Mario Party 5

Mario Party 5 is the fifth installment in the Mario Party series. Like its namesake, it is a party game for the Nintendo GameCube, succeeding the Nintendo GameCube's first Mario Party installment, Mario Party 4. It was first released in November 10, 2003 in North American territories, approximately one year after Mario Party 4 was released. As in other Mario Party installments, players interact with one another in virtual boards, playing as various Mario characters. Players then can participate in various mini-games at the end of every turn in the board, each with their own set of rules and settings. The most notable change in this game is that the item system that was first introduced in Mario Party 2 was replaced with the new Capsule system, where players can not only use them for their own advantage but set up traps for other players to fall into; Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 7 would later return the capsule system (now called Orbs) and add new mechanics to the capsules. Mario Party 5 also introduces new modes such as Super Duel Mode, where players can battle each other on battle machines and Bonus Mode, where players can play special mini-games, similar to Mario Party 4's Extra Mode. The game is also significant for being the second in the series to introduce 3D game boards. Previous titles, all except for Mario Party 4, utilized pre-rendered backgrounds, which are static and limited in their presentation. As a result, all subsequent Mario Party titles, with the exception of Mario Party Advance on the Game Boy Advance, have employed 3D backgrounds allowing for much more dynamic fields of play.

Mario Party 5 features the Star Spirits (known as Star Guards in this game) from Paper Mario as the main hosts of the game, where one of them guides the player through each of the game's various modes. The game features a dream-theme, where the game takes place in the Dream Depot and each of the boards' names have "Dream" suffixes. In the game's Story Mode, geared towards single players, a playable character has to face Bowser and the Koopa Kids (known as Mini Bowser in the PAL version), who invade the Dream Depot, and need to challenge them in every stage.

Mario Party 5 became part of the Nintendo Player's Choice label in October 22, 2004, and won the Console's Children award at the 2004 Interactive Achievement Awards.

Story
From the Mario Party 5 instruction booklet: In the night sky, past the moon and beyond the stars, there's a dream world known as Dream Depot, where everyone's dreams come together. This is the real land of dreams... In this land, there are Star Guards who protect the dreams of all. One dreamy night, the Star Guards thought of something. "Many dreams arrive here at Dream Depot every day," they said, "so... why don't we offer those with the power of dreaming a chance to visit?" In the end, they decided to invite Mario and his closest friends because, when it comes to dreamers, nobody dreams bigger than they do! So the Star Guards prepared for their guests' arrival by creating many fun-filled games for them to play. And that is how the story of Mario and his friends both old and new began!

In Story Mode, Bowser and Koopa Kid are planning to ruin everyone's dreams, and players must stop Bowser from taking over said dreams. If players clear the six boards, they must face the Koopa Kids in Bowser Nightmare, and if they beat that board, they fight Bowser in Frightmare.

Gameplay
The gameplay in Mario Party 5 is the same as in other installments. Players move around the board by rolling a Dice Block numbered one through ten. The game begins by deciding the order of play with Dice Blocks. Players who roll the highest numbers get to start their turn sooner. Then players are given ten coins to start. The object of the game is to collect as many Stars as possible. Each Star is worth 20 coins. Stars appear in random, set locations, which get shuffled every time a player acquires a Star. Players can earn coins to purchase these Stars by either landing on spaces or winning mini-games. The spaces players land on can either be beneficial or harmful: for example, Plus Spaces award players three coins, Minus Spaces deduct three coins, and ? Spaces cause an event to happen, which is dependent on the board being played. Players also have the option to receive items called capsules at Capsule Machines, which replace the Item Shops of the previous entries of the Mario Party series. Players can toss capsules onto spaces or use capsules on themselves for a price. Plus or Minus Spaces that have an icon on them mean that they are under influence of a capsule and their effects is dependent on the capsule effect it has.

After everyone moves, a mini-game starts; the type of mini-game is determined by the color of the panel, which is dependent on the space the player has landed on. If everyone has the same color, then a 4-Player mini-game begin. If players have equal amount of colored panels, a 2-Vs-2 mini-game is played. If all players except one have landed on the same space, a 1-Vs-3 mini-game commences. Sometimes, a battle mini-game take place and everyone pays coins to put at stake to compete, with winning players receiving more coins than lower-placed players. After a mini-game, players earn 20 coins based on their performance, with Bonus mini-games having the potential of players receiving even more coins. Other mini-games such as Duel, Bowser, and DK mini-games require a specific space-landing or item usage for the mini-games to be played; these do not happen at the end of a turn as normal mini-games. After normal mini-games are played, the game saves and the next turn begins, repeating the process until the end of the game.

When there is only five turns left, the Last Five Turns Event starts. Here, Bowser announces the current standings and asks the player in last place to spin the wheel to add a new rule for the remainder of the game. Also, when two players land on the same space, a Duel mini-game begins.

After the final turn, Eldstar announces the results starting with the current Star count and the final coin count. Then, players receive three Bonus Stars based on their performance before announcing the winner of the game, which is the player with the most Stars overall (with coins or Dice Blocks serving as the tiebreaker).

Story Mode
In Story Mode, the player will go on six boards facing the three Koopa Kids. The boards are much smaller boards than in Party Mode. When a player passes/lands on a Koopa Kid, they will duel them; losing costs them 5 coins while winning costs the Koopa Kid 15 coins. When the Koopa Kid passes/lands on the player, they will duel them; losing costs them 5 coins while winning costs the player 10 coins. All the Koopa Kids move at the same time, quickening game play.

There is a VS Space; if there are three Koopa Kids, then this will cause a 1 vs. 3 game. Two will cause a 2 vs. 2 game (with Toad as the player's partner). One causes a duel. (Note: Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid are not playable on Story Mode.)

When a player loses all their Coins, they are eliminated from the board. The main objective is to eliminate all three of the Koopa Kid's before they eliminate the player. After all six boards, the player faces Bowser in Frightmare.

Super Duel Mode
Super Duel Mode is a mode where players buy and assemble machines using points earned by playing minigames. It is hosted by Skolar. The machines come with a body, tire, engine, and weapon, and are used to pit against opponent machines in a battle arena. Players can either battle, capture flags, or shoot Robo-Rabbits in order to win. Players can either play in tournaments or against each other. Up to 3 players can participate in this mode.

Bonus Mode
In Bonus Mode, players could choose one of three bonus games: Beach Volleyball, Ice Hockey, and Card Party.

Playable characters
Mario Party 5 returns the playable characters from Mario Party 4, aside from Donkey Kong, who is now a space character, while also introducing new playable characters, featuring ten playable characters in total. However, the new playable characters cannot be used in Story Mode. Despite Donkey Kong's role as an NPC, he is an unlockable character in the game's Super Duel Mode.



Tag teams
Mario Party 5 brings the ability for players to team up from Mario Party 4 back and extends the concept. In this game, players now share coins and their Player Panel on the screen. Unique team names are also given out to all combinations. Here is a table containing this game's possible team names, all of which are carried over into Mario Party 6.

Capsules
Mario Party 5 does away with the traditional item system of the previous games, and instead introduces items called capsules, which can be obtained for free by passing Capsule Dispensers. Capsules can be thrown on the board up to ten spaces in front of them, and the player that lands on the capsule space receives its effects. Alternatively, players can pay a fee to use the capsule on themselves; the fee varies by capsule. Below is a list of all twenty-eight capsules found in Mario Party 5 and a description describing their effects.

Music
The music in Mario Party 5 was composed by Aya Tanaka. It is different from the other games in that the music sounds sophisticated and (despite being synthesized as in most Mario Party games) has the illusion of being played by a professional symphony orchestra. This may be caused by the use of sounds that sound like true instruments, especially the harpsichord. This apparently didn't catch on, however, as Aya Tanaka has not composed any other Mario Party game. However, this game's sequels, Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 7 have progressed to an orchestrated musical score.

Pre-release and unused content
The pre-release title screen is different from the final version. Unlike the final version, it features various playable characters running around the screen. However, it does strike a resemblance with the file select screen in the final version. The character select screen is also significantly different from the final version.

Reception
Mario Party 5 received mostly mixed to positive reviews from critics. Game Informer's Andrew Reiner cited the example of coin redistribution in the game, which meant that "you could win every mini-game and collect the most coins and still end up in last place", when giving a second option of the game. GameSpot's Ryan Davis processed to note "If you brought Mario Party 4 last year, Mario Party 5 is hard to recommend.", noting a lack of change to the series formula. The game's graphics received a mediocre response, with GameSpot commenting that the presentation is "starting to seem a bit antiquated" when noting that the character models did not seem to been updated from Mario Party 4. Generally, critics cited having a fun experience in Mario Party 5, although the minigames received a more enthusiastic reaction than the actual board game, with GameSpy commenting that "the sheer volume can keep you compelled. If only you didn't have to deal with all that BS in-between" when referring to gameplay of the actual board game.

Mario Party 5 is the 12th best selling game for the Nintendo GameCube, selling approximately 2.08 million units: 807,331 copies in North America, 697,472 copies in Japan, and about 400,000 copies elsewhere, as of December 31, 2009.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros.: Pop-Star Piranhas features three differently-styled covers of the main theme. A rendition of the underwater theme is used in Submarathon.
 * Super Mario 64: Coin Cache takes place in front of Princess Peach's Castle, which looks very similar to how it did in this game. Plastic Dorries appear in the minigame Tug-o-Dorrie.
 * Paper Mario: The Star Spirits return in this game.
 * Mario Party 3: Some of the playable characters' voice clips were reused in this game.
 * Mario Party 4: The Chomp Call is featured in the minigame Chomp Romp. Beach Volley Folley returns in this game, though it is simply named "Beach Volleyball" and now includes the option to use special gimmick balls.

References in later games

 * Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix: The Toy Dream song is covered in the song, Cabin Fever.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Eldstar, Misstar and Muskular appear as stickers.

Trivia

 * The capsule depicting a Toady is incorrectly labeled as "Magikoopa Capsule". Later Mario Party games correctly labeled it as "Toady Orb".
 * Daisy's voice in this game is actually a higher pitched version of her voice in the previous game, similar to how her voice in Mario Party 3 was.
 * This is the last Mario game where Jen Taylor voices Daisy. Deanna Mustard voices Daisy in later games, starting with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour.
 * This is the last game in the Mario Party series with all boards having the same traditional condition for a Star (that is, trading 20 coins); which has been around since Mario Party. In later installments, many, if not all, of the boards have introduced more unique ways to acquire Stars, with only one or two boards having the classic conditions for acquiring a Star.