Nintendo Spills the Beans on New Wii title Mario Party 9
Nintendo may be pulling back from the Wii software market – what with the Wii U well on its way – but there will still be sequels on the Wii for some of their popular franchises that we have come to know and love over the years.
In March, Mario Party 9 will be hitting stores, and this is the first time that a title in the series will be developed by Nd Cube (what with all previous versions being developed by the now Konami-owned Hudson Soft). The game will include a host of new features and game modes, as well as Boss battles and lots of new characters.
You will still be tasked with collecting stars as you progress around the party boards, such as the brand new Party Adventure board. In this mode, four players will be able to move simultaneously around the board with the help of a vehicle, taking turns to be in control of its movements. The developers have included this new feature as a way to keep all of the players involved in the game at all times, making it a much more inclusive and action-packed version of the well-known game. Overall there will be around eighty new mini games to play through – many which will seem familiar to previous players, but lots of new ideas too.
Another new feature is the Boss Battle mode, where all players must work together to defeat classic enemies from the Mario series. This will make players strategise and scheme, as whilst they work as a team to beat the Boss, they must also try to collect more min stars than the the other gamers, dependent on how well you do in the fight. Free-Play mini-game mode will also be available for those who don’t want to travel around the board, but want to jump right into the action, playing and practising the mini-games as they wish.
The game is bound to be a hit with families and the party-play gamers who make up a large portion of the Wii market, and the use of the famous Mario characters has only made the series even more popular. We will wait to see in March whether or not this is a big enough improvement over the last Mario Party title to warrant another pruchase.
Mario Party 9 launches across Europe on 2nd March only on Wii.
Robin Parker
If I'm not playing on a good Adventure Game - still longing for the long-past Golden Age of the genre, when Lucasarts and Sierra ruled supreme - you might find me searching for a local arcade, in the hopes that it still houses titles such as Sunset Riders or WindJammers.
