Mario Party DS
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Game Information
Release Date: November 19, 2007
Developers: Hudson Soft
Publishers: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo DS
Genre: Party
Players: 1, Multiplayer: 1-4

Plot
As Mario is exploring the world during the late evening, he soon spots 5 shiny crystals falling from the sky. One of the crystals happens to land near Mario's location. Later on, Mario tells his friends about it and were astonished about what they were told. Briefly after telling his friends, a Kamek appears and hands out invitations to each character and tells them its an invitation to a feast provided by Bowser. The cast were feeling uneasy by the request but decided to attend to see if Bowser was gonna be generous. Turns out that Bowser was on another one of his schemes and traps the cast inside his castle and steals the crystal Mario had gotten from the night prior. With his intent on stealing the crystals, Bowser sets out on a quest to find the rest of them before anyone of the other characters does.

Gameplay
From switching from a much bigger screen to a handheld device, players will have to get more comfortable playing on a much smaller scale. Unlike the Mario Party games on the consoles, the maps and items implemented into Mario Party DS have been changed and altered a bit to match the setting of the Nintendo DS. The players will notice the map is minuscule compared to previous Mario Party games. A new thing in Mario Party DS is the new hex spaces that will alter the outcome of the game when players land on them. These hex spaces will make players give a certain amount of coins to other players, while some make a player give a star to another player, and even switch positions with another player. In story mode, players will be pitted against a boss before ending the level to be able to move on to the level in the story.

Graphics
The graphics on the Nintendo DS are spectacular. The playing field is rich in clarity and has a variety of colors implemented all across the map board. The characters are well detailed in their faces and costumes, as well as the minor characters in the game. During a mini-game, the details an textures in the background are well dispersed. Although on some parts of certain map boards, the textures on the ground looked sort of blurred for some apparent reason which is unusual since its only in certain locations. The design of the worded text that appears on screen is well created and not too bland that it fades out with the background. Overall, the graphics aren't too shabby but it is the first of the Mario Party series to be issued on a handheld device rather than a console so players should expect some minor mishaps to occur when playing Mario Party DS.

Controls
The controls are very different for those players that have played previous installments on the consoles. Players will use every button including the stylus in many of the mini-games introduced in Mario Party DS. Unlike the controls in mini-games, the controls when playing on the game board are quite similar to the gamecube's controls. The most difficult part of the controls in the use of the stylus. When using the stylus, players will have to either tap or trace a certain pattern repeatedly during a mini-game which the player has to carefully trace the pattern and tap precisely in the correct area or it would look like to the player that the stylus isn't working properly. Overall, the controls do have similarities to the Gamecube, its just the stylus that will take some getting use to in order to use it properly.

Rating
Gameplay: 8.7/10
Graphics: 9.3/10
Controls: 8.2/10
Overall: 8.5/10