Oh where did the Party begin to slowly downward slide! Where!!

Here? Maybe but eventually Mario Party will stop being great… or maybe I just realized that (as the game went forward) Mario Party is only really fun when you have peeps (people, associates, family, whatever) to play the game with.

As fun as it may seem? Without human interaction, and humans to play against, the game just isn't as great (or fun) as you may think. However with the new Wii Speak out now (introduced with the long in coming Animal Crossing : City Folk) there's new technology out that can bring people together… so why not make sure the next Mario Party uses that Wii Speak to bring gamers together… oh, but you have to remember to add that all important online function so people can actually play against each other across the world AND speak to each other across said world using Wii Speak… yeah, can't forget that one.

But while we wait for the next Mario Party game from the Wii (and what advances, or lack thereof, are featured in Mario Party 9) let's look at

the first Mario Party that opened up on the past Nintendo GameCube, Mario Party 4.

Once again offering new innovations to the franchise (it seems just about every Mario Party offers up the next step in innovation in the franchise, though some -- like the "Hey You, Pikachu!" style microphone attachment -- should have been better thought out) the 4th Mario Party offered up such innovation as…

- The Mini/Mega Mushrooms allowing characters to shrink or grow on the board.

- New 3D game boards (which of course is taken for granted of late).

- Over 50 mini games (mini games being the lifeblood that Mario Party lives or perishes on, the better the games the better the Party… and opposite works too).

OK, everyone's gathered together outside of Princess Peach's castle and up out of nowhere appears a giant cube. Turns out it's a Party Cube and it's being hosted by Toad and pals. This time out there are presents to be won, only you have to WIN one of five (I think six if there's a surprise appearance by Bowser though I haven't played that far yet to see)

boards to get said surprise, and I'm struggling at that for some reason! Wow! You'd think I could beat a retro Mario Party if I do well enough on the latest Mario Party (8 on the Wii) but this one vexes me!

Each world is nice enough, but I miss the gimmicky worlds of Mario Party 2 and the worlds of Mario Party 3. These are just phoning it in, so to speak, and while the gimmick of the large and small mushrooms (making you big or small which can affect gameplay and give you access to certain areas in small mode) is nice, overall it's the same party and even the nice smathering of mini games can't change the fact that the game really plays only well when you are playing with a group of people. Mario Party just isn't a one person ordeal, it's a game series set on fantastic board game landscapes, with four people playing… thing is, however, that is exactly the number you should have playing this! Four! At least you and one other to make the game more interesting, because playing

it alone gets rather boring and dull without the thrill of competition to give you a buzz.

So the game features a new limited thing (the big and small shrooms), but still that's nothing compared to the other Mario games with the greater amount of gimmicks that this game kinda lacks. As far as Mario Partys go this one is rather lacking in content overall, and while there are the Presents I have a feeling I'll probably be disappointed by those too… just maybe. But still I do like a good Mario Party, though I should get Mario Party DS and hope that has online features and people are still online playing it… that'd be nice… anyway it does it's job well enough though I still yearn for a DS port of the classic N64 Mario Partys, and yearn for a better Party (or just more people to play the Party with, memo to Nintendo hoping they remember to add that all important online playability that was missing from Mario Party 8). 3 hot Princess Daisy on Peach tag team matches out of 5