As a continuation, we go into Mario Party 7, also known as the last Mario Party game of the Nintendo GameCube home console system. The story here involves Toadsworth after all this time, inviting Mario and co. to a vacation on a cruise ship named the MSS Sea Star. In the mini-story, he states that Mario and his friends are always fighting evil. How are all of them fighting evil? The last time I remember, it’s mainly Mario and in some occasions Luigi who are fighting any forms of “evil” if even that. Somehow, Bowser found out about Toadsworth’s invitation and took action by stating that he will minimize the amount of “fun” Mario and Co. will have. He’s a stalker isn’t he? That Bowser, when will he learn to actually do other stuff rather than constantly spying on Mario? Why does he assume that they would invite him though? Bowser doesn’t deserve to go on any vacation due to the trouble he has caused to Mario and friends. Toadsworth reassures the player that they won’t allow Bowser to do such trouble as they party hard while taking a vacation. Well actually, he uses the word “we,” so does he himself intend to stop Bowser’s evil? Using the word “we” includes him, yet all he does is help you throughout the board map if even that. Not too helpful at all. When the party people arrive at their destination (somehow Bowser knew where the first destination was) the madness began. The goal of course is to collect stars, but what do you really accomplish by doing so? Bowser’s still gonna be there no matter what you do. This story is funky, but it works quite well with the theme.
- Indeed they cannot wait to set sail, but unfortunately things won’t turn out the way they’d like.
The [in] famous Mario Party 8, the current only in retail Mario Party game on Wii. This contains the most annoying of the hosts: MC Ballyhoo. How is he annoying? The weird gestures he makes, his deep voice, and the random sounds he makes as he talks. Well he hosts this game and he is the one who hosts the story as well. This story is simple and to the point: win and you’ll get a year’s supply of candy. But oh no, Bowser steals the more important object: the Star Rod! (very similar to the Star Rod of Paper Mario). It’s up to you to stop Bowser from unleashing something, so you must go through all of the boards in order to stop him. Though I’m speaking with a negative attitude, I don’t necessarily think that the story is any worse off than the stories of the other Mario Party games. There’s clearly a plot that fits with the theme of the game, and it’s not a game that needs a thorough story to be successful, so why make one like that?
Here we have Mario Party DS, and this story is very deep in that it’s deeply foolish. But what exactly makes this story foolish you may ask? Well, let’s see. Sky crystals fall from the sky at an utmost coincidence, Mario sees one and tells his “friends” about it (somehow Wario and Waluigi are considered as friends). Afterwards, Bowser sends a letter to them because somehow he knows exactly where they are at that exact time, and he’s “inviting them to a feast at his place.” Mario and friends cannot believe it, and for a good reason too (here’s the foolish part)….how in the world can anyone trust that vile Bowser for anything? They are tricked, and are imprisoned in a cage by Bowser (somehow he got all of them to go in there). Psh, they deserve to be held in that prison cell for all that matters, because shame on them. He uses his Minimizer on them to shrink them down… wait, where does Bowser get all these random gadgets? Because it’s unlikely that he made them himself and it’s unlikely that his minions are smart enough to come up with such a device. Well now they’re all small, and Bowser dumps them somewhere near a large tree.
They can’t believe they have been deceived. I find it hard to believe that they find it hard to believe whether Bowser would deceive them or not, because it’s almost a given. As they set out on their adventure, there are road blocks; and they include a caterpillar, a girl, a monkey, and a turtle. Well they’re not exactly the roadblocks, but they won’t let you pass unless you help them. They ask if you could help them, but the real truth is: why do they bother asking? Whether a player says yes or no to themselves, they haven’t got any choice in the matter. After helping all of them, they reach Bowser’s Castle and are stuffed into a random pinball machine. Again, where does Bowser get these things in the first place? The one with the most stars can get out somehow, as the magical glow of multiple stars are deemed strong enough to break the glass cover of the pinball machine. Now time to face
Bowser and guess what; he has another random object named the Mega Morph Belt. Somehow he has it for this occasion. After defeating him, the player ties both Bowser and his son with rope and goes to tend for the Sky Crystal. After it’s put together, wallah… a giant floating teal-colored DS without buttons or even stuff on the screen is born. Bowser reveals that he wanted to collect them for himself so he could play this new game since he knew about it before hand somehow. For some reason, Mario and friends decide to let Bowser give it a shot, and play Triangle Twisters along with everyone else. Bowser can’t believe that they would actually let him play after all that he has put them through. I can easily believe the idea of Bowser not believing what was coming out of Mario’s mouth. But if he insists, then why not?
This is one of the most complex stories of any Mario Party game there is out there, and though there are some “huh?” moments, it fits well with the theme of the game and there’s a nice believable ending to tie up loose ends.
What can we expect for Mario Party 9? More of the same: nothing too exciting. Though, it would be nice if the game did have an unnecessary extensive story. Of course, not having one wouldn’t hurt the game; therefore, there’s no negative influence towards the game if a deep story was added. But overall, the story itself shouldn’t be enough to make Mario Party 9 a potential success, but it should be there mainly to be support in holding the main theme of the game. So far they all have succeeded in that, but we have yet to see an eye-popping story on our doorstep.