Mario Party 8

Mario Party 8
File:Mario Party 8.jpg
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]
• The game is known to have over 70 new mini-games that all utilize the Wii's capabilities as well as 6 new boards, and 12 different modes of play. [3]

Story

Nothing is known about the storyline and how the characters are involved, thus far. 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. [4]
• Blooper [5]

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.[6]

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. [7]
• Goomba's Booty Boardwalk [8]
• Boo's Mansion [9]
• Koopa's Tycoon Town
• King Boo's Haunted Hideaway
• Bowser's Warped Vortex

Mini-Games

The following is a list of mini-games announced to be in the game:

• 4 Player Mini Games
  • Nintendo Ski - The player gets pulled riding on skis by a boat (activated by Shy Guy), while avoiding obstacles in the water such as cones and going off ramps on his or her way to the finish line. [10]
  • Arts and Spacecrafts [11]
  • Soda Shake/Soda Fountain - First, the player collects a soda can with his or her character. Then, the player take the soda back to the stage and try and shake it quickly. The one who shakes his/her soda can the most,will shoot up out of the can the furthest when the can is opened. The one whose soda shoots the highest up out of the can wins. [12][13][14]
  • Magic Target Ride - Players shoot the targets, each worth three point values (10, 30, and 100 on each target) for 30 seconds. [15][16][17]
  • Crank to Rank [18][19]
  • Ball Tilt - Player must stand inside a pod as he/she uses the top of the pod to tilt green balls to go on the left, and pink balls to the right! [20]
  • Bath Scrub - The first one to clean their Chomp all the way by wiping dirt off it wins. [21]
  • High Sky [22]
  • Treacherous Tightrope - Hold the Wii Remote as a balancing pole as your character crosses a tightrope.[23][24]
  • Flagpole Mini-game - The first player to get their flag up all the way up the pole wins. [25]

• Duel
  • Flag Team [26]
  • Lasso Polo - Two players have to lasso a bunch of barrels on top of a rotating platform. For every barrel that is lassoed by a player, the same player gets a certain amount of points. The player who has the most points at the end of the time limit wins. [27][28]
  • Paint of Heart - The player paints a wall faster then his or her opponent. [29]

• 2 VS 2 Mini Games
  • Row-Playing Game - Two players work together to paddle their boat to the finish line. [30][31]

• 1 VS 3 Mini Games

There are confirmed 1 v 3 games, but the names, rules, or how it works with the Wii Remote, is unknown.[32]

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
• Mario Party 8, in English language

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