Well, different if you consider what I just said about Nintendo a few weeks back.
Oh Mario Party. You've brought memorable minigames and tons of friendly partying fun over the years, but unfortunately it has suffered through the typical Nintendo trait of not sucking, but always being more of the same thing. Each of the eight games in the series can be explained with the same description of "board-game-like party game for up to four players". Just the sole fact that EIGHT GAMES in a recurring series are so similar like this is not only surprising but depressing.
Luckily, the former developer Hudson Soft got swallowed up by Konami, and the now 13 year old series has yet to see a title in the last five years, until now. To be fair though, several employees have joined up from Hudson Soft, including the former president of Hudson, so at first glance, this could turn out to be very, very good or really, really bad. However, judging by some previews that game news websites have been posting, the former case seems to be the one coming around.
There seems to be several changes to the key formula that makes it seem like a completely new game. Gone are the currencies of stars and coins, and in come the new currency of "mini-stars", which according to the news sites above, will determine the winner in the end. Also gone is the whole "board game" concept with each player having a Mario world character acting as a game piece. As seen above, all players now travel in one singular vehicle that changes depending on what stage you're playing. If it is your turn to roll the dice, you become the driver of the vehicle as it moves forward, and you take whichever rewards or punishments that are thrown at your windshield.
There are still minigames (80 new ones to be accurate), but they no longer happen automatically after each round of player dice rolls. There are now spaces for free-for-all, battle, 1v2, 1v3, and Bowser Jr. minigames where two players are teamed up to fight the mini-koopaling. In addition, there are a staggering 16 other spaces that can either benefit you or completely screw with you (though some are only found on certain stages, like a space that raises and lowers lava on a lava stage).
The most noticeable change I've read about though is the boss battles. When I first heard of this, I had no idea what was going on. Boss battles in a Mario Party game? WHAT?! Supposedly they tie in with the stages, which are no longer considered game boards as they now are long, mostly linear pathways instead of the big, exaggerated circles that players used to travel around in. There's two per stage, marking halfway points and the end of the stage. My only concern with this is the possible short length of the linear experience and the lack of "turns", but previews have said that the game they played lasted about 45 minutes, which is pretty fair, especially considering the drawn-out 50 turn games that I used to play on some of the Gamecube titles.
I'm really looking forward to this game. The Mario Party series has always been all about the minigames and the multiplayer fun, and to get some innovation into this long-lived series is exactly what it needed after a four year hiatus, and the new direction that this appears to be going in is interesting enough to have the attention of critics and fans alike.
I just hope that the drinking games that people invent are just as fun as previous ones.
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