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Mario Party Legacy got the chance to play the recently revealed Mario Party 10 at E3 2014 this past week. The demo showed off a total of eight minigames, including four Bowser centric minigames, three normal Mario Party minigames, and one boss battle. Our hands-on preview has Tyler Treese tackling the four Bowser minigames while Michael Koczwara dives into the final four minigames.
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Bowser Party Minigames
by Tyler Treese
One of the big features of Mario Party 10 is the Bowser Party mode where up to five players can play competitively with one playing as the Koopa King himself. I was lucky enough to get hands-on time with this exciting new mode so without further adieu, here are our first impressions on the four minigames shown.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0v7SWGjsAU
The first mini-game we checked out was titled Bowser’s Bad Breath where the four party goers had to dodge flames spewed out by Bowser. The player controlling Bowser moves the GamePad left and right to aim his flames. This mini-game is a simple idea that is executed well.
Bowser’s Fire Bar Fury was the next mini-game shown and also featured around the four Wii Remote players trying to dodge various fire-related obstacles. This time Bowser has the players trapped in a ring with two fire-bars (one vertical and one horizontal). The Boss of Bwahaha uses the gyrometer to tilt the flames into the direction of the players as they try to avoid them by running and jumping. Each player has a health bar of 5 that is damaged each time they are hit and are knocked out of the mini-game once they hit zero.
I was shocked by the third mini-game called Bowser’s Wicked Wheel. The set-up is that Bowser has the players trapped in a Hamster wheel with electrified sections. Bowser can speed-up (by swiping furiously) or stop (by holding a section) the wheel by using the Wii U GamePad’s touch screen. This game is a shocking good time (okay, we’ll stop with the puns) for all.
The final mini-game we saw was the most impressive of them all. In Bowser’s Painball, the players try to dodge two spiked balls that Bowser hits into the playfield with the ZL and ZR buttons on the GamePad. As a big fan of Pinball this was an absolute blast.
I was only able to check out a few of what will surely be many minigames in the Bowser Party mode but what we saw was promising. All the minigames were fun and used the GamePad in fun ways that enhanced the game rather than seem like a gimmick.
Mario Party Minigames
by Michael Koczwara
Minigames are at the heart of every Mario Party title. No matter what kind of new modes the game has to offer or brand new ideas that are presented at the forefront, Mario Party can always fall back on its fun, yet simple minigames. Thankfully, this can also be said about Mario Party 10.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTZrGTorH8c
This first minigame I got to play was Petey’s Bomb Battle, the only boss battle showcased in the demo. The goal is to throw as many bombs into Petey’s open mouth as possible, all while making sure Petey doesn’t catch them and throw them back. You throw the bombs by flinging the Wii Remote forward, and while it might look like a shake-a-thon on screen, there is a bit of strategy involved here. You want to shake the Wii Remote as much as you can, but the faster you do it, the harder it will be to stop when you see Petey start to open his mouth. In the second half, Petey will start faking the player out by opening and quickly closing his mouth, causing cautious players to stop throwing bombs.
Fruit Scoot Scurry is the second minigame I got a chance to play. The goal is simple. Collect as much fruit as you can in the allotted time while avoiding bumping into other players. This minigame is fun, but there really isn’t much to it. In typical Mario Party fashion, some fruit will come in three, so keeping an eye out for these can give you the edge you need to win.
Every player is given an invincibility Star at the start of Cheep Cheep Leap. Use the power-up to knock out as many Cheep Cheeps as you can as they hop out of the water in rows. Jumping around frantically won’t get you far. You’ll want to focus on an incoming row of Cheep Cheep and get all of them without letting any of your opponents in on the points. You can also mess with your opponents by hopping on top of them and stealing the fish they were eying. Messing with your friends is one of the best things about Mario Party, making this one of the better minigames in the demo.
The final minigame I played was Beeline Shrine, a minigame that had all the players avoiding lines of bees that came in from all direction. Bees would line up in all sorts of formations, including circling the players and forming a giant line the swept across the screen. The game was relatively easy, but I have a feeling that the final version of the game will be either a little longer or feature bees that will move a little quicker. One thing to note – this minigame did strike me as one of the better looking minigames of the game. For the most part, what we have seen graphically of Mario Party 10 has been a little disappointing, so it’s nice to see that this minigame in particular is making an effort to stand out.
Unfortunately, nothing outside the mingiames was available to try in the E3 demo, so we can’t comment on the changes, or lack of changes, in the board gameplay and other modes. Mario Party Legacy will cover Mario Party 10 very closely as we lead into its release sometime in 2015.
