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You’d better be in the mood for fun, as Mario Party is back! This classic party game series provides hours of fun for everyone regardless of age or gaming ability and Mario Party 8 is no exception. This fast paced and crazy game is the first Wii installment of the popular series and is the perfect game to play with family and friends.

All the old favourites including Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi are back in this latest Mario Party installment, along with a couple of new faces, such as Blooper and Hammer Bro, who previously appeared for the first time in the original Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Players must move around the board by throwing a dice and at the end of each turn they are faced with a humorous yet challenging mini-game. This really is the perfect game to play against friends and family thanks to the multiplayer mode which allows you and your friends to team up against each other in both two versus two and one against all challenges.

Combine this zany board game action with the Wii Remote and Mario Party 8 makes for a highly-charged, dynamic experience, with unique and exciting gameplay styles on offer for each mini-game. Such mini-games include a snowboard race, a race on a tight rope, a boat rowing race and even a cake decoration contest. The Wii Remote adds a new level of comfort and novelty to gameplay as some mini-games require holding the Wii Remote vertically, sideways and even like a TV remote pointing at the screen. It also enables the player to cruise seamlessly through the game’s numerous different modes. What’s more in certain modes, players can use their very own personalised Mii characters within specific mini-games.

The game’s main mode, Party Tent, challenges players to take on the computer or up to three friends in a turn-based battle. Each board features different challenges but as a general rule, players have a set number of turns to collect as many stars as they can. Mini-games played in party mode vary depending on the number of players.

If you just can’t get enough of the many mini-games, you can devote your time entirely to playing them in the Mini-Game Tent, moving from game to game and honing your skills. Elsewhere players can put their skills to the test in the Star Battle Arena where they must take on and defeat the computer. Other zones include the Extras Zone and the Fun Bazaar all of which add fun and diverse elements to the classic game.

In addition, aspiring Mario Party 8 masters can use the game’s multiplayer capabilities to play with up to three other people. Friends and family can battle it out in Party Tent mode, Mini-Game Tent and the Extras zone.

The newest installment in the Mario Party series sees the latest developments in technology combined with a classic gaming formula and is set to become the best in the series yet. Mario

KEY INFORMATION

The world's enormously popular party video game is getting a lot crazier in Mario Party 8. Whether you're shaking up cola cans or lassoing barrels, you and your friends will be drawn into the action like never before using the Wii Remote™.

    * Play with motion control: Players row their way through a river race, punch a statue to pieces, steer race cars, mopeds and go-karts and handle a balancing pole while walking a tightrope.
    * Play using the Wii Remote as a Pointer: Shoot at Boos in a haunted house, drag and drop toppings in a cake-decorating competition, select the correct answers in game show challenges.
    * Play using the Wii Remote's buttons: Players jump and pummel their way through a football brawl, and hop and run across a field of spinning platforms
    * Mario Party 8 also includes dozens of new minigames, six new party boards and many new game modes. In a series first, players can transform their characters into many forms, such as player-smashing boulders and coin-sucking vampires.
    * Mario Party 8 also includes "extra-large" minigames like Star Carnival Bowling and Table Menace. One to four players can play Mario Party 8, each with a Wii Remote.

Game storyline: In Mario Party 8, a hyperactive emcee has invited Mario™, Peach and the rest of the crew to his carnival, a perfect setting for the dynamic spectacle of the Wii game play. Mario Party 8 keeps the surprises coming with minigames that draw upon the Wii Remote's motion, pointing and button control in a variety of ways. Players always know how to jump into the action by watching an animated tutorial that shows how to use the Wii Remote.

How to progress through the game: Following tradition, Mario Party 8 takes the social, strategic game play of board games and adds breaks for quick, action-oriented minigames. In the main mode, players travel across six boards in search of Stars, landing on spaces that are helpful (example: giving coins) or a hindrance (example: sending Bowser in to mess with the player). Several variations for these boards tweak the main goals to enhance game play for solo sessions, two-player games and three- to four-player games.

In addition, Mario Party 8 includes four more minigame-infused kinds of special games, such as Tic-Tac Drop, where players earn the right to put the next mark on the board by winning a minigame.

Characters: Mario Party games are a celebration of all things Mario, so you can play as 14 classic characters, the widest selection yet for the series, including newcomers Hammer Bro and Blooper. You'll also bump into many old friends and foes that span 20+ years of Mario games.

Special powers/weapons/moves/features: Beyond using the Wii Remote's motion and pointer control, this eighth game in the Mario Party series goes its own way with two changes:

    * Players can transform their character using candy power-ups. Examples: When Peach eats Bowlo Candy, she'll turn into a Peach-faced ball and bowl over characters to get their coins. When Wario™ eats Vampire Candy, he'll sprout wings and fly off to suck the coins from all other players.

* A more engaging view of the action puts the player "on the board" with his traveling character, no longer far above the whole board looking down.

Click onto www.Wii.com for all of the most up to date official information on Wii.

RATING: 5 OUT OF 5