A few years ago, Mario Party was released for the Nintendo 64. About a year after that came the sequel, Mario Party 2, and was reviewed better than the first. Since this franchise was doing so well, Nintendo made a third one. But this one didn't do so great, but still better than most games. Now, Mario Party 4 has been released for the Nintendo Gamecube with souped up graphics and gameplay, which beats all the three of 'em.

Gameplay- 10/10
This MP game is like all the other ones. You chose a board, take turns rolling (or punching) a dice and collecting coins and stars, while playing mini-games in between. There's over 50 different mini-games in all and all of them are great. Kinda strange really... MP3 had 75 mini-games. But oh well. But what makes this one different is the mini-mega system. You can turn mini when you use a mini mushroom or big when you use a mega mushroom.

You can play mini-mini-games, which let you play mini-games for prizes when your mini-sized but the dice will only go up to 5 instead of 10, or you can squash other players and get coins in return and roll two dice when your mega-sized. This party definitely is the best one yet.
 

Story- 6/10
This is pretty much the only place where this game loses marks. Even though most party games don't have a story, this one does. But it's not a big story. At the start of the game, a huge cube appears over the Mushroom Kingdom Castle. Toad and a bunch of other characters pop out of it and invite you into the cube to party! If you choose Story Mode, you choose a character (there's 8 characters) and you find out it's their birthday. So you party with 3 computer players, and if you win you get a present. Not a great story but it is interesting.

Graphics- 10/10
Man, these graphics are good when compared to the rest of the Mario Parties. The water is spectacular, and it looks life-like. The opening cinema also has awesome graphics. In-game graphics are also sharp, and there's almost no blocky figures.

Controls- 8/10
The controls are quite easy, but sometimes bad for your thumbs. In lots of games they ask you to hit the 'A' button repeatedly as fast as you can. Other than that, the controls are easy enough for a toddler to master in the first day. I have already memorized the controls for all of the mini-games.

Sound- 9/10
The sound is solid, but sometimes repetitive. They use a lot of sounds from the rest of the series, which isn't a bad thing, it's just nice to here new stuff. The music is very nice in this game, and is what you would expect from a Mario game.

Replay- 10/10
Are you kidding me? Your asking me if it has good replay value? It's a party game for Toad's sake!! It's supposed to have replay. 'Nuff said...

Overall- 9/10
Rounded up it equals 9/10, making this an awesome party. If you have friends buy this game. If not, you should probably rent first.