MP4 was also one of the lamest parts of the game, the mini and mega mushrooms. The amount of emphasis put on those 2 was just too much for items that weren't even that great. MP5 had the whole capsule system, but it some ways it was a good new twist to items and I feel its more bearable than MP4's items. And yes, that even means I can bear the random as hell capsule machine because the item shop in MP4 wasn't much more forgiving considering the items available in it was really random and had no real flow.
As far as minigames, I think both games are pretty equal on minigames, both games had some fresh minigames and didn't show signs of the MP series becoming repetitive in that department yet. And MP5 actually had duel minigames. I don't know who's the idiot who took out duel minigames in MP4 but they definitely were good to have for the series. The story mode has its plusses and minuses on both games, and with them being different its hard to say which is better or worse. ]]
So which would I choose? Well, I'm not confident in my decision but right now I'd take MP5 over MP4.
