Mario Party DS Critic Reviews

The board game is still essentially a dice powered foot race. The boss fights were a step in the right direction, but the rules of the game itself need to be refreshed. However for what it is it's great.

Link up with other DS owners and this is essential.

This is one of the best Mario Party games to come out in a while--but if Nintendo just took the liberty of making it online, this really could have been the best one yet.

Best of all, the developers have made it so that you need only a single cartridge to get a party going with as many as four people.

Taking your party on the road just got easy thanks to the first multiplayer portable "Mario Party" game.

Just add ice. Getting a party started is easy with this multiplayer gem, thanks to a huge assortment of quirky mini-games and single-cartridge play.

Its wide variety of game modes and options lets you create a multiplayer gaming experience to suit any time frame, and the huge number of mini-games sets a very high, very consumer-friendly bar.

The truth be told, Mario Party DS is one of the better games in the series, with replay value galore -- especially if you got friends around.

If you have played MarioParty games before you know all too well what DS version is about. Neat, cute and smooth fun for you and three friends, throwing the dice to get you around the board and organizing mischief to the others inbetween collecting randomly scattered stars, minigames following each round to win some more money - you know the stuff. And if you don't then this is as good a time as any to learn what MarioParty means. DS version is no inferior to any other previous one so go check it out for some light hearted fun á la Nintendo.

If you want a template for how to provide a top value party game, this is as good a place to start as any.

The number and quality of the mini-games makes Mario Party DS an easy recommendation to fans of the series.

Mario Party DS's strong line-up of mini-games with varied controls, interesting boards, and portable nature make it one of the best Mario Party games. The lack of online multiplayer two years after Mario Kart DS is disappointing, but Mario can still party on the DS.

Releasing Mario Party to the smaller screen has turned many of its ho-hum qualities on the console into considerable assets.

Mario Party DS is actually a pretty good Mario Party installment, but it's ultimately meant for gamers who regularly get together with their friends for some DS gaming.

At its base, it's really just a recycling of old Mario Party mini-games, and just doesn't feel new enough to be its own game.

If you're a diehard fan of Mario Party or you've never played one before, this isn't bad. For the rest of us, it's another unimproved, indistinguishable sequel-by-numbers.

A solid multiplayer mini-game experience with a lot of the flaws of the previous versions. It doesn't do anything truly special than create a bunch of touch screen and microphone-centric minigames (and even then we've seen variations of them in other DS titles), but it at least comes together as a better title than the last console Mario Party design.

The ability to score board items and extra puzzle games is a nifty bonus, adding to longevity. However, the Mario Party formula is too comparable to previous games, with dull artificial intelligence (except on Expert). Lastly, the absence of Wi-Fi support hurts the game's appeal.

The stylus might offer some new dynamic to these mini-games, but that doesn’t stop them from being repetitive when played solo. This makes playing with your friend a mandatory condition to enjoy it.

Mario Party DS does a better job at retreading the core concept, however tired it may be, than last summer’s Mario Party 8. Barring a complete shakeup of the series, this seems to be the most we can hope for at this point.