Mario Party: The Top 100 Review - Screenshot 1 of 4

But because a game has a bully concept, doesn't mean the finish product will be the same. Mario Party: The Top 100 is an incredible idea on newspaper. With over a dozen titles released and a combined total of over eight hundred minigames, this series has been long overdue for some kind of compilation; it's fantastic that Mario Party: The Elevation 100 is finally doing just that. While the returning 100 minigames are a joy to see once again, the rest of the package all the same delivers a lacklustre experience.

Playing through all 100 minigames that have returned from the x console Mario Party titles is a smash - one by i they're a nostalgic trip from start to cease. While the game allows the player to play them individually, the primary mode - known equally Minigame Island - throws each minigame into a progression-based world where winning one round lets the thespian advance to the next game. It's a fun merely simple mode that provides an extra reason to play through all the minigames again. Nevertheless, don't expect this to retain anyone'southward attention for too long; this style tin be finished completely in about ii to three hours and there isn't any incentive to go back and play again.

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Each minigame has been revamped and crafted for the 3DS. The visuals have gotten a significant upgrade, all the music has been remixed, the controls have been ported over perfectly, and even some of the games themselves have received gameplay improvements.

The Nintendo 64 minigames - like Desert Dash from the original Mario Political party and Snowball Summit from Mario Party 3 - have received gorgeous graphical updates. Creepo to Rank from Mario Party 8 now uses a stylus to spin instead of the Wii Remote, and those pesky cicatrice-inducing minigames from the original Mario Political party now utilise the less exploitable Circle Pad of the 3DS. Balloon Busters from Mario Party 7 is now emptying based, and Giddy Dancing from Mario Political party ii takes longer than iii seconds to complete thank you to the rule change of collecting multiple music notes instead of only 1. These lilliputian quality of life improvements bear witness how much care went into making the minigames simply right, and this is hands the highlight of the entire parcel.

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And that'south near it. Sure, Mario Party: The Tiptop 100 features a few additional modes, but those pale in comparison to the equivalent options of past entries in the serial. The board gameplay is past far the most disappointing. Minigame Lucifer throws iv characters on a small board where everyone moves at the same time to reach and purchase Stars with coins nerveless from minigames played at the cease of every turn. Information technology sounds like classic Mario Party gameplay, just is ultimately a manner reliant on luck where the turns are repetitive and the coins also plentiful. With but a unmarried board to play on it'south articulate this manner did not get the necessary development attention information technology needed. It's basically Balloon Bash ripped right out of terminal year'south Star Rush, just worse.

The other modes offering even less. Championship Battles is but a fancy style to play a set amount of minigames. Decathlon is a fun mode that sets upwardly a number of minigames where players compete for the highest scores, simply in that location's nothing across that. In one case all the minigames take been played and the other modes touched, at that place's zip left to do.

Mario Party: The Top 100 is a wonderful idea, but it'due south also held back by the hardware. Mario Party is a multiplayer game at its core. This series is the kind that needs to exist bachelor in front end of a big TV where friends tin easily get together to pick up and play. In one case again, this Mario Political party does not take online functionality. Being able to play online with friends, fifty-fifty if it's merely to play a few minigames, would significantly heighten the replay factor. Otherwise players are stuck searching out and gathering friends who need to have an additional 3DS to play, though download play is an pick if y'all can't muster up multiple copies.

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Information technology'due south a game with a few cut corners and head scratchers, too, typified past the fact there are only eight playable characters.

Conclusion

There is a lot to love in the style Nd Cube brought dorsum 100 beloved minigames from the Mario Party series, but this bundle falls short in the content used to evangelize those bite-sized delights. Mario Party: The Top 100 may hold the record for the about minigames, just it certainly has the least amount of content and the lowest replayability.

The game prepare out to compile a drove of the all-time minigames in the series; that goal was accomplished with great results. That makes the initial fourth dimension spent with Mario Party: The Top 100 an awesome walk through nostalgia lane - unfortunately the rest is a rushed project; with that in mind it fails to live upwardly to its full potential.