Mario Party 4 was on the show floor in force at E3 2002. Not only could you play it just for fun, but if you won the chance, you could play against 3 other people to win a WaveBird controller. Essentially, Mario Party 4 is just more of the same, which is an excellent thing.

Graphically there is nothing really special to talk about. Mario Party 4 is certainly not pushing the system at all. Models are smooth and the framerate is solid. The controls are fine and of course are pretty simple. It’s hard to have complex controls in such a fast-paced game.

The board that I played on was modeled after a theme-park. There was a roller coaster you could ride to another place on the board and teacups that made you change direction. The most important part of Mario Party 4 is, of course, mini-games. Most of them are fun and have a very “Mario Party" feel. They’re quick and frantic and will invoke riots between friends. One of the “new" additions is the “Mini Giant" system. Mushrooms let you grow big and shrink. If you’re big you get two big rolls on the dice and if you’re small you get one low roll. I say “new" because previous versions of the game let you do this, just not with mushrooms. If you like Mario Party you’ll probably like the fourth installment in the series.