This party ended three sequels ago. So everyone go home!

Mario Party 5

Developed by Hudson Soft

Published by Nintendo

Nintendo…

Mario Party 5

Developed by Hudson Soft

Published by Nintendo

Nintendo Gamecube

When Nintendo unveiled the first iteration of “Mario Party” back in 1999, it was an incredible innovation. Quick, spastic and fun mini-games were wrapped together in the form of a board-game track, with the winner being whoever had the most stars and coins at the end of a set number of turns. It was another one of those “What were they thinking?” moments that turned into a smash hit.

However, after 4 more rehashes of the same theme, the creative wellspring seems to have run dry. “Mario Party 5” is just another in the progression of cookie-cutter “Mario Party” games, introducing new elements that provide five minutes of freshness for an otherwise stale game.

The gameplay hasn’t changed since the days of the Nintendo 64. You roll dice, you move around a board, you play a mini-game at the end of each turn to amass coins. These coins let you buy stars, and the player with the most stars at the end of the game wins. As with any Mario game, there is a diverse array of power-ups and familiar characters to help you slow down, torment and downright rob your competitors, though it’s nothing that hasn’t been done in “Mario Parties” 1 through 4.

This is a game designed to bring up to four players together, and you’re going to need all of them. By leaving just one controller unmanned, you’re allowing the near-perfect AI players to invade your gaming experience with their uncanny accuracy in what are supposed to be “random” selections. For your safety, always play with 4 players.

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this new incarnation is the library of rather uninspired mini-games. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing fun about choosing a flying vessel at random and sitting around to watch the race.

All the fun of off-track gambling with no actual payout!

Add to this a few sub-standard competition modes – like playing four-player Reversi – and a “card game” that makes little sense and is not very fun anyway, and you have a perfect picture of what the end of a road looks like.

With the money you’d spend on “Mario Party 5,” I’d highly recommend buying a used Nintendo 64 and the original “Mario Party.” It’s just as fun, more enjoyable as a single-player experience, and the extra controllers are cheaper.