The good news is Nintendo is bringing the Mario Party franchise to Wii U with a rather clever implementation of asymmetrical gameplay using the Wii U GamePad in Mario Party 10. The bad news is they didn’t learn from a critical botched Mario Party 9 design experiment that has carried over into the new game.
For his tenth appearance on consoles in the Mario Party franchise, Mario is going to have to share the spotlight this year as Mario Party 10 introduces the concept of a Bowser Party. Bowser has reared his ugly head in all the previous Mario Party games before to throw off and impede players. This time he’s playable and controlling the action more than ever before.
For example, in one mini-game, the player controlling Bowser with the Wii U GamePad is playing a pinball game while the other four players are running around on the pinball table. It’s up to Bowser to try and hit them with the balls while the players run for their lives.
Another level has Bowser looking down upon the four players on a large platform with no escape. The GamePad player has Bowser’s POV and aims his fire breath at the players, who must run around in circles trying to avoid it.
The idea of the games isn’t necessarily new, but the asymmetrical gameplay twist should spruce up Mario Party 10 after what I felt was a weak effort in Mario Party: Island Tour on 3DS.
In Mario Party 9, players became tethered to one another on the game board and rode together in a car. This was a radical departure from the individual player movement in all the previous games. This mechanic, that is widely frowned upon, appears to be back in Mario Party 10 unless there’s a yet-to-be-revealed option that disables it.
There’s no Mario Party 10 release date, but sometime in 2015 seems like a good bet. Nintendo also confirmed after their E3 Digital Event that Mario Party 10 will be compatible with the new Amiibo “Toys to Life” figures coming out later this year.
