More mini-games, more mayhem… more Mario Party!
- NA release: 11th November 2003
- JP release: 28th November 2003
- EU release: 5th December 2003
- Developer: Hudson Soft
- Publisher: Nintendo
- NGC Magazine Score: 80%
- Mods Used: None
As someone that isn’t a huge fan of Mario Party, it’s starting to get difficult to talk about each new one I play. Mario Party 5 really seems like a middle-of-the-pack Mario Party. It finally has proper 3D boards, unlike the metal platforms from the previous game, and changes how spaces work with the new capsule system: instead of items, you’ll get random capsules from machines on the board. These can be used similar to items, as well as letting you alter spaces – the Koopa Bank now needs to be added to the board, for example.
There are some fun minigames, but none stand out massively as particularly brilliant examples of Mario Party minigames, the best probably being a puzzle game where you move Goombas in a hotel. It does have the worst minigame I’ve encountered so far: Vicious Vending. You turn the control stick once and get a thwomp or coins. The results are determined before you actually do anything. There was a co-op pinball minigame which sounded promising, but unfortunately the physics were pretty bad.
There are a couple of slightly more substantial minigames. There’s a different board game (with no minigames) where you move around and collect cards. I got excited initially that was a Mario Party variant with Sonic Shuffle style card movement, but unfortunately this is pretty bad, just roll and move to go towards stars and hope that the path (initially hidden under cards) is helpful. Volleyball and Ice Hockey are decent, with Ice Hockey having a few different shot types. Fairly unimpressive all round, though.
Fine
Throw in some six superbly-designed boards, all in delightful 3D, and extra multiplayer games in the Bonus mode and you’ve got a compelling reason to trade in Mario Party 3.
Marcus Hawkins, NGC Magazine #89
Remake or remaster?
Quite a few minigames are already in the current titles, so bring over the boards as well.
Official Ways to get the game
There is no official way to get Mario Party 5.
Europe
Japan
North America
GameCube Games by Date
2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
