Mario Party 5
Encyclopedia
is a party video game published by Nintendo
and developed by Hudson Soft
. It is the second game in the Mario Party
series for Nintendo Gamecube
. It was released in North America on November 10, 2003, in Japan on November 23, 2003, and in Europe on December 5, 2003. Mario Party 5 is the fifth installment in the Mario Party series.
The game is set in the fictional world of the Dream Depot, consisting of seven game boards. The single-player "Story" mode involves the player winning multiple games against the Koopa Kids to prevent Bowser from conquering the Dream Depot. The main multiplayer game mode consists of four characters from Mario series playing a board game, with each board having a set theme. The game also features several minigames, which are played after every set of turns. Mario Party 5 introduces the "Super Duel" mode to the franchise, which requires players to assemble and control custom made battle vehicles which can be used in combat against other machines. The game features ten playable characters, with playable debuts to the series from Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid.
Mario Party 5 was positively received by the media; reviewers enjoyed the new minigames of the series, although a perceived lack of originality was criticized. The game became part of the Nintendo Player's Choice
label in 2004, and won the Console Children's Award at the 2004 Interactive Achievement Awards. Mario Party 5 received an aggregate rating of 71% from Game Rankings
and 69% from Metacritic
. Mario Party 5 is followed by Mario Party 6
.
played by characters of the Mario series. The player's objective is to obtain the most stars by the end of the board game, which are usually purchased when landing on the designated star space on the game board. Coins are earned mainly by winning minigame
s, which occur after all players have rolled the die
. "Party Mode" is the main multiplayer mode, and involves four characters competing in a standard board game either independently or in opposing pairs. As with its predecessors, players can adjust the number of turns in a game by multiples of five, and determine the difficulty of artificial intelligence
opponents.
Mario Party 5 features ten playable characters, including three additional characters to the series: Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid. Hudson omitted Donkey Kong as a playable character from the series in this installment, instead featuring him in the "DK space", which initiates an event granting the possibility of a star or coins whenever landed on. While the series' predecessors used item shops as a means to obtain items, Mario Party 5 introduces the capsule system. Capsules are containers that hold a single item which are acquired when passing the "Capsule Machine" on the board. The items contained within them serve a variety of purposes, from increasing the range of the die and thus movement, to deducting ten coins from an opponent. During a game, the gameplay is altered for the last five turns with the options selected randomly via a roulette wheel; such changes include tripling the coin benefit or deficit from coloured spaces.
The game's boards incorporate the theme of the Dream Depot, with each having "Dream" at the end of the board's title, except for the "Bowser's Nightmare" board. Each board consists of multiple types of spaces, some of which granting special types of minigames that cannot be accessed regularly. Some spaces, specifically "happening" spaces, will incorporate the relevant theme; for example, a giant robot resembling Mecha Bowser will shoot any character back to the start when landing on its "happening" space in the Toy Dream board.
Players can choose to play minigames separate from the board game context via "Minigame Mode". The minigames are categorized by their character structure, with "4-player", "1 vs. 3", and "2 vs. 2" available. Besides these standard versions, there are also the "DK" and "Bowser" minigames, which are themed to reflect their titular character; "Battle" minigames are retained from Mario Party 4. The set of minigames are available without a structure ("Free play") in this mode, but can be formatted into tournaments and separate objectives like in "Mini-game circuit", involving the characters winning minigames to reach the finish line first. In "Bonus mode", a set of three larger games that do not appear in usual play can be accessed; this involves a card-based board game ("Card party"), as well as Beach volleyball
and Ice hockey
.
Mario Party 5 introduced the "Super-Duel Mode", a game involving the player assembling and controlling a combat vehicle. Each component of the vehicle can be bought separately; these do not necessarily have to fit with other parts stylistically, and contribute to the vehicle's general statistics regarding fields such as health
and speed. Once the vehicle is assembled and named, it can engage AI or human opponents in a single match or in tournaments. Variants of this are available, including a capture the flag
mode and another requiring the player to shoot mechanical rabbits.
and Mario Party 4
. Players face 3 Koopa Kids (red, green, and blue). The only way to defeat them and clear the board is to take all their coins away. Players must take all coins from a Koopa Kid to defeat it. If players lose all of the coins coins or don't defeat the Koopa Kids within 15 turns, the game is over. After players win 5 boards, they face Bowser in a final stage mini-game called "Frightmare," in which it is a one-on-one mini-game with Bowser. There are 4 parts to the battle. First, players go against Mechakoopas (Robotic versions of Koopa Troopas). Then players face Bowser. Make him jump into a tile 3 times to clear part 3. Part 4 is the final battle, where Bowser grows. After throwing fireballs and hitting Bowser with them 5 times, the game is cleared and the final board unlocked.
" title, which is a label for Nintendo titles that had sold more than one million copies to be sold at a bargain price. Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party Super Mario: The Mysterious Rolling Party is an arcade version of Mario Party 5 released exclusively in Japan in 2004. It was developed by Capcom
instead of Hudson Soft
.
s Andrew Reiner cited the example of coin redistribution in the game, which meant that "You could win every minigame and collect the most coins but still end up in last place", when giving a second opinion of the game. While acknowledging issues relating to the waiting times during board games, IGN
's Peer Scheider praised this installment for relieving the problem slightly, specifically referring to the Mini Bowsers, who all take their turns at the same time in "Story" mode. The quantity and accessibility of the minigames was lauded by GameSpot
, although the reviewer Ryan Davis proceeded to note "If you bought Mario Party 4 last year, Mario Party 5 is hard to recommend.", noting a lack of change to the series formula. Generally, critics cited having a fun experience in Mario Party 5, although the minigames received a more enthusiastic reaction than the actual board game, with GameSpy commenting that "the sheer volume can keep you compelled. If only you didn't have to deal with all that BS in-between" when referring to gameplay of the actual board game.
Features introduced in the game received a mixed response. The three games in "Bonus" mode were praised, although reviewers were least enthusiastic about "Card Party", with GameSpot commenting that "This mode is proof that the minigames are really what make Mario Party fun, as it's pretty dull." The capsule system was generally criticised as the pertaining animations seemed to exacerbate the game's slow place. Despite other reviewers' claims that the capsule system contributed to the game's dependence on chance, IGN commended the system for contributing to a more dynamic game board experience. The "Super Duel" mode was praised as a reasonably fun feature, although the gameplay was rated as "sluggish". GameSpy noted the seemingly increasing board sizes from previous installments, which apparently made obtaining stars and using ranged items more difficult.
The game's graphics received a mediocre response, with GameSpot commenting that the presentation is "starting to seem a bit antiquated" when noting that the character models did not seem to have been updated from Mario Party 4. Despite this, IGN commented that Mario Party 5 "isn't a bad looking game", noting the level of detail and variety given to the game's board game's and maps. GameSpot noted that the game's audio did fit the game, although they commented that it "is largely recycled from Mario Party 4". IGN criticized the "cheesy" and unadventurous soundtrack, as well as a lack of voice acting. It won the Console Children's Award at the 2004 Interactive Achievement Awards.
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
and developed by Hudson Soft
Hudson Soft
, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
. It is the second game in the Mario Party
Mario Party
is a party video game for the Nintendo 64 game console, developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on December 14, 1998, in North America on February 8, 1999, and in Europe on March 9, 1999...
series for Nintendo Gamecube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
. It was released in North America on November 10, 2003, in Japan on November 23, 2003, and in Europe on December 5, 2003. Mario Party 5 is the fifth installment in the Mario Party series.
The game is set in the fictional world of the Dream Depot, consisting of seven game boards. The single-player "Story" mode involves the player winning multiple games against the Koopa Kids to prevent Bowser from conquering the Dream Depot. The main multiplayer game mode consists of four characters from Mario series playing a board game, with each board having a set theme. The game also features several minigames, which are played after every set of turns. Mario Party 5 introduces the "Super Duel" mode to the franchise, which requires players to assemble and control custom made battle vehicles which can be used in combat against other machines. The game features ten playable characters, with playable debuts to the series from Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid.
Mario Party 5 was positively received by the media; reviewers enjoyed the new minigames of the series, although a perceived lack of originality was criticized. The game became part of the Nintendo Player's Choice
Player's Choice
Nintendo Selects is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Nintendo Selects titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...
label in 2004, and won the Console Children's Award at the 2004 Interactive Achievement Awards. Mario Party 5 received an aggregate rating of 71% from Game Rankings
Game Rankings
GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...
and 69% from Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Mario Party 5 is followed by Mario Party 6
Mario Party 6
is the sixth game in the Mario Party series of board game-style video games by Nintendo and is the third title in the series made for Nintendo GameCube and was released in Japan on November 18, 2004; North America on December 6, 2004; in Europe on March 18, 2005; and in Australia on September 15,...
.
Gameplay
Mario Party 5 retains the fundamental gameplay featured in previous installments, which is based upon a themed board gameBoard game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
played by characters of the Mario series. The player's objective is to obtain the most stars by the end of the board game, which are usually purchased when landing on the designated star space on the game board. Coins are earned mainly by winning minigame
Minigame
A minigame is a short video game often contained within another video game. A minigame is always smaller or more simplistic than the game in which it is contained. Minigames are sometimes also offered separately for free to promote the main game...
s, which occur after all players have rolled the die
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
. "Party Mode" is the main multiplayer mode, and involves four characters competing in a standard board game either independently or in opposing pairs. As with its predecessors, players can adjust the number of turns in a game by multiples of five, and determine the difficulty of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
opponents.
Mario Party 5 features ten playable characters, including three additional characters to the series: Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid. Hudson omitted Donkey Kong as a playable character from the series in this installment, instead featuring him in the "DK space", which initiates an event granting the possibility of a star or coins whenever landed on. While the series' predecessors used item shops as a means to obtain items, Mario Party 5 introduces the capsule system. Capsules are containers that hold a single item which are acquired when passing the "Capsule Machine" on the board. The items contained within them serve a variety of purposes, from increasing the range of the die and thus movement, to deducting ten coins from an opponent. During a game, the gameplay is altered for the last five turns with the options selected randomly via a roulette wheel; such changes include tripling the coin benefit or deficit from coloured spaces.
The game's boards incorporate the theme of the Dream Depot, with each having "Dream" at the end of the board's title, except for the "Bowser's Nightmare" board. Each board consists of multiple types of spaces, some of which granting special types of minigames that cannot be accessed regularly. Some spaces, specifically "happening" spaces, will incorporate the relevant theme; for example, a giant robot resembling Mecha Bowser will shoot any character back to the start when landing on its "happening" space in the Toy Dream board.
Players can choose to play minigames separate from the board game context via "Minigame Mode". The minigames are categorized by their character structure, with "4-player", "1 vs. 3", and "2 vs. 2" available. Besides these standard versions, there are also the "DK" and "Bowser" minigames, which are themed to reflect their titular character; "Battle" minigames are retained from Mario Party 4. The set of minigames are available without a structure ("Free play") in this mode, but can be formatted into tournaments and separate objectives like in "Mini-game circuit", involving the characters winning minigames to reach the finish line first. In "Bonus mode", a set of three larger games that do not appear in usual play can be accessed; this involves a card-based board game ("Card party"), as well as Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball
Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.Like volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent....
and Ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
.
Mario Party 5 introduced the "Super-Duel Mode", a game involving the player assembling and controlling a combat vehicle. Each component of the vehicle can be bought separately; these do not necessarily have to fit with other parts stylistically, and contribute to the vehicle's general statistics regarding fields such as health
Health (game mechanic)
Health is a game mechanic used in role-playing, computer and video games to give value to characters, enemies, NPCs, and related objects. This value can either be numerical, semi-numerical as in hit/health points, or arbitrary as in a life bar....
and speed. Once the vehicle is assembled and named, it can engage AI or human opponents in a single match or in tournaments. Variants of this are available, including a capture the flag
Capture the flag
Capture the Flag is a traditional outdoor sport generally played by children, where two teams each have a flag and the objective is to capture the other team's flag, located at the team's "base," and bring it safely back to their own base...
mode and another requiring the player to shoot mechanical rabbits.
Plot and setting
The story mode in Mario Party 5 is completely different than the story modes of Mario Party 3Mario Party 3
is the third in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular Nintendo characters. It was released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan on December 7, 2000, following a North American release on May 7, 2001. It was released in Australia on September 3, 2001 and in...
and Mario Party 4
Mario Party 4
is the fourth installment in a series of board game style and is the first game in the series to be released for Nintendo Gamecube, featuring popular Nintendo characters. Mario Party 4 was released in North America on October 21, 2002, in Japan on November 8, 2002, and in Europe and Australia on...
. Players face 3 Koopa Kids (red, green, and blue). The only way to defeat them and clear the board is to take all their coins away. Players must take all coins from a Koopa Kid to defeat it. If players lose all of the coins coins or don't defeat the Koopa Kids within 15 turns, the game is over. After players win 5 boards, they face Bowser in a final stage mini-game called "Frightmare," in which it is a one-on-one mini-game with Bowser. There are 4 parts to the battle. First, players go against Mechakoopas (Robotic versions of Koopa Troopas). Then players face Bowser. Make him jump into a tile 3 times to clear part 3. Part 4 is the final battle, where Bowser grows. After throwing fireballs and hitting Bowser with them 5 times, the game is cleared and the final board unlocked.
Development
Like its predecessors, Mario Party 5 was published by Nintendo and developed by Hudson Soft. Nintendo first unveiled the game at the E3 conference of 2003, where eight minigames where available in a playable demonstration. Following release, Nintendo announced Mario Party 5 as a "Player's ChoicePlayer's Choice
Nintendo Selects is a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on Nintendo game consoles which have sold well; Nintendo Selects titles are sold at a lower price point than other games...
" title, which is a label for Nintendo titles that had sold more than one million copies to be sold at a bargain price. Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party Super Mario: The Mysterious Rolling Party is an arcade version of Mario Party 5 released exclusively in Japan in 2004. It was developed by Capcom
Capcom
is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...
instead of Hudson Soft
Hudson Soft
, formally known as , is a majority-owned subsidiary of Konami Corporation is a Japanese electronic entertainment publisher headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, with an additional office in the Hudson Building in Sapporo. It was founded on May 18, 1973...
.
Reception
Mario Party 5 generally received positive reviews, although there were frequent criticisms of the game's perceived dependency on luck rather than skill. Game InformerGame Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
s Andrew Reiner cited the example of coin redistribution in the game, which meant that "You could win every minigame and collect the most coins but still end up in last place", when giving a second opinion of the game. While acknowledging issues relating to the waiting times during board games, IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Peer Scheider praised this installment for relieving the problem slightly, specifically referring to the Mini Bowsers, who all take their turns at the same time in "Story" mode. The quantity and accessibility of the minigames was lauded by GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
, although the reviewer Ryan Davis proceeded to note "If you bought Mario Party 4 last year, Mario Party 5 is hard to recommend.", noting a lack of change to the series formula. Generally, critics cited having a fun experience in Mario Party 5, although the minigames received a more enthusiastic reaction than the actual board game, with GameSpy commenting that "the sheer volume can keep you compelled. If only you didn't have to deal with all that BS in-between" when referring to gameplay of the actual board game.
Features introduced in the game received a mixed response. The three games in "Bonus" mode were praised, although reviewers were least enthusiastic about "Card Party", with GameSpot commenting that "This mode is proof that the minigames are really what make Mario Party fun, as it's pretty dull." The capsule system was generally criticised as the pertaining animations seemed to exacerbate the game's slow place. Despite other reviewers' claims that the capsule system contributed to the game's dependence on chance, IGN commended the system for contributing to a more dynamic game board experience. The "Super Duel" mode was praised as a reasonably fun feature, although the gameplay was rated as "sluggish". GameSpy noted the seemingly increasing board sizes from previous installments, which apparently made obtaining stars and using ranged items more difficult.
The game's graphics received a mediocre response, with GameSpot commenting that the presentation is "starting to seem a bit antiquated" when noting that the character models did not seem to have been updated from Mario Party 4. Despite this, IGN commented that Mario Party 5 "isn't a bad looking game", noting the level of detail and variety given to the game's board game's and maps. GameSpot noted that the game's audio did fit the game, although they commented that it "is largely recycled from Mario Party 4". IGN criticized the "cheesy" and unadventurous soundtrack, as well as a lack of voice acting. It won the Console Children's Award at the 2004 Interactive Achievement Awards.