Sunday 03 May 2009

Unlocking ancillary content in a game (alternate costumes, superfluous characters and items, and maybe even the odd vehicle or map here and there), while naturally progressing through that game, is perfectly acceptable. Unlocking the game itself (the core content through which you would normally play in any other game) through extended play of a not fun, apparently meta experience of sorts, however, is unacceptable.

And when the ‘game itself’ consists entirely of singleplayer and multiplayer mini-games - all of which hardly add up to a solid, tangible game experience - unlocking that game is made all the more tedious, as though you’re wading through dross to unlock the fun parts, such as actually playing the game you’re presented with, accompanied by friends the way it was supposed to be ‘enjoyed.’

Mario Party DS, just as all of the Mario Party games before and after, forces players to do just this, testing your patience in a singleplayer boardgame which runs the gamut of all of the available mini-games, before you’re given access to the same mini-games to play on their own or in multiplayer. Unacceptable.

The basic set-up is that Mario and friends have got themselves into trouble once again, and have been shrunk down to pint size by Bowser so he can once again attempt to execute his evil schemes. Now it’s up to the group to try to stop Bowser by… challenging each other to a round of mini-games that play out during turns in a boardgame? Mario and co. are essentially battling against themselves as they each strive to ‘be the hero’ in order to achieve a common goal… well, that doesn’t make much sense, but not many back stories (either in Nintendo games or videogames in general) do.

The basic singleplayer game plays out as a traditional boardgame, with (randomised) dice rolls determining beginning player order and how quickly players move from space to space on the board. Spaces on the board may contain special events, or you may get a (random) reward or a (random) punishment for landing on certain spaces. At the end of one round (a singleplayer game comprises ten rounds, each round comprising a turn from each of the four players), all of the players engage in a (randomly picked) mini-game where you are further rewarded or punished, depending on your performance (which can be randomly decided as well).

At the end of a game, the winner is chosen (the player with the most stars, which are scattered around the board) and this player is then tasked with battling the boss of that particular board (the results of which are randomly decided). If the chosen player wins the battle against that boss, the board in question is deemed ‘complete’ and players can move on to the next board. If the chosen player loses against the end board boss, that board has to be played and completed again until that boss is defeated (Reminder: the results of the battle are randomly decided).

So, to hammer home the beating of the horse that was previously among the living, there is a lot of randomisation going on in the singleplayer boardgame portion of Mario Party DS. In a boardgame, and even a videogame approximation of a boardgame, randomisation is expected, as it simulates the many and varied choices and situations that you and your fellow players will encounter throughout the game. When you’re trying to get through the singleplayer boardgame portion of Mario Party DS, however, and you’re constantly coming up against random dice rolls (either seen or unseen), your progress is frustratingly impeded by elements that are out of your control, despite your best efforts to finish this portion, simply to unlock the rest of the game, i.e. the part of the game you’d rather be playing with friends.

As an aside (and this is a big aside), the mini-games (that actually form that part of the game you’d rather be playing with friends) are pretty fun and inventive. Players are either pitted against one another with a common danger element (ghosts floating around, a group of pond fish that try to suck you down to the depths of the water, etc.), or you team up with other players to defeat the opposing team (blowing a Thwomp over to crush the opposition, three players trying to drop objects onto a single player who needs to survive, etc.). As a collection of mini-games, Mario Party DS is really quite a bit of fun, even with computer AI controlling the other players, but obviously best played with friends to eke out that extra bit of satisfaction when you defeat a living, breathing opponent.

Special mention should go to a group of five puzzle games that are (thankfully) unlocked from the beginning of the game that also prove to be a good time, if even for a few minutes. While they’re all variations of puzzle games gone by (with shades of Dr. Mario, Tetris and Match-3 types of games), they’re all good for a bit of a diversion, if (Read: When) you’ve simply had enough of the boardgame for a while.

If you have the patience to work through the singleplayer game, unlocking the variety of mini-games to play by themselves or in multiplayer mode, and you happen to host and/or attend regular DS parties, playing multiplayer DS games with your friends, then Mario Party DS can be recommended for the fact that, behind the high wall of inaccessibility, there exists some mini-games that are truly fun when playing with entities other than computer controlled characters… and sometimes even with those selfsame characters, those mini-games prove to be a fun time.

It’s simply the outdated way in which the mini-games themselves, and the way the game is presented, that will prove to be an insurmountable barrier to a lot of gamers. Unlocking peripheral content is absolutely fine, because people can choose to play and pursue that content which isn’t required to continue to play the game. Forcing players to jump through hoops in order to unlock the core game experience is an obsolete line of thinking that Nintendo, and other companies, seriously need to let go of.

Pros: Fun mini-games…

Cons: … locked behind a razorblade-encrusted steel wall

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Contributor:	Oliver

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