Topic: Mario Party 10 E3 Hands-On Preview

[SurfingPikachu]

Nothing is as sweet as being evil.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/37754/mario-party-10-e3-hands-on-preview

Mario Party debuts on the Wii U next year with its tenth installment to date. While not much is known beyond its ability to pair with amiibo, we were able to play four mini games that will be unique to the new five-player Bowser Party mode.

The new mode pits up to four players against Bowser, who is controlled by the GamePad, in either Bowser’s Fire Bar Fury, Bowser’s Bad Breath, Bowser’s Painball Pit, or Bowser’s Wicked Wheel. Players get five lives per game to survive the upcoming onslaught. All the games are all short and easy to pick up, using at most two buttons.

Bowser’s Fire Bar Fury takes place on a square arena in the middle of a deadly lava pit. Using the GamePad’s gyroscopic abilities, players tilt the controller to move two fire bars: one goes up and down, the other left and right. Defending characters need to run and jump to avoid the fire bars as the clock counts down. The fire bars were larger than they usually appear in Mario games, adding to the challenge.

The gyroscopic controls came in handy once again in Bowser’s Bad Breath as players held the GamePad up and tilted left and right to aim a giant Bowser at the other players while also pressing A to shoot fireballs out. Defending players can only run around the square arena to avoid the deadly projectiles. Bowser moves slowly during the game to give them a fighting chance, and it’s actually a little tricky to aim into the corner closest to Bowser himself, making it a popular hiding spot while the others flee.

Bowser’s Painball Pit puts players in an oversized pinball machine controlled by Bowser. The space is empty except for a large, heavy disc that can either impede the spiked balls Bowser flicks through the machine or trap the other characters. If a spike ball falls through the bottom of the machine, a new one quickly replaces it to keep two present at all times.

Lastly, Bowser’s Wicked Wheel places characters in a hamster wheel with two electrified rods on either side. Players shake the Wii Remote quickly as it spins to run away from the electric rod behind them. The Bowser player swipes on the screen to make the wheel spin as fast as they’d like, while swiping backwards stops the wheel, causing players to run into the electric rod in front if they don’t stop fast enough.

It was a good taste of what’s in store for Mario Party’s mini games, and the frantic but simple nature of each got everyone into the game right away. Every game was fun and required different tactics whether you were Bowser or running for your life, and as always, being evil was its own reward.