Story Mode of Mario Party IV – V – VI
It’s the 1st Mario Party game on the Nintendo GameCube and the 4thMario Party game of the series, Mario Party 4. The story this time involves the birthday parties of each of the playable characters. Yes, somehow each of their birthdays is on the same day, and there’s nothing weird about that. But before that, and like every other story in most video games, something just happens to occur. Toad, Boo, Shy Guy, Koopa, and Goomba just happen to hang out together and randomly find this mysterious cube in the middle of nowhere. Yes, the story just happened to occur at random like all the others do. They decide to look inside it to see what’s in store for them, and then invite the player’s choice of character to celebrate the character’s birthday in there. Not only will they have a party (literally), but there is also the most important festivity to celebrate, the giving out of presents! Yes, useless presents that are stored in a room where you can only see them as a museum attraction. At first, that sounds sort of great, but the worst part of a birthday would be if those giving away the presents decided to have you win them instead. That’s not a birthday present, that’s more like winning a prize normally. Sure the party is fun, but if you lose, no present for you and it’s your birthday. What terrible party planners these 5 are, then again it’s their first times doing something such as this so you can’t totally blame them for the fail. Even though the story was a failed attempt at celebrating ones birthday, you got to admit that it isn’t really all that important whether it’s a good one or not. It sets the mood, scene and placement of the game in its entirety, and it works out to fit well with the overall game. Just know, stay away from parties in giant cubes. Who knows what other cruelty can exist there involving the party hosts.
The 2nd installment of the Mario Party games of the Nintendo GameCube home console system, and the 5th Mario Party game of the main series: Mario Party 5. This time the story takes place in your dreams, literally. Apparently, there’s a place named the Dream Depot that controls the dreams of every individual in the world. Dreams from around the world originate here, and Mario + the crew are going to visit the place because they have been randomly invited. But since their arrival is expected, there are fun party games and stuff being prepared for them to have fun with. Yeah, because that’s what those Star Guards do for important guests, surprise them with a never-ending party filled with numerous amounts of games to play. Then oh no, say it aint so, but Bowser Koopa is back to cause a tremendous amount of trouble. He’s going to ruin everyone’s dreams by causing them harsh nightmare’s! What they have to do, is stop Bowser from ruining any dreams by defeating him to put a stop to this madness. Seriously, how terrible is security to easily allow Bowser to constantly over-power most of Mushroom Kingdom authority? Well I guess even in the Dream Depot the security is bleak and weak. In order to stop him, you have to do what you always need to do at a time like this: pass through the boards in the way to gaining access for battling Bowser. There’s nothing wrong with this story, because it fits well with the overall theme of the game because it IS the actual theme. As long as the story isn’t the exact same thing as the previous installments, then there’s nothing wrong with it. If you think it’s bad, well whatever, because Party games don’t rely on Story to hold on to their stronghold.
Mario Party 6, the 3rd installment of Mario Party in the Nintendo GameCube, and the 6th console Mario Party game. This time, two new characters are introduced for the first time, and for the last time. Brighton and Twila have always watched over the Mario Party world even though they haven’t existed until 2004. Well, they have been watching, and they so happen after all this time to argue about who’s much better as the dominant of the skies. Of course, everyone’s selfish and conceited for things like these, and it’s no different for Twila who happens to say that she is more impressive, so then they bickered back and forth. Apparently, Mario and his friends were in some random spot hanging around while they notice this for the first time that the Sun and Moon were actual beings instead of simply celestial objects circling the ecliptic. Mario and the others are bothered by this occurrence, so they try to say something to Brighton and Twila (or Twila and Brighton) but the furious Sun and the moody Moon just won’t listen to them. Duh, they are so far away to a point where they can’t hear anybody from down on Earth, obviously they won’t be listening. Mario comes up with an idea! Shocker right? Well, apparently collecting a lot of stars and putting them in a place that just so happens to exist right at the time of stating the name for the first time (the Star Bank), would put an end to the celestial fight among Brighton and Twila (Twila and Brighton). By having fun and partying all night/day, stars are collected into the Star Bank in order to gain more pages in the Miracle Book which has the capability to then end the feud among the celestial beings. Yes, the only way to solve problems like these is to have fun and party! So next time you see two important people argue, go out and party hard to then collect something to then share to them in order to stop them from fighting. Once these pages of the Miracle Book are completed, the night sky is then filled with stars all over and this beautiful view of the ecliptic became a marvelous spectacle that had so much force to a point where it can stop arguments among celestial beings. Twila and Brighton (or Brighton and Twila) then notice this amazing site, and they conclude that “Oh, Mario worked so hard to put this sky together in this particular method and format. You know what? Let’s not fight anymore, I’m the better one, you know it, and let’s leave it at that.” Well it seems like they both said something like that to each other. It was a great, amazing and a weird way to end a story. But hey, Party games don’t need fancy stories. As long as a story creates a nice and suitable mood, scene or theme for the game, who cares how the story goes. If the games good with it, leave it at that!