Mario Party 5
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Game Information
Release Date: November 10, 2003
Developers: Hudson Soft
Publishers: Nintendo
Platforms: Gamecube
Genre: Party
Players: 1-4

Synopsis
The party just got crazier! Mario Party returns with Mario Party 5, ushering in a more advanced and speedy board game system, new characters, more multi-player madness and an extensive, fast-paced one-player story mode. Mario and his friends must again battle Bowser and his naughty minions to restore peace to Dream World. New game boards, over 60 new mini-games, new duel fighting, and everyone vs. Bowser ups the action. In one-player mode you will race against the Koopa Kid Brigade, a trio of Koopa Kids who take their turns simultaneously, speeding up play and ratcheting up the tension. Mario Party 5 has all the party tricks, favors and surprises. You and your friends just need to show up!

Plot
The story starts out in a world known as Dream Depot where people's dreams come together to form one huge magical and fascinating dream for everyone to come together and experience it. With over thousands of dreams arriving at Dream Depot every night, the guardians of Dream Depot decided to invite a few dreamers to their world to have an experience heir lives. Those chosen happened to be Mario and some of his friends. After their arrival at Dream Depot, the guardians had set up multiple dream worlds for Mario and his friends to play on. But it turned out Mario and his buddies weren't the only ones to be arriving at Dream Depot, Bowser and Koopa Kid had their intent to go and ruin Mario and his friend's dreams. In order to defeat Bowser and Koopa Kid, they must play in Bowser's Dream to send him out of Dream Depot.

Gameplay
Like the other Mario Party installments, players will be pitted against each other in a 4 player free for all battle royale. Players must collect and earn coins in order to purchase stars. These stars are placed at certain locations on the map that will cost 20 coins to whoever gets there first. Players can use a wide variety of items to use at their disposal to alter the outcome of the game and gain an advantage over the other players. Unlike the previous Mario Party games where the player can choose am item to purchase, in Mario Party 5, players are randomly given an item for free. This is the only dramatic change that occurs in Mario Party 5. Players will be able to play on 7 different dream worlds that have their own unique setting such as Sweet Dream, which is basically a dream world created by using a variety of different sweets. A cool feature in Mario Party 5 is that players can now place their items on spaces of their choosing rather than on themselves that could prove either an advantage or disadvantage depending on what the item is that is placed. A unique item only featured in Mario Party 5 is called the Miracle capsule, which when 3 of the Miracle capsules are obtained by a player, all the stars the player in first has, goes to the player that obtained the 3 miracle capsules.

Graphics
The graphics in Mario Party 5 are somewhat similar to what players have seen in Mario Party 4. Throughout the menus of the game are very clear and the words don't fade into the bright colors the menu presents. The details and textures on each character are well created and look just as good as they did on Mario Party 4. The textures throughout the worlds are nicely complex with multiple colors that complement each other very well and looks appealing to the player's view. The graphics on some mini-games are greatly executed in the style of colors, designs, and textures implemented in the foreground and background as well. Overall, the graphics are excellent and well created.

Controls
Like previous Mario Party games, the game will require players to use just about every single control on the controller. In most mini-games, the controls will likely be the same but have a different twist or function to them. During the board sessions, the controls to roll the dice, use items, and view the map have the same button functions just like Mario Party 4 did. When it comes to new players to the series, the controls could prove somewhat of a difficulty especially when it comes to the mini-games. Overall, nothing really has changed to the controls and shows little difference but only in the mini-games.

Rating
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Graphics: 9.8/10
Controls: 9.3/10
Overall: 9.7/10