Mario Party 8

Mario Party 8
Mario Party 8
Developer(s)	Hudson Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Wii
Release	February 8, 2007 February 23, 2007 March 5, 2007 February, 2007
Genre(s)	Party
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Mario Party 8 is an upcoming video game for the Wii. It was announced during Nintendo's press conference on September 14, 2006. It will be the tenth game in the series (eleventh in Japan) and the first to be released on Nintendo's new console. The first videos and screenshots for the game were revealed during the Nintendo World event in Japan on November 3, 2006.

Features

Little is known about the game in general and how it will use the Wii Remote's capabilities to its advantage. However, the following information has been disclosed:

• Characters will let out an exclamation through the Wii Remote speaker the player is controlling, signifying it is his/her turn to play. [1]
• There has been mention of transformers titled "candy powerups" that can affect gameplay. These powerups, resembling the Orb system present in Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 7, will "transform" characters into different things to suit situations. For example, a character can transform into an airplane to fly over booby traps, or turn into a bowling ball or a vampire for unknown reasons.[2]

Story

Nothing is known about the storyline and how the characters are involved, thus far. However, a strange, new character in a blue top hat appears on the boxart, bearing a resemblance to Chuck Quizmo from Paper Mario. This character may have something to do with the story and may be Mario Party 8's host. According to a recent scan of a Japanese magazine, there will be approximately 75 new mini-games. There also appears to be a circus theme, but this is unconfirmed.

Characters

Mario Party 8 has been confirmed to have 14 different playable characters in the game. Not dissimilar to Mario Party 7 where Dry Bones and Birdo first made their appearance in the series, two new characters will join the original roster from Mario Party 7:

• Mario
• Luigi
• Peach
• Yoshi
• Wario
• Daisy
• Waluigi
• Toad
• Boo
• Toadette
• Birdo
• Dry Bones

The two new characters to first appear as playable characters in the Mario Party series have been confirmed to be:

• Hammer Bro. [3]
• Blooper [4]

It is noteworthy that these new characters both made cameo appearances in Mario Party 7. Currently, it is unknown which other characters from the Mario universe will appear as cameos in the game. It is also unknown whether or not the game will feature more than 14 characters, although it seems to be unlikely. Bowser returns as a space, but it is unconfirmed if Donkey Kong has a space (he does have his own board). Shy Guy also runs the "candy shops," but it is unknown if he runs them all.[5]

Boards

Little is known about the features of the boards and how they differentiate themselves from preceding Mario Party games, except the fact that the spaces are square instead of circular. Thus far, three boards have been revealed for the game. They are:

• DK's Treetop Temple: Players move around the board until you get to the star space in front of DK's statue. He will sell you a star for 20 coins. The star space doesn't change. [6]
• Goomba's Booty Boardwalk [7]
• Boo's Mansion [8]

Minigames

There will be a number of minigames in Mario Party 8.

Similarities

It seems as though this game is similar to the original Mario Party. Characters have their own boards, some boards are similar to original Mario Party boards and so on.

See also

• List of Wii games

External Links

• IGN Game Page
• Gamespot Game Page
• (6) Mario Party 8 screenshots.
• (5) Mario Party 8 Video of mini games.
• Mario Party 8
• Mario Party 8, in German language
• MarioPartyWii.com