Mario Party came out on the Nintendo 64 in 1999 (1998 in Japan), throwing many of the series’ prominent characters together on a game board as they sought to collect more Stars than anyone else by the game’s end. The series has spanned multiple platforms since then and Nintendo is looking to celebrate its history by releasing Mario Party: The Top 100.
Mario Party: The Top 100, as the name implies, takes the best minigames from titles in the main series (no Mario Party Advance, DS or Star Rush) and meshes them all together in one title on the Nintendo 3DS. As such, this game focuses solely on the minigames and ignores pretty much every other aspect of the series, such as traversing through various game boards and collecting coins and stars along the way.
That said, even if it sheds several other features, Mario Party: The Top 100Â still retains its most notorious ability: the capability to make you hate and potentially lose your friends.
As much as Mario Party very much resembles party, with leisurely, uninvolved gameplay, its also a war. For all its bright colors and amusing cast, the series has consistently managed to bring out the darker side of those who play and sometimes even encourages it. Remember, as stated, the way to win the game is to collect the most Stars when all the rounds are over.
In theory, you could accomplish this by playing like a chump and just buying the Stars with coins or acquiring them through random events. But the ideal way to get Stars is to steal them from others — even if the person who has their Star stolen is in no position to win. Alliances are quickly formed and broken just as easily, its scary.
Fortunately, it seems Mario Party: The Top 100 won’t have this issue (to that degree at least) because there are no Stars to speak of. Of course, the game could be just as nasty even without them. Minigames can be FFA, 2v2 or 3v1 and it isn’t unusual to see some people botch a potential victory if it means going after someone who has wronged them.
Mario Party: The Top 100 has the potential to make you lose all your friends and I can’t wait until Nov.10 for when it happens.
Check out the trailer below:
