The 'Shroom:Issue LXI/Should Have Been

Should Have Been by

Hey, everyone, welcome back to Should Have never even applied Been! Last month's material wasn't great, and I'm sorry about that, but don't worry. I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get it, but I got Mario Party 9 and I'm ready to talk about it.

What should have been in this game?
When I first heard about Mario Party 9, I was more than a bit skeptical. I was wondering if this car mechanic would work, and if it would still feel like a Mario Party game, never mind if the game itself would be good. Actually, I really enjoyed playing it. The Minigames were very good, and the car worked fine. However, I don't think the game is the perfect Mario Party game...

Starting off, what I probably dislike most about the game is that Minigames are no longer played at the end of every turn. Minigames are, in my opinion, a very big part of the Mario Party series, and now they're just activated by landing on spaces, or in a few other ways. Usually, I find myself either not feeling I've played enough minigames, or just landing on the spaces all of the time, and not moving forward in the board enough. Having minigames at the end of every turn worked well in the past games, so I don't see why this couldn't have happened in this game.

Next, I felt the boards were way too linear. I liked the idea of having Bosses and Mini-Bosses on the boards, but I'm pretty sure they could have fitted those in if there wasn't an end to the board. I don't think being linear is what the Mario Party games are about, so I think the boards shouldn't have had an end, and the game should've just ended after a certain amount of turns. I think the car probably also contributed to this problem. The car was a pretty nice innovation, but I much prefer characters moving singularly, rather than just cramped together in a vehicle.

Next, I don't really like how Green Spaces do nothing. To be honest, I think this was just lazy on the part of the designers. Why couldn't they have been like Blue Spaces in the older games? If they gave out Mini-Stars, I don't feel it would be too much of a change, and wouldn't take long to program at all. I also don't like Backwards Spaces, but I guess I can't complain about them much, as they do what they're supposed to: be annoying.

A lot of the game, to me, seems to be based on luck, and hitting Dice Blocks, mostly. I don't really like things based on luck - I mean, just one low roll and you could potentially be losing a lot of Mini-Stars. For example, on Boo's Horror Castle, I felt the Boos were pretty unfair, especially since there were a lot of them, and every one took away half of your Mini-Stars. You could only escape them by rolling high enough on the dice (or by using a Special Dice Block), which, if they're just behind you, means that you have about 1/2 a chance of losing half of your Mini-Stars. Again, I think they could have been more fair with this, and not just made you lose Mini-Stars for rolling a bad number on a dice.

For the most part, I loved the Minigames in this game. But there were a few that I didn't like:


 * Pianta Pool - Most of what I didn't like about this is how random it was. It's mostly based on where the Pianta throws the rings, which is randomSide by Side Zone.jpg, and based on luck. There wasn't too much gameplay to it and it wasn't really fun.
 * Mecha Choice - This one is entirely luck based. If you can't tell yet, I don't like luck based games.
 * Deck Dry Bones - It's pretty fun, I guess, but I find it very hard to remember which card is where, especially with Dry Bones swapping around cards and whatnot.

I guess I'm being a bit picky with the second and third, though. Finally, I feel the Captain Events were all too similar, and, again, too luck based. Well, I guess I haven't got too much more to say, so, in conclusion, it's a good game, but it relies too much on luck, and just feels a bit too different. I hope there isn't another game in the series like this. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, it's still a heck of a lot better than Mario Party 8.

Beta elements
Starting off, Toad Road was a lot different in the Beta version. There were a lot more Blue Spaces, and there weren't any Mini-Star or Mini-Ztar Spaces. The bridge, which is broken in the final game, isn't broken in the beta. The spiralling hill is replaced by a vine, and Lakitu, who is the Mini-Boss in Solo Mode, can be seen on top of the Fort. In an even earlier version, it was extremely simple - entirely green, no forest, no water, three mountains; some Stonehenge-like area. At the end, there was the Super Mario World artwork of Wiggler, who's the Boss of the stage in Solo Mode.

There were a lot of Beta spaces that were left out, or changed, in the final version: a Dry Bones space, a Red Space, an... Un-Captain Event Space(?), an arm-wrestling space... Moving swiftly on, at one point in a trailer, Princess Peach can be seen taking an Unlucky Space, but going on a route that can't be found in the final game. The only spaces there were Green Spaces. There was an unused Bowser Jr Minigame, where two players attempted to catch him in a mountain-like maze.

So, I guess that's all. Thanks for reading, and, if you want me to talk about a certain game for this, be sure to send off a message to me!