Mario Party 8 Retrospective: Shaking Things Up

Mario Party 7 was a good, albeit kind of strange, end to the GameCube era of Mario Party, and moving over to the Wii there was a lot of potential for Mario Party to thrive in this new generation. The Wii was a really successful console with a simple controller that would be perfect for a party game experience, so does Mario Party 8 deliver on this potential? Well, on today's Mario Party 8 retrospective, we're gonna find out together. Thanks so much for watching, I know this is another long video but I really hope that you enjoy it. Leave a comment below on what you think about Mario Party 8, and feel free to subscribe while you're down there if you enjoy the video. :) Mario Party DS is next up on our list, so I hope that you look forward to that video!

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 - Intro
0:32 - Board Mechanic Changes
2:05 - Spaces
5:20 - Candy System
9:05 - Plain Space Density
12:05 - Tag Battle & Duel Mode
13:09 - Boards
30:23 - Minigames
40:27 - Minigame Modes
41:51 - Extras Zone
43:12 - Beginner Friendliness
44:10 - Conclusion (Mario Party Series Ranking)

MUSIC USED:
there's a whole lot lol just comment with a timestamp and I or somebody else will tell you

#marioparty8 #MarioParty #MarksRecRoom

[marksrecroom]

Thanks so much for watching! What's your favorite Mario Party 8 minigame?

[susiehaltmann]

Regardless whether you like 8 or not, you can’t deny that Koopa’s Tycoon Town is one of, if not the best boards in the series. This board is damn near perfect because you truly feel like you’re investing in hotels around a city, and the fun, energetic and cheery music is the cherry on top of this masterpiece of a board.

[Supermariohoops]

Buddy you act like it’s that easy to “farm lucky spaces”… you might be able to get it once in every 4 or so laps on the board given the item pool you have and that’s only something you’d get after about a 30 turn game. You’re bringing the game down WAY too much on a single space. Also what mechanics are you talking about for the boards? The Goomba Boardwalk and King Boo boards have great mechanics. You missed the mark badly.

[Color_Splsh]

Im sorry, but bowser taking away stars from a finite economy is very cool, actually.

It actively tightens the leash around the players, making them play more aggressively because theyre fighting for even less breadcrumbs than before. If anything, the flaw is that in order to see bowser you need to gain a star from dk, making the star count never fall too much.

[Goatman_Gamer]

I grew up with Mario Party 8 so I love it with a massive bias, but I appreciate the thought put into this and giving it a chance. And I especially like that unlike most people, you didn't just blame it on motion controls which weren't the problem at all. And yes, Flip The Chimp sucks 100%.

[Leo-tfew]

I love when the characters pay attention to both sides of the road before moving in koopas tycoon town

[Ricendeans]

You continually talk about “farming” lucky spaces, but how effective is that really? In order to do that, you need to circumnavigate the board, have a slowgo candy, and land within 5 spaces of it. Which is not always guaranteed in the slightest.

I feel like you are putting *way* too much stock into the competitive aspects that most players aren’t even going to think about. For most players, the Lucky Spaces are just that - nice bonuses if you happen to get a good roll or have the right item. Not once have I ever felt like they “break” the board in ways that you seem to claim they do.

[CommanderNam]

The exaggeration about the lucky spaces is crazy 😭 how tf do you “farm” a space when a dice roll is random and you rarely have a slowgo candy

[howl]

Lucky space: *is lucky*
mark: *surprised pikachu face*

[StaminaLoss]

The candy system is honestly what carries this game. Honestly think it's the best system because of how well it synergises with every board gimmick. (Although this is coming from people who have skipped gamecube era and haven't dived deep into those games. Though I personally didn't like the orbs, but I am not familiar with them so it won't be fair writing them off lmao)

The board space density is the epitomy of why Movement candies are the best with the whole getting to the star first on top of it being the most versatile on every board, although every candy can really help win games.

You can guarantee what to take/who to take away from with the Green Candies & you have the ability to hit multiple players using the Blue Candies. Those are all really useful as coins matter a lot. Mainly with shops since not only are they affected by placement, but 2nd is also hit the same as 1st, on top of gimmicks like Dolphins in Boardwalk to move past a ton of spaces (The most optimal movement is the 1st dolphin, then the 2nd, so you need quite a bit, although keep in mind you skip both shop opportunities), Tycoon's entire Gimmick is investing and breaking star ties.

The duel candy is the only one that breaks this rule, although it isn't that bad to counter the scenario you put forth. It's only bad if it's 1-2 turns, otherwise you can easily just make rolls and put yourself in line with your target. You should have other items late into the game, you have items like the Twice, Thrice and Springo candies to get into position. You can even communicate with Wario (if it's multiplayer) to coordinate to make sure you can steal from Waluigi using their items. Waluigi also has counter play with their candies, but that's also great as you waste their items as well, so they can't use it to benefit either.

Traveling is incredibly valuable, but it isn't the be all end all. Keep in mind either the game has other ways to cut distance eg boardwalk with dolphins, cannons in dk, the vents/block event in Perplex, etc or the win requirement is entirely different and isn't as potent eg Tycoon and Orbit. Even with Hideaway and Boardwalk, they're incredibly good, just Springo also exists.

It's a fair critique, just never really felt as bad as you said it was, when you have options, it isn't just about getting to the end/wasn't as easy getting to the end and the candy mechanic really changes games. Not only do you have board gimmicks, but you have other candies and strategies that make every experience different.

[wizardsmix]

The one gripe I have with this video is the “farming” of lucky spaces. I’m not sure what universe you’re in but farming ANY space in MP is pretty much not a conscious decision. Sure there are slow-go candy, but you talk about these spaces as if ever body has a grandma’s purse full of them.

I played a good amount of mp8 with friends last weekend and the most any individual player hit a lucky space in a single game was twice.

Additionally my opinion on them in tycoon town is the opposite. Since you rarely land on them the ability to gain 3 stars for as low as a single coin is broken. There is a good chance no player lands on them for the rest of the game, and if you did put a decent amount of coins into one there’s a solid chance if anyone does land on it they can’t challenge your ownership.

We had to house rule the lucky space hotels to be worth only a single star to make them balanced, meanwhile the lucky space on the boards like shy guy’s express aren’t even remotely viewed as a problem.

[bronsonbronson]

This series is so good. Your deep examinations of these games brings me back to hours of playing Mario Party as a kid. Love these a ton.

[seanchernov]

The boo board actually have strategy. You can guess where boo/pit will be because its always 3 on 4 or 4 on 3. You can also know from which direction you should get to boo in the first one. Also I don't think I even farmed a lucky space in this board, they don't appear a lot and you tend to pass them before you know

[MatthewSmart]

Mario Party 8 is a weird one for me, as I don't tend to look back on it as fondly compared to any of the N64 and GameCube titles, with the obvious exception of the first one. I feel like it's only as beloved as it is because it was the only one on Wii for the longest time, and that childhood nostalgia will always make that generation's biases clear. I'm not one to throw shade. I'm absolutely guilty of this with Mario Party 4 as that was my first one and I still love it despite its obvious issues. That's not to say I don't appreciate Mario Party 8; far from it. I still played it a ton back in the day, and the motion controls helped make it feel fresh as a longtime fan. It's still Mario Party at its core and still a fun time, and yeah, Shy Guy's Perplex Express and Koopa's Tycoon Town are easily the best boards, arguably some of the best in the series. Mosh-Pit Playroom is definitely my favorite minigame both as a kid and now, especially with how colorful, childish, and chaotic it is. I can still have fun playing Mario Party 8, but if I want to play a party game on the Wii, I'd actually rather play Wii Party any day over this.

[susiehaltmann]

While you have a point with Goomba’s Booty Boardwalk, you’re also kind of wrong at the same time.

If you ride the dolphins you go far ahead but miss out on the item shops, and you could possibly land on that happening space at the end which takes you ALL the way back to the beginning. So basically, do you go far ahead early but risk landing on the happening space, or do you move along the board slowly but guarantee you not landing on the happening space?

[williammartin]

Mario party 8 music has had untold impact on my childhood brain

[monopolyrubix]

6 is my favorite, but Koopa's Tycoon Town may be the best board in the series.

Mario Party Superstars 2 with orbs, a day-night cycle, and Koopa Tycoon Town would be a banger

[Malachi-ydsv]

It’s not like King is has continued their retrospectives. Glad someone is making them

[greyrifterrellik]

No room for strategy on hideaway?

Someone hasn't seen the zoomzike video, it seems.


Short version: the board has specific rules for how it's allowed to place and arrange rooms. When you know these rules, you can actually use deduction to figure out the entire layout after only a handful of rooms.

[StaminaLoss]

Honestly with alot of the critiques to the game, they don't really seem accurate/there's counter play. It's a very well made video, just that you are missing a lot to what this game has to offer. Mainly in that Lucky Spaces can be countered + the Item system is incredibly deep. Could at least make life more fun is all X3

In terms of DK + Bowser Spaces, honestly prefer them to be the same space because they can be abused a lot less.

Saying this because on certain boards like Temple, Perplex, Hideaway, Tycoon and even Orbit, the Bowser space can be used to your advantage and a lot of the time even more than the DK space can benefit.

The star placement in Temple is a fixed cycle, as in if a star was in that space before, it won't happen again until it cycles through all the places. Landing on this means you can shut that played out of that star and even give yourself the star if you track it.

Perplex can be abused to screw the person in front, on a board that doesn't have spring. This can actually be a reason to keep/stock up on a Slowgo/ another reason why movement candies are so important to counter those moments and maximise your chance of getting a star instead.

Hideaway can be used to check where the star is since it shows a false room layout, but it also means anyone on that path to the bowser room is almost forced into either losing a star or wasting a Springo, which is a pretty good risk as you could try and screw the person close to a room that already has a star. This also goes in reverse, the DK space can accidentally give a star to someone else closer, but is useful in both checking the rooms and if you are close to the pitfall. Though it still shows a pitfall room, so it can be negated by other players rushing to the correct room.

Tycoon can be abused by players who don't have as many hotels invested, meaning they can abuse it to both reduce the star count + make investing towards that hotel a lot easier.

Orbit gets rid of a star. That doesn't sound useful initially, but keep in mind the only way to make stars is to steal them from others. Using the Bowser space is actually pretty valid since you can prevent players from gaining another lead or at least not give all the players behind you a chance.