Why are there 16 Mario Parties again?
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YoshiFlutterJump
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DS was a wild success and only got one, whereas GameCube failed and still got four.Mcmadness said:
Literally every home console Mario Party has sold over a million...even MP10, and that isn't even the worst-selling console installment (MP6 is). I wouldn't call that poor sales.Saltman said:
I think it's because Mario Party is the most experimental Mario branch. I want to point out that Mario Kart is once-per-system because in addition to the replay-ability factor, its mechanics are all pretty much one-and-done since it's primarily about racing. Take Mario Kart Wii for example, where it's mainly focused on motion controls, and there's also Mario Kart DS, where it already has not only online, but also the ability to play wirelessly with one another even with only one game cartridge (not to mention the dual screens). Moreover, other Mario spin-offs tend to have online earlier so they cannot have more than 1 game per system for it would fragment the online community between similar games, unlike Mario Party who had offline throughout its life until Super Mario Party.
Mario Party, on the other hand, has been experimental since the first game. I like to imagine that the first Mario Party game is the reason the game has many sequels, since it's a great game but has very noticeable flaws, particularly the control stick rotation minigames and the zero-sum nature of some minigames. The second game is made to refine the elements of the first game so it's partially original and partially Mario Party 1 Deluxe, and my speculation that it is from the second game that the developers have a couple of revelations: 1) they have many ideas for a Mario Party and 2) they found out that Mario Party is very profitable. Even within the franchise, the games also play differently even on a system with Mario Party already available, with Mario Party 5 getting a new Capsule system, Mario Party 6 with its microphone, Mario Party 7 introducing 8 player mode, Mario Party 9 having the everyone-travel-together board system, and Mario Party: Star Rush utilising simultaneous movement on a grid-based system. Even the first games on the respective systems can have their own core ideas, such as Mario Party 8 with its motion controls, Mario Party DS with its dual-screen and touch screen features (microphone is not new to this Mario Party), and Mario Party 10 with its Gamepad features that allowed Bowser to take on the opposing team of players. The GBA Mario Party games are also a bit more physical too, with the e-Reader one being essentially a card game while Mario Party Advance even coming with a board (though I think it's made of paper). The Mario Party series even makes for suitable arcade games like Mario Kart, since it's at its core a casual game since the minigames each have simple rules that are easy to follow.
I think the Mario Party series also has an element of story in each game, making it more iteration-friendly, even if it's just light stuff to justify everybody partying to win. Mario Party has the simple plot of an argument on who's a Super Star, Mario Party 3 has the Millennium Star thrown in, Mario Party 6 consists of ending an argument between the personification of day and night, Mario Party DS as everybody being shrunk, Mario Party 9 has the mini-stars being stolen and so on. Compare that to many other spin-off Mario series where it's more or less Mario playing the sport, so Mario Party has a bit more story than the other Mario spin-offs.
So yes, I think Mario Party has that many games because it's a combination of being experimental, being casual-friendly and being offline-only for most of its life, which makes it very conducive for more iterations compared to its other Mario spin-off brethren. And the thing is, it's also very popular because the home console games and a couple of handheld games sold more than a million copies. This is a very huge achievement for party video games because no matter what your opinion on the series is, there just isn't any other series comparable to it, so it's more or less unrivaled. (Also, Smash's barren representation of the Mario Party series is unacceptable)
I have a feeling that my response might not be what you want given the flippant responses from others, but it's what I think.
Thank you for reading.
Mario Party, on the other hand, has been experimental since the first game. I like to imagine that the first Mario Party game is the reason the game has many sequels, since it's a great game but has very noticeable flaws, particularly the control stick rotation minigames and the zero-sum nature of some minigames. The second game is made to refine the elements of the first game so it's partially original and partially Mario Party 1 Deluxe, and my speculation that it is from the second game that the developers have a couple of revelations: 1) they have many ideas for a Mario Party and 2) they found out that Mario Party is very profitable. Even within the franchise, the games also play differently even on a system with Mario Party already available, with Mario Party 5 getting a new Capsule system, Mario Party 6 with its microphone, Mario Party 7 introducing 8 player mode, Mario Party 9 having the everyone-travel-together board system, and Mario Party: Star Rush utilising simultaneous movement on a grid-based system. Even the first games on the respective systems can have their own core ideas, such as Mario Party 8 with its motion controls, Mario Party DS with its dual-screen and touch screen features (microphone is not new to this Mario Party), and Mario Party 10 with its Gamepad features that allowed Bowser to take on the opposing team of players. The GBA Mario Party games are also a bit more physical too, with the e-Reader one being essentially a card game while Mario Party Advance even coming with a board (though I think it's made of paper). The Mario Party series even makes for suitable arcade games like Mario Kart, since it's at its core a casual game since the minigames each have simple rules that are easy to follow.
I think the Mario Party series also has an element of story in each game, making it more iteration-friendly, even if it's just light stuff to justify everybody partying to win. Mario Party has the simple plot of an argument on who's a Super Star, Mario Party 3 has the Millennium Star thrown in, Mario Party 6 consists of ending an argument between the personification of day and night, Mario Party DS as everybody being shrunk, Mario Party 9 has the mini-stars being stolen and so on. Compare that to many other spin-off Mario series where it's more or less Mario playing the sport, so Mario Party has a bit more story than the other Mario spin-offs.
So yes, I think Mario Party has that many games because it's a combination of being experimental, being casual-friendly and being offline-only for most of its life, which makes it very conducive for more iterations compared to its other Mario spin-off brethren. And the thing is, it's also very popular because the home console games and a couple of handheld games sold more than a million copies. This is a very huge achievement for party video games because no matter what your opinion on the series is, there just isn't any other series comparable to it, so it's more or less unrivaled. (Also, Smash's barren representation of the Mario Party series is unacceptable)
I have a feeling that my response might not be what you want given the flippant responses from others, but it's what I think.
Thank you for reading.
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Good post. You now win a Mario Party image.
YoshiFlutterJump
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Maybe it should say "WARIO WALUIGI LOST"...Mario's Drunken Holiday Special said:
Mcmadness
The idiot who puts things in the wrong board.
Santa Yoshi said:
DS was at the time the last one to feature the OG formula so they had basically shelved the series entirely for a few years until 9 came out.
Also the gamecube didn't fail, it under performed to be sure but they still made money off it with it's software and relatively cheap console development costs. Unlike the wii u which had success in neither area.
Icemario
Star Spirit
100% with what winstein is saying here, I think the games differentiate themselves more than enough with each successive title that having so many different titles doesn't seem like an issue at all. The core essence remains the same but they often add and remove unique modes (eg. Card Party and Super Duel Mode in 5), incorporate new or remixed board concepts (see: the collective day-night theme in 6, and all the different objectives for the boards in 7) and often had a pretty varying set of items and item mechanics in each title so the turn-by-turn gameplay on the boards themselves remains distinct in the long term. Even basic things like landing on the same space during the last five turns vary between the titles.winstein said:
And if that's insufficient, then the fact that they create dozens of new minigames (albeit some reuse older concepts) I feel justifies an additional iteration's existence.
hey now those four were my childhoodSaltman said:
Also if you actually have friends to play the games with in person, then having four different titles on one system just means you're less likely to get bored of one particular title because of the very noticeable differences.
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Shooooooow meGlowsquid said:
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Eh, the series prints money regardless of what console it's in (maybe except for Mario Party Advance) so I don't think so.
On a similar note, idk what happened at Camelot post Power Tennis until Tennis Open. Was it that Golden Sun game?
On a similar note, idk what happened at Camelot post Power Tennis until Tennis Open. Was it that Golden Sun game?