Mario Party 5

Mario Party 5 is the fifth installment in the Mario Party series. The most notable change in this game is that the shopping system was replaced with the new Capsule system.

In the game's Story Mode, a playable character has to face Bowser and the Koopa Kids (known as Mini Bowser in the PAL version) throughout every stage. Eventually, the character will face Bowser one-on-one.

The game is notable for featuring places and characters that appeared in or resembled places and characters from Paper Mario. The most prominent of these is the Star Spirits.

Mario Party 5 became part of the Nintendo Player's Choice label in 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 five boards, they must face the Koopa Kids in Bowser Nightmare, and if they beat that board, they fight Bowser in Frightmare.

Playable Characters
Returning Playable Characters

New Features
This installment to the Mario Party series comes with new mini-games, characters, and maps. Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid are now playable characters, as is Donkey Kong in Super Duel Mode once the player unlocks him. In Party Mode, he is on Donkey Kong spaces and either gives the players coins or stars, or starts a Donkey Kong mini-game which involve collecting bananas for a predetermined amount of coins.

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 has a few new features. First off, in Story Mode, all the Koopa Kids move at the same time, quickening game play. The point of single player mode is to deplete all of the Koopa Kids' coins by beating them in mini-games.

It also features two whole new modes: Bonus Mode, and Super Duel Mode. In Bonus Mode, players could choose one of three bonus games: Beach Volleyball, Ice Hockey, and Card Party.

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.

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.

Story Mode
In Story Mode, the player will go on five 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.

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 five boards, the player faces Bowser in Frightmare.

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. 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 14th best selling game for the Nintendo GameCube, selling approximately 1.51 million units, 807,331 copies in the US, and 697,472 copies in Japan, as of December 31, 2009.

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.