3.5/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Mario Party 4.

Platform: GameCube (played on Wii) Time Played: 9 hours Status: Beaten ⟳ Right out of the gate, I have to say that out of every entry that Hudson Soft made in the Mario Party series, that I view Mario Party 4 as my least favorite. Both times I’ve played through it I have only found it to be extremely sterile, toned back in creativity and charm, and is just overall a giant step backward for the series that took several games to get back on track. The setup for this game is that a group of five party board hosts have created? formed? discovered? The Party Cube and invite Mario and friends on a… bleak and dreary day as they animate about, to party inside said cube, and if you play the Story Mode, you compete in each host’s board to become the Party Star, with each host giving you a birthday gift as a reward for completing their board, with the entire experience essentially being one giant birthday gift for the character of your choice. The Story Mode is super lackluster here, and that’s saying a lot for a multiplayer game like Mario Party, it's just so boring, and just a way to force you to have to unlock the final Bowser board, although getting to play some unique minigames against the hosts and a nice final boss against Bowser was a nice addition. Firstly I just want to address this game’s overall aesthetic. To me, it feels like at certain points throughout the game, it’s as if Hudson just wanted to show off the graphical capabilities of the GameCube after leaving the N64 behind, and thus a lot of the textures in the game look realistic in a way that doesn’t match with the characters that occupy this game and its world, and also just doesn’t match a lot of the game’s other aesthetics in general. Like the grass, dirt, rocks, clouds, and sky look too realistic at times, as if it were one of those pre-rendered 3D backgrounds from Ocarina of Time. Anywho, besides all of that, the rest of the game (and by that I’m more so talking about the minigames, I’ll get to the boards in a second) looks pretty damn good. Board gameplay in Mario Party 4 is probably the most boring out of any game that Hudson Soft put out. Take a look at any board and you’ll quickly realize that every single one is simply comprised of a series of grids floating above a box that contains a small amount of elements that vaguely convey the general theme of the board but even then that part is barely visible during gameplay with the fairly bland parallax background being the focal point of every board during regular gameplay. All of the boards look like this. Genuinely the most boring and uninspired-looking boards in the entire series, including the NDcube games during the Wii and Wii U era. All of the gimmicks on each board are also boring and barely give any character to the actual board itself. Toad’s Midway Madness is themed after an amusement park, with two sets of teacups that take you in one of two directions every time someone rides them, leading to the possibility of certain players becoming trapped within the very beginning section of the board for an extremely long period of time. There’s also a set of roller coaster rails which can drag players across the board if a Happening Space is landed on by another player, and sometimes players can even ride the coaster for some additional coins (a reoccurring event throughout every board). Shy Guy’s Jungle Jam is one of the few decent boards in this game and one of two that I would actually choose to replay if I ever play this game with friends again. I think the overall theming works a lot better here compared to most other boards in the game. I think the more realistic textures here actually works in this board’s favor and the volcanos, Shy Guy totem poles, and giant Shy Guy stone statue actually look pretty cool but would have been a lot better if the board itself wasn’t a damn floating grid on a bare parallax. I think having Klepto on one corner of the board and being able to take you to the other while getting some coins along the way is cool. Having a river that can flood the middle of the board, blocking players for several turns is another cool obstacle. And the Shy Guy Shrine at the bottom asks for a good or bad wish, and it is entirely up to luck whether the shrine likes your wish or not, leading you to be rewarded or punished. This board is actually pretty fun, and as I said before, one of the few boards in this game that I actually enjoyed. Goomba’s Greedy Gala is the worst board in the game in my eyes. The big ass junction in the middle where you literally gamble with a Goomba to land in the section of the board where the star is literally sucks. Paying five or ten coins literally gives you the same odds as each other, and paying twenty coins is seemingly the only way to guarantee that you’ll head in the star’s direction, meaning that you’ll have to save up several coins, typically stuck in the bottom section of the board (just like in Toad’s Midway Madness) for a lengthy period of time until you can either save enough money to land in the direction of the star, get lucky enough that Goomba will place you in the star’s direction, or get a Mini Mushroom and manage to get through the Mini Mushroom Gate in the opening section. Either way, this whole setup sucks. It sucks to play, it leaves everything up to luck with almost no skill, it just stinks. The parts where you have to out-roll a Goomba to proceed or get sent back to the start of the board, possibly missing out on a star because of it. Sure you can pass this event with the Mega Mushroom, but then you’re taking the gamble that you won’t pass the star. Goomba’s Greedy Gala sucks, That’s that. Boo’s Haunted Bash has some pretty good ideas in it. There are several translucent bridges on the board surrounded by Red Boos, with a big Red Boo in the center of the board. If any player passes the big Red Boo, the Red Boo bridges will disappear and the regular Boos will become active, allowing for the Mystery Train event to be triggered, where passing by a certain Boo will prompt you to ride it, taking you to one of several graveyards on the board, with the player able to pick a direction at a junction at some point on the train ride, grabbing coins along the way. Once the Mystery Train is over, the Red Boos will appear again, re-opening certain paths. I also think the overall look of the board would’ve been a lot better if it wasn’t a floating grid above the blue and dreary setting that lies beneath. Koopa’s Seaside Soiree actually looks pretty fun aesthetically and is one of the few fun boards in this game that I’d actually go back to. At the top of this nice, beachy board lies the Koopa Kabana which the player is forced to donate coins to help fund its renovations, but if someone happens to land on one of the multiple Happening Spaces in front of it, a tidal wave to wash away the entire kabana, causing renovations to start all over again. I actually think this is a pretty cute event to be the central gimmick of a board. You can also ride on some dolphins at points on the board to make your way across to another section, with the opportunity to get some coins while you’re at it. There is a pretty shitty event at the top left and right of the board where it's entirely up to chance whether or not you’ll slip on the Ukiki’s banana peel and be sent in the direction you didn’t want to go down. Anyway, pretty fun board all things considered, and one I’d return to. The final board, Bowser’s Gnarly Party is pretty decent but not a memorable board. The main gimmick is that there are several bridges that can be walked across three times, crumbling each time until they fully fall apart, with another bridge going in a separate direction appearing in its wake, with the original bridge coming back if the new one is broken. Besides that, Bowser himself has his own special event on the board, moving around when the star does, where he challenges you to a unique minigame against him if you’re in your Mega form, taking half your coins (or giving you fifty if you have none) in your normal form, or using his fire breath to send you to a unique starting position if you’re in Mini form. There are some other smaller event boards you can do like if you’re Mini you can push back a Bullet Bill to get a certain amount of coins among other things. Overall I think this board is fine, but just not the most memorable one, and the giant molten Bowser shell in the middle is pretty cool. Overall, the board selection in Mario Party 4 is super hit or miss. You have one board that flat-out sucks, one that’s pretty bad, two that are decent, and two that are pretty good, with none of them being super enjoyable to any surmountable degree, with none of them reaching anywhere near the level of Mario Party 2 and 3’s boards, maybe with the exception of 3’s Creepy Cavern. This isn’t helped by many of the new additions to the board gameplay overall. This game’s main gimmick is the Mini / Mega system, specifically referring to the Mega Mushroom and Mini Mushroom items respectively. The Mega Mushroom turns the player giant-sized, allowing them to roll two dice, steal ten coins from every player they pass, but skip every event they pass except for ones mandatory to move forward like the damn teacups in Midway Madness and the gambling junction in Greedy Gala. The Mini Mushroom on the other hand only allows you to roll between one and five, but with the benefit of being the only way through Mini Mushroom gates, and with certain events only able to be activated if the player is Mini when passing them, essentially being an extremely modified version of the Skeleton Key from previous games. The Item Spaces in this game only serve to give you one of these two items and nothing else, and even though the game shows you two chests to pick from, the item within is pre-determined, meaning both chests have the same item regardless, giving a false sense of choice to the player, which I don’t really appreciate. At Item Shops, you can buy Super versions of these mushrooms, with the Super Mega Mushroom allowing you to now roll three dice, and the Super Mini Mushroom allowing you to roll two one to five dice, although these items are fairly expensive at the Item Shop, so it's really up to the player if they’d rather save their money for those, or a Chomp Call (changes the position of the star), Boo’s Crystal Ball (the new Boo Bell), Gaddlight (the new Boo Repellant), or a Magic Lamp (takes you to the star like in previous games). The Sparky Sticker sets a trap where the player is standing, causing the first player to pass it to lose ten coins and their Mini or Mega status effects. There’s also the extremely rare Bowser Suit item which can only be obtained as a gift from Bowser himself when landing on a Bowser Space, which will allow you to take thirty coins from any player you pass, and if you pass Bowser in Bowser’s Greedy Gala while wearing it, he’ll give you a load of coins. This is all to say that the item selection in this game is nowhere near as good as it was in Mario Party 3, let alone in Mario Party 2. There’s just not that many items here that you’d actually bother to use besides the Magic Lamp and Boo’s Crystal Ball, and maybe the Sparky Sticker if you have a bunch of extra coins and want to fuck over another player that’s nearby you on the board, otherwise you’re saving most of your coins to buy stars, because why wouldn’t you. And even then, the crazy emphasis on the Mini and Mega Mushrooms feels so weird, like this was all you guys had? Battle Minigame spaces return, along with Chance Time, now referred to as Reversal of Fortune, with the space itself being called a Fortune Space. Landing on it prompts the player to play a little pinball game that does the same effects as Chance Time did in previous entries, except it feels like the actual player inputs are left a lot more up to chance than it felt like actual choice is Mario Party 1 and 2, but it's still better than how 3 handled Chance Time in my eyes. There are also Warp Spaces which will cause a wheel to spin with the other player’s characters on it, and whatever character the wheel lands on is where you’ll be sprung to, landing on the space that player is currently on. Board gameplay in Mario Party 4 is super lackluster and practically peels back all of the progress made in the series since Mario Party 1. Everything just feels so boring and bland, and despite the great set of minigames that I’m about to discuss, having good minigames but bad board design and gameplay do not mix together. Moving on to the minigames, Mario Party 4 has a pretty damn good selection here, especially with the new Custom List feature that allows players to cherry-pick exactly what minigames they want to play during their session, which is a wonderful feature that I’m peeved that never got brought back in later entries. Some highlights include: Manta Rings, Slime Time, Booksquirm (one of the peak minigames out of the entire series), Mario Medley, Avalanche!, Domination, Toad’s Quick Draw, Three Throw (although this one can be a little unfair for players who happen to end up in the middle), Photo Finish (love me a good puzzle piece solver), Bob-Omb Breakers, Long Claw of the Law, Fish n’ Drips, Money Belts, The Great Deflate, Cliffhangers, Dungeon Duos (love, love this one), Trace Race (another peak minigame), Paths of Peril, Bowser’s Bigger Blast (making a surprising and unexpected return), and Butterfly Blitz. The amount of great minigames here is staggering compared to how unimaginative the boards are, which is a huge reason why I still like this game overall after all the bashing I just said about its boards. Although I will say that Cheep Cheep Sweep is literally the worst minigame in any Mario Party game, fuck that shit. And Right Oar Left?, Candlelight Fight, Hide and Go BOOM!, and Blame it on the Crane are not too far behind it. Fuck Blame it on the Crane. The Bowser Minigames here that happen when landing on a Bowser Space also aren’t that fun either, but at least the exclusive ones from Gnarly Party are okay. Bowser Bop and Kareening Koopas from Story Mode are also pretty good minigames. Honestly I think Kareening Koopas should’ve just been in the main game I liked it that much, but the other story mode exclusive minigames aren’t that good. There are a few other modes in the Extra Room and whatnot. In the Mini-Game Room you still have some of the same modes that were previously seen in Mario Party 3, but this time with a Tic-Tac-Toe mode. Thwomp’s Backroom Ball has two additional boards, Mega Board Mayhem and Mini Board Mad-Dash, which feature no minigames as you and other players try to have the most amount of coins by the end of the game, using Mega Mushrooms and other obstacles to take away other players coins. There are also some different versions of Booksquirm and Panels of Doom which are more about attrition than anything. Whomp’s Basement Brouhaha is filled with several unique minigames like another jigsaw puzzle one (Jigsaw Jitters), Barrel Baron where you dig for oil Daniel Plainview style, Mushroom Medic where the rumble indicates to you who the sickest patient is, Doors of Doom where you essentially keep making a 50/50 choice on which door doesn’t have Bowser behind it until you lose, Bob-omb X-ing where you dodge to Bob-ombs in a Shibuya Crossing looking place, and lastly, Goomba Stomp which is like Tree Stomp except you’re trying to stomp as many Goombas as possible. All fairly mediocre minigames, but I think Mushroom Medic looks pretty cool, love seeing doctors' offices in Mario for whatever reason. Unlocking every minigame unlocks Beach Volley Folly, hosted by Ztar, a volleyball minigame with horribly explained and horrible feeling controls that is supposed to be an entire side mode of its own with its own unique playable characters unlocked by beating the brief single-player tournament mode in it. All in all, Mario Party 4 is definitely one of the lesser Mario Party out of everything up to this point. With a balance of bad, boring, or mediocre boards, lackluster board gameplay, and great minigames, this game still ends up being fairly decent at the end of the day, and I’m sure is still fun to play with friends, but I’d pick any of the N64 Mario Party games over it any day, and even later GameCube entries like Mario Party 6 and 7 are far superior to it.