Review by DarkDay

"The first not-perfect party game by Camelot/Nintendo is still good."

As a huge fan of Mario, I couldn't waste an opportunity to try another party game featuring himself, Luigi, and other famous (and not so famous) characters from this series. I expected it to be just as fun as Mario Party, Super Smash Bros, Mario Golf, Mario Kart... and I wasn't wrong! It turned out to be an excellent party game, and its one of the least boring to play alone (but isn't flawless). Lets get on to the real review.

There's no story. Well maybe there is! When you play the tournament, and win the Mushroom Cup, someone steals it, and you will have to play the following cups to recover it.

Anyways, these games don't need much of a story. So it's N/A.

Nice 3-D. The characters look very good and have excellent animation. It was nice to see some long forgotten characters like Daisy and Birdo here, and a new (I don't know if he's new but I never saw him before) character named Waluigi. The courts look ok, but the special courts like the Mario Brothers court and such have drawings on the floor that make the ball harder to see.

Graphics get a 9/10.

There aren't lots of music in this game. Music is just there for background in the menus, and at some points in the game. Voices are great, including Boo's screams, and Paratroopas's squeals. The sound effects were good, the bounces sound real... and they repeat so much you'll end hating them. Shortly, the sound ranks between average and good.

It gets a 7/10.

Camelot throws at us another excellent multiplayer game. Many don't find it nearly as fun as Mario Party, but still is above average. The great amount of characters (16), which have different properties make this game really variate. The courts also have a strong influence on the gameplay, so expect losing if you are used to only one court.
As for the different game modes, there are several. The Tournament mode in singles is pretty easy to win, but in doubles can be much tougher due to the sheer stupidity of your CPU partner. The Rings Mode is OK, but its much more fun playing it against someone else.

Gameplay gets a 8/10. Playing alone can be REALLY boring.

The control is weird. The character can move around ok, and its responsive, but sometimes it gets stuck charging power instead of hitting the ball. This is extremely frustrating since it can screw many good plays. Another thing that screws good plays is that the slow characters (Bowser, Wario, Donkey Kong, and DK Jr.) will have many problems, and its very tough to master the game using them.

In conclusion, the control isn't so bad it takes the fun away, but it can be a good reason for someone to get frustrated and throw the game away. I give it a 5/10.

This game is very replayable, since playing against your buddies is very fun. If you have no one to play with, this game will be fun for.. two or three days.

Considering you have enough people and controls to play in multiplayer, the Replayability gets a 10/10.

Graphics- 9
Audio- 7
Gameplay- 8
Control- 5
Replayability- 10

Rounded Overall- 8

It's worth a buy? Well, it depends a lot on the person, so I recommend you rent/borrow it first.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10 | Originally Posted: 05/29/01, Updated 05/20/02


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