Party Game Sundays: Mario Party 10 (Part 2)

Man, it's been a super long time since I wrote the first part of this. Sadly the Party Game Sunday train did not keep rolling along as quickly as I had expected. For many weeks since I wrote about Mario Party 10 there have only been three of us, which wouldn't have been very conducive to playing Bowser Party. However, at long last we wrangled a fourth person in and I was finally able to collect the data I needed in order to conclusively say that Mario Party 10 is a super average game!

That's right, Mario Party 10 is average at best. It's not bad, it's not great, it's just super average. With that said I do think that Bowser Party is the best mode in the game, which is what I had been hearing from most people. Since we've already discussed the intricacies of the regular party mode I'm here to tell you all about how cool Bowser Mode is.

Maybe the next game in the series should be called Bowser Party.

Bowser Party is a refreshing change of pace from the regular Mario Party formula. Yes, something in Mario Party is refreshing. You can play with up to five players in this fun new mode. One person plays as Bowser and they use the Wii-U Gamepad. The other four players, or in our case three, all use Wii-remotes. This means that one person theoretically gets to have more fun, because they get to screw over all the other players in order to achieve victory. It's a really solid role reversal.

As Bowser the goal is to take everyone else out of the game. So the regular players take turns rolling the die as they normally do. They're working together to get as far away from Bowser as they can. Once their turn is over Bowser gets to roll three dice. If he catches up with the other players, then a Bowser mini-game will ensue. There are around 12 unique Bowser mini-games, which all involve Bowser trying to hurt the players. Each player starts off with a set amount of hearts, and once those hearts are gone they're out of the game. You can get extra hearts and revive downed players on the map, so no one is necessarily down for the count. The games are all actually pretty fun. My personal favorite is a game where Bowser tilts the Wii-U gamepad to control where pillars of fire go. The four regular players need to jump over and dodge as best they can, which can get pretty challenging. Almost all of the games have Bowser trying to hit people with things, but they're all different enough to stay interesting.

You do not want to get hit by Bowser!

In true Mario Party fashion there is a lot of rubberbanding. The regular players get extra hearts when they beat the boss at the halfway point of the stage, which is a huge help. Bowser on the other hand will be given extra dice to toss when his opponents get too far ahead. This makes it incredibly easy to catch up, which is frustrating for the regular players, but oh so sweet for the person who gets to play as Bowser. The most Mario Party thing ever happens at the very end of the stage though. If the four regular players make it to the end first then Bowser has to hide the party star inside one of three enemies. The player who's turn is is, must then select where they think it is. If the player guesses wrong, then they get sent back a bunch of spaces and are forced to try again, but with two enemies. It's infuriating that a new mode that is fun, ends up being concluded by random chance, but I guess that's just how Mario Party is!

For some reason you can't choose from all the maps, but you do have Mushroom Park, Whimsical Waters, and Chaos Castle. Each map has its own special features that make the stage feel different than it does in the regular party mode. For example, in Whimsical Waters the four regular players will get to pick from treasure chests at certain points in the stage. Some chests have nothing in them, while others have hearts. The player who is Bowser gets to draw "graffiti" on the chests, which is supposed to throw the others off. It's a cool mechanic.

Bowser can throw his enemies off by writing untrue statements on the screen.

So yes, I think Bowser Party is the best mode in Mario Party 10. As a whole I think that Mario Party 10 is an okay game. However, I definitely do not think that it is worth the full retail price of $50. It's especially not worth that if you don't have any friends to play it with. I can't think of anything more depressing than playing Mario Party alone. I definitely had a good time with my friends though, so I hope that this game gets some DLC maps and mini-games. In the few hours we played we saw literally everything the game had to offer, and it wasn't a whole lot...