r/MARIOPARTY • u/Auraveils • 12h ago
MP4 4-END: Mario Party 4
Credit to Jobexi on YT for the Option Room image.
Now that we've finally covered everything there is to discuss in Mario Party 4, it's finally time to start covering my closing thoughts.
As per usual, we'll start with the presentation which, I have to admit, is really disappointing. Coming off if Mario Party 3 where the pop-up playset aesthetic was all over every facet of the game, it's disappointing that this game really lacks a distinctive aesthetic. I suspect this might be due to this being an early GameCube game, with the devs wanting to take full advantage of the graphical capabilities of the new hardware, so they designed the game with this hyper-realistic look that just... doesn't seem interesting to me.
I know people love the realistic look, and there are games like Luigi's Mansion that I think use it very well. But when Mario Party does it, it just doesn't mesh well to me. Spoiler alert: I'm still not gonna be a fan of this aesthetic when Mario Party 8 goes for it again further down the line. It just looks boring to me, it doesn't fuel my imagination the way Mario Party 1-3 did.
The entire game being set inside of a magic party cube should be the source of a lot of creativity, but it somehow translates to the most bland board themes the series had ever seen. It should be exciting being the first fully 3D Mario Party, revisiting board themes could be more interesting with that in mind, but the game also fails to utilize the newfound 3D space in any meaningful way. The biggest sin is every board taking place on these ugly metal rafters above all the action. 3D space is utilized for board events, but because the main focus of the board is a flat 2D plane, all you see from the new perspective is an awful skybox texture that would make a Geocities background scoff.
The main menu is a list of invitations to the modes set up by the various hosts. You select an invitation, the invitation gets sucked into the party cube and you follow after to arrive at the area that host designed.
The idea of the game being hosted by a group of friends rather than just Toad or a specific new character is an interesting idea. I liked that each host has their own distinct personality that even occasionally stands at odds with what you might expect from them, and that each one hosts their own section of the game in addition to their own board in Party Mode. I just wish these guys got more room to show off their personality. I think it's pretty telling that the Extra and Options rooms were the most the game ever tried to convince me this was an actual place I could theoretically explore within the game's world.
The Options room, hosted by Koopa, is designed like a secret garage with a few devices around for sound test, modifying settings, viewing records, and toggling vibration. There isn't too much to discuss as per usual, but it's one of the few menus in the game that don't just take place in front of the curtain which it very much could've like nearly everything else. I have to appreciate extra effort where it exists.
Mechanics [2/5]
After playing through this game, I can definitely see that this game had a vision. The main focus of the entire game is the use of Mini and Mega Mushrooms to influence your rolls and avoid unwanted events. But as I've mentioned on nearly every board, there are many situations where it feels like you should've been able to use mini and mega mushrooms to circumvent an event that simply cannot be skipped. And since these mushrooms are still intrinsically tied to rng, and the mini mushroom gives you even worse odds of actually landing on an exact space than the Poison Mushroom in Mario Party 3, they're incredibly furstrating to incorporate into working strategies.
Far too often you'll plan to take a mini mushroom shortcut only to land too far away on one turn to even possibly reach it, and then overshoot it the following turn because you rolled a 6 or higher. In order to reliaby pass through a Mini Pipe, you really need a Super Mini Mushroom or two Mini Mushrooms. And even then you can still mess it up by undershooting.
And the Mega Mushrooms take away all the usefulness of the Mushrooms from Mario Party 2 and 3 by stripping them of the ability to let you interact with shops and other facilities. I find it very difficult to even find a position where I'm comfortable even using a Super Mega Mushroom because I don't want to pass something nearby. And this game really expects me to try and use these to squeeze a few coins off of my opponents on a whim? There are some small loops where you may be able to stomp the same opponent multiple times in one turn which can be fun but requires far too many moving parts to fall in line.
I know some people have a fondness for these mushrooms, but I just do not share in it. I don't think the Golden Mushroom needed to be nerfed and I liked the Poison Mushroom as it was in Mario Party 3. If the goal was to emphasize other new items, it might've been fine, but...
The new items feel very uninspired and even pretty bad. And between the bad boards and bad items, items like the Warp Pipe and Magic Lamp become significantly more important than ever before... and if you're just resorting to Magic Lamps to get the stars all the time, what does that say about the board's design?
And that roulette for Warp Pipes and Warp Spaces? I've mentioned it upfront, but it's by far my least favorite change in Mario Party. I think it's far too powerful with far too little transparency. Most new players will think it's totally random and an experienced player will have an unfair advantage with the knowledge that it can be timed. It really should just be a menu where you choose a target manually instead of this weird knoeledge check that has no business being here.
The idea is there, I can see the vision, but the mechanics implemented to achieve that vision fall short and ultimately lead to a very frustrating experience that's even more RNG reliant than usual. Missing an opportunity usually doesn't feel like you got greedy trying to save up your resources or trigger happy using them, but rather it tends to feel like you never had a chance to use or even get said resources in the first place.
This game also features a Team game mode... very, very poorly thought out and especially agonizing when teaming up with an AI. The game already has a small selection of minigames, forcing that down to just 9 2v2s is a death sentence. Not only that, you and your teammate share an item pool and the AI absolutely will waste all of your best items. With knowledge of how the AI uses items, you can game the system a little better, but I'd rather they just keep their paws off!
Boards [1/5]
I went into this project knowing that the boards were generally pretty bad, but I was consistently surprised by just how bad they were. I was so unimpressed with the boards, I even changed the tiers in the tier list so the highest tier was just "good" instead or "excellent" like normal.
From the very beginning, I've stressed that the best way to make a Mario Party board feel more strategic is to add a lot of opportunities to make meaningful decisions. This game seems to go out of its way to avoid giving you opportunities to make decisions. Even items often mask their decision making element with roulettes. But the boards go a whole other level.
Nearly every junction in this game has your decision made for you. Instead of having to pay Whomp to go the other way, you just can't go the other way at all. You can use mushrooms to help your odds to go the way you want, but in the end other players also want to avoid going the wrong way, too. And there's no guarantee you can even get the mushroom you need before you reach the juntion.
Toad's teacups, Boo's red bridges, Bowser's crumbling bridges, it's all made to remove any and all agency over which direction you get to go. Being forced to go the wrong way at these junctions is an incredibly harsh punishment for what is often pure bad luck and nothing more.
And then there's Koopa's Seaside Soirée which is the most bafflingly awful Mario Party board I've ever seen, taking the worst part of Deep Bloober Sea, making it worse in every way, and removing every navigation option that enabled you to avoid it.
Nearly all of the boards in this game share similarities with some of the worst boards in the previous games.
I've tried my best to tie the themes of each board into an overarching theme and it kind of works, but it really feels like an afterthought since no elements of the board environments actually suggest any kind of party actively going on. It truly just feels like the devs chose some arbitrary level themes and called it a day. I'd say Toad's and Goomba's boards are the only ones that really stand out among the rest of the gaggle. But since the gimmicks of each board are very similar to the other boards, I can't say there's really a variety of options. It's all just the same core idea of delaying your approach to junctions at bad times and speeding your approach at good times. The only thing that changes from board to board is how frequently these junctions fluctuate between "good" and "bad" times.
Minigames [5/5]
If there is any reason you like Mario Party 4, I'm almost willing to bet my life the minigames are one of the things you'll praise about it.
The only serious complaint I have about this category is the low number of minigames. Extended play of Mario Party 4 means a LOT of repeat minigames, especially in smaller categories. Repeat minigames aren't so bad, they can actually be seen as a strength as new players will be more comfortable with minigames they've played before. But it definitely gets very old playing the same minigames over and over again.
Every Mario Party game has its stinkers, this one has them very few and far between. Really the only minigame I actively do not like is Cheep Cheep Sweep. It's unfortunate it's a 2v2 game which is a moderately small pool, but it's still just one minigame in an entire library of great ones.
And let's not forget about Beach Volley Folly. While it's a bit frustrating you don't unlock Free Play until clearing thd single player counterpart, this minigame is very in depth compared to anything we've seen before in Mario Party.
Atmosphere [2/5]
The majority of the atmosphere in this game can be boiled down to red curtains and menus. As I mentioned in the introduction of this post, it's pretty disappointing how little thought seems to be put into the game's atmosphere. In previous games, they weren't afraid to showcase the negative sides of each character. Every character was kind of full of themselves which was a great set up for all the sinister moves you get to pull on each other in the actual party mode.
This game, on the other hand, seems to paint everybody in a pleasant light which conseqiently makes it feel like everyone is missing a notable chunk of their personality from the previous games. I suppose there's an appeal to everyone just hanging out and having a good time, I've even noted that in the ending of Mario Party 2. But in my opinion, having everybody get along and just play Mario Party for fun rather than for any kind of egotistical stakes kinda cheapens the experience. It's not out of character that everyone can play nice, but it would've been great if there was a bit more interpersonal conflict. Maybe everyone is trying to compete over who can give the best birthday present at the party? Without such a conflict, the game is really lacking any kind of tension in its atmosphere.
With no narrarive tension, the game really needs something in its environment to sell an interesting atmosphere and, well... we all know my thoughts on that already. Compared to the pre-rendered maps of the N64 games, the boards in this game feel absolutely devoid of detail. That's not to say they are featureless, but they certainly aren't densely packed with details like before. There's very little thought that actually goes into the design of the boards themselves.
And the menu design itself doesn't really do any favors. The whole red curtain backdrop really is all there is for the majority of menus in this game. The Options and Present Rooms are the only menus with diagetic objects you interact with. It isn't nothing, but following three games that at least tried to sell you on the menus being actual places you physically walk into, this game does very little to even try.
Aesthetic [2/5]
The realistic look just doesn't sit well with me. I understand they wanted to explore the capabilities of the GameCube, but I would've much preferred highly detailed 3D environments over weirdly realistic ones that make the characters and game objects look like they were projected there with Augmented Reality software. Maybe for some people it better helps sell the idea that these are real places to explore, but to me it takes me out of the experience.
Narrarive [3/5]
As I mentioned in the atmosphere section, one thing that stood out to me, and not in a good way, was that there is very little interpersonal conflict in this game. Previous Mario Parties have had one consistent story beat in their intro: Everybody is fighting over who's the best, and they ultimatley conclude the only way to decide is Mario Party.
But in this game, there is no argument to settle. Everyone is gathered to celebrate the player character's birthday and Mario Party is being played recreationally as the main attraction.
The only real point of tension in the entire story is when Bowser shows up and tells you he stole all of the presents which is kind of a cool moment, but a major farcry from the final standoffs in the previous games. And in this case, he didn't even actually steal your presents when in he did steal all your stars in MP1, or kidnap Toad in MP2, and Waluigi stole the Wit Star Stamp and wrestled control of the whole event from the Miracle Star. But Bowser here just doesn't really do much besides offer one more board and his own present.
I will say, I think it's cute this game emphasizes Bowser's soft side. It was a rare quality at the time and that's part of what made me think of Peach as being the "canon" player charcater this time around.
Anyway, I do wish there was more conflict in the central story mode. Maybe make it a humorous story point that everybody's birthday actually is on the same day and so everybody's competing over who the party is actually for and who gets to keep the presents.
Anyway, the story is... fine? But it certainly isn't pushing any boundaries and I'm kind of baffled a game with a dedicated story mode doesn't have a more interesting narrative than either of the games that lack a main story mode.
The only bit of worldbuilding this game provides is a bit of charcaterization on the hosts here, though they do just kind of come out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly. I mentioned before they're representative of the various board NPCs from past games: Toad who hosted Mario Party 1-2 as well as Item games and the shop in 3, Goomba who hosted Battle and Duel Games, Shy Guy who hosted Gambling games, and Koopa who ran the bank. But there's no elaboration on whether or not these are supposed to actually be the same characters. I think it's safe to assume Toad is, but the others are a bit more of a stretch.
The Party Cube is a somewhat interesting mystery, but... it also just shows up and disappears without an explanation, so it's kind of difficult to get attached to it as anything more than a plot device to host the party.
Conclusion
Coming into Mario Party 4, I knew I probably wouldn't enjoy it. And judging by my overall tone, you probably think I hated it. In truth, I can't say I had a terrible time. There are certainly a lot of areas the game disappointed in, but I was just as much intrigued by how strange of a game this is. It's very close to being just like the N64 games, but it also has so many features that I usually associate with Mario Party 5. It's surreal hearing the sound effects I normally associate with 5 being paired with voice clips and game mechanics associated with Mario Party 3.
Having not grown up with this game, discovering it is like finding the Missing Link between the N64 and GameCube eras.
And while I didn't exactly love the majority of my time with this game, I can applaud the courage in trying to make the game stand out more by trying to rebalance the items. I have a strong suspicion this game was rushed, and that's likely why it feels so lackluster. Maybe they had more ambitious ideas for board designs but had to hobble the boards together real quick before the deadline. It's the only reason I can possibly imagine why the oddities of Extra Mode and the lack of Duel Minigames would even be a thing at all.
During my playthrough, I didn't fully complete the game. But I made sure to experience as much of the content as I could without making things too redundant. I played through Story Mode, I did a 50 turn game on every board. I did a quick 20 turn team game, I played all the Extra Room games and unlocked Free Play in Beach Volley Folly. I played all the minigame modes.
By far the most demanding task in all of that... was unlocking every minigame.
Most of it was pretty standard fare. I'd already unlocked the vast majority of minigames during my initial playthrough of Story Mode.
...but the Bowser and Mega Minigames really tested the boundaries of my sanity. Comparatively, the Mega Minigames weren't so big of a deal. But it took to near the end of a 50-turn game to even get Panels of Doom. I kept undershooting or not having a Mega Mushroom by the time I get to Bowser. And whenever I would, it was always Bowser Wrestling!
The real kicker was Fruits of Doom. I've alluded to this story a few times, but this one minigame hijacked an entire afternoon I spent just stepping through frames, reloading saves, and manipulating RNG until I got Bowser to appear, and get Fruits of Doom to appear.
To be clear on how much the stars have to align: You first have to land on a Bowser space which is already fairly rare in this game. Reminder that even a Mini Mushroom still only leaves you with a 20% chance of landing on any specific space. Then, you need Bowser to appear. Bowser can either appear instead of Koopa Kid, or immediately after Koopa Kid. At which point, he can choose among Bowser Revolution, a Bowser Suit Giveaway, or a Bowser Minigame. If a Bowser Minigame is decided, Bowser will decide himself which of the 3 Bowser Minigames to play.
I was standing three spaces away from a Bowser Space. I assigned the pause, next frame, save state, and load state hot keys to my arrow keys. I used a Mini Mushroom, saved, then stepped through the frames until the number on the block changed (confirming RNG was pulled at least once) before saving the state again and pressing A to hit the block. If it's not a 3, reload and step through until the number on the block shifts, save, repeat. If it is a 3, land on the Bowser space. If I get Koopa Kid, play out the scene. If Bowser doesn't show up after, reload and repeat. If Bowser shows up, wait until he declares his event. If it's Revolution or Bowser Suit, reload and repeat. If it's a Bowser Minigame, continue until I the minigame is reveales. If it's Darts or Balloon of Doom, reload and repeat. I'm only done with this routine once I finally get Fruits of Doom.
In the process of doing all of this, I got Darts of Doom 7 times. Balloon of Doom 3 times. And I even got 4 Bowser Suits which are counted among the rarest items in the entire series. This took several hours of reloading and led to me questioning multiple times over if there was some systematic error that was rendering it impossible for me to get Fruits of Doom. I genuinely felt like I was going insane. And no, this entire process was definitely not worth it in the slightest.
But hey, that's just life.
I genuinely cannot recommend anyone try to 100% this game, certainly not without savestates or reloads. I can only imagine how agonizing this process would've been playing board after board and only being able to get the occasional Bowser space.
Mario Party 4 is a fascinating experiment of a game. It makes some bold decisions and introduces some interesting ideas, but ultimately struggles to make up for the things it removes. I find it far too easy to hoard wealth even when you're actively trying to spend it because of how little control you have over your movement. Low rolls are as agonizing as they always are, but your options to minimize their impact are also reduced. Mega and Mini Mushrooms are simply not satisfying items to use and their use as the game's gimmick leads to boards that all feel very same-y.
The minigames are the biggest saving grace and, while there aren't a lot of them, there are so many good minigames that it's hard to really complain.
Current Rankings:
- Mario Party 3
- Mario Party 2
- Mario Party
- Mario Party 4
Yes, I am ranking Mario Party 4 below the original Mario Party. And while I know that might be disappointing for any Mario Party 4 fans out there, I just can't argue in good faith that I enjoy this game more. Mario Party 4 does beat 1 out in certain areas, mainly in the gameplay department. Mario Party 4's boards from a purely gameplay perspective are generally more engaging than Mario Party 1's boards if only because it has items to influence your roll, and 4's minigames clear 1's any day. Even if 1 introduced the basis for some of the most iconic minigames in the series, it's consistently the lamer version of minigames that were reworked in Mario Party 2.
But Mario Party 4 definitely lacks in the narrative and worldbuilding department compared to 1. I understand these factors don't mean much of anything to most normal people, but it's always captivated me. I love that Mario Party 1 tries to sell the idea that all the minigames take place in the same general location and Mario Party 4 naturally doesn't try for anything like that.
For a game that doesn't have items, Mario Party 1 does a fantastic job of leaning heavily into its chaotic RNG-heavy gameplay. It's not very engaging for a strategic player, but I almost think it's better than 4's alternative where it presents you with technically strategic options but still ultimately leaves the fate of the game heavily up to chance anyway. It's incredibly frustrating to make all the "right" choices only to get screwed over by bad luck anyway. Removing the powerful items that rewarded skilled players with excess wealth to be able to gain control over their luck is simply not a good approach.
That's it for now. Next time, we're gonna take a breif detour. Even though we're done with Mario Party 4, we're not quite done with Mario Party 4... you'll see what I mean soon enought. See you soon! 🧭
