Mario Party 4

Mario Party 4 is the fourth game in the Mario Party series, and the first for the Nintendo GameCube. It follows the original style of board-game gameplay, as well as the use of many items and minigames. The game's goal, as with most of the others, is to collect the most stars. It is also the first Mario Party game to allow players to team up. The game won the Family Game Of The Year award at the Interactive Achievement Awards of 2003.

Plot
''"Toad, Koopa, and a whole host of party patrons have arrived on the mysterious Party Cube to celebrate YOUR Birthday Party!"

''"But giving you presents would be way too easy, so you're going to have to win the presents by playing a game or two!"

''"Now let's get this party started!"

Mario and company are enjoying the outdoors when a mysterious cloud forms in the distance. As the cloud moves closer, a giant bag appears to be floating in the sky. The bag opens up to reveal Toad, Koopa, Goomba, Shy Guy, and Boo, who invite Mario and the gang to party in the Party Cube.

It's the player's birthday and every host wants to give a present to the player, but the player must play in each host's board and win a special minigame to get the present. The player manages to get every single present from every host, but Bowser shows up and threatens to steal every present the player has, unless the player agrees to go to Bowser's board and win, and the player accepts Bowser's challenge.

The player manages to win and Koopa Kid congrats the player for winning, but Bowser tricks the player into believing that he took all of the player's presents and the two fight in a final battle. The player manages to beat Bowser and he runs away and leaves one present behind. Koopa Kid explains that Bowser never took the player's presents.

Toad then appears and said that there is still someone who didn't give their gift to the player. Then Toad points to the sky and a Star is seen, zipping across the sky revealing a constellation of the character's winning pose.

In the epilogue shows the five hosts without their costumes, following after the moving Party Cube. After a few seconds, the Party Cube blasts off into space, never to be seen again.

Extra Room
Thwomp and Whomp have a room full of bonus minigames. These minigames can be played on two bonus boards. Their minigames are:

One Player (Whomp's Basement Brouhaha)

 * Jigsaw Jitters
 * Barrel Baron
 * Mushroom Medic
 * Doors of Doom
 * Bob-omb X-ing
 * Goomba Stomp

Multiplayer (Thwomp's Backroom Ball)
Thowmp's Backroom Ball is like the rest of the game modes except it doesn't feature minigames, therefore the player has to stay on the game board for the entire time.
 * Mega Board Mayhem
 * Mini Board Mad-Dash
 * Challenge Booksquirm
 * Panel Panic

Other
Also featured is a bonus volleyball game, hosted by a Ztar. Finally, players are able to access the Present Room, which allows them to view all the presents that the player has accumulated throughout the Story Mode for each character.

Reception
Mario Party 4 received mostly mixed and positive reviews from critics. GameSpot's Ryan Davis praised the game's mini-game format, but noted that "players that who already exhausted themselves on pervious Mario Party titles may not have enough here to draw them back again". Eurogamer's Tom Bramwell acknowledged the variety and thematic features of the boards, but thought they were too large, resulting in a "glacial pace" when coupled with the on-board animations. Despite this, IGN praised the boards for their thematic features on each one, which helped "ease the tediousness". New gameplay features such as the mushroom system received a negative review from multiple critics, with frustration being expressed at not being able to enter shops or purchase stars with big characters. The game's multiplayer was praised by reviews, especially in comparison to the single player mode, "Story Mode". The minigames were mainly met with a positive reaction, with critics praising their simplicity.

Mario Party 4 is the 7th best selling game for Nintendo GameCube, with approximately 2 million copies were sold worldwide, 1.1 million copies in US, and 902,827 copies in Japan, as of December 31, 2009.

References to previous games

 * Mario Party 2: Bowser's Bigger Blast is a port of Bowser's Big Blast.

References in later games

 * Mario Party Advance: Many songs from Mario Party 4 are remixed in Advance including the main menu theme as Advance's passport theme.
 * Mario Party DS: Bob-omb Breakers returns as a puzzle minigame.

Trivia

 * This is the first Mario series installment overall to have Princess Peach and Princess Daisy in their current main dresses, as well as Princess Daisy's current appearance.
 * This is the last Mario Party game to have Donkey Kong as a playable character. Starting in Mario Party 5, Donkey Kong hosts his own space.
 * This game completes a revamp in the 3-D art direction of the Mario franchise that started with Luigi's Mansion and continued with Super Mario Sunshine.
 * Five of the six hosts became playable characters in later Mario Party installments.
 * This is the first Mario Party game since Mario Party to not have any duel minigames.