Mario Party 7 is an board/arcade action game released in 2005 for the Game Cube featuring the educational strengths of classroom facts, creativity and imagination. The main game is designed in board style, with players advancing along a path of colored squares toward an objective. Landing on a square results in an action by the game, and some squares launch mini-games in arcade style that are hosted by colorful Mario characters such as Toadsworth, Bowser and Donkey Kong. Bowser has his own square that triggers his mini-games. Mario Party 7 is packed with content, with boards styled after countries, several Mario characters to play, lots of mini-games and lots of magic orbs.

The game involves simple reading, math, and some geography. A modest amount of creativity by the player can be expressed in the choices of boards, characters, games and orbs. Creativity and imagination unfolds as the gamer makes their own choices. In addition, thanks to the developer, Hudson Soft, the game contains a great blend of traditional Mario Brothers characters, unique names, and a familiar board game style play. We recommend this game for younger children as a means of entertainment on a juvenile level, and as a way of encouraging simple math and reading skills.

Mario Party 7 weaves a number of classroom facts into the game and has interesting ways to convey information. For instance, game results are presented with counts and charts. Final results are displayed in easy to understand chart form with different colors representing each character. A text box located at the bottom of the screen explains each category icon. The icons record the details of the game such as the number of times a certain space was landed on or how often an orb was used. A good visual line graph depicts the changes in star and coin count, permitting the gamer to compare their statistics with those of other players.

Geography skills are involved when the gamer chooses from five (5) different countries to create their maps/board. The Grand Canal is styled on Italy. Pagoda Peak is based on Japan with bamboo shoots the gamer hops on, dragon heads and Japanese style architecture. Pyramid Park represents Egypt with sandy trails, Sphinx statues, pyramids, and Egyptian building designs. Neon Heights is based on the United States, and Windmillville is a representation of the Netherlands. Navigational skills are incorporated into the game by requiring players to click a map to view the overall picture with all the spaces. Using the board view gives the gamer the opportunity to avoid certain paths or find the location of a star relative to the character’s position.

Simple multiplication and addition are stressed through the constant use of dice which are rolled and then added to the roll of other dice to determine how many spaces a character can move. Also, players often see the number of the coins they have earned being multiplied by easy numbers like twos and threes. Developer Hudson Soft used simple multiplication in other places in the game as well, such as in the Donkey Kong mini-games where multiplication is used for a conversion rate. In the Donkey Kong "Bananas Faster" challenge gathering enough bananas earns the gamer a mini game where the number of bananas can be multiplied by another number (like a two or three) and the product is the number of coins players earn.

By the Player

Player creativity in Mario Party 7 consists of choices made along a pathway that has a clear start and finish, but with surprises and twists along the path. The four cruises; party, solo, deluxe and mini-game, are all linear contests with an end objective, but the pathway to winning is filled with mini-game challenges, leaps forward and backward on the game board, visits to the duty free store, choices of characters to play and as partners, and special ability orbs to use at key moments.

In terms of modes of play, The Party Cruise allows gamers to team with friends or computer controlled (AI) characters; in Solo Cruise gamers play one on one (either against another human or AI character). The Party and Deluxe cruises consist of up to 8 people which can be a mixture of both live and non-living opponents; and the mini game cruise, comes in six varieties that cannot be played until unlocked.

Players can be creative in customizing their game when they set their cruises. An easy step-by-step tutorial allows gamers to refresh their memory about the meaning of each setup icon. For instance, player choices range from how many turns, choosing between six categories of mini games, whether bonus stars will be awarded at end of the game; picking characters for oneself and the cpu, and deciding how much of a handicap to give (allowed to grant up to 9 stars).

By the Developers

Hudson Soft and Nintendo combine traditional Mario Bro’s characters with a board game style play intertwined with imaginative names and sayings. Characters have their own diction, for example Toadpipe says things like "shall we? Quite!","old bean","fine bloke!" and Bowser says things like "bwah ha ha ha", "there’s 3 for ya", "grr, don’t move a muscle until Bowser says so!", "man, I’m so evil! I love it!"

There are 43 clever puns for the names of mini games such as Big Dripper instead of the constellation name Big Dipper, and the word drip because the object of the game is to collect drops of honey, all of which make the game fun and amusing when making such connections.

The worlds in which the games take place are colorful and friendly, typical of the Mario Bro’s games. The five different geographical locations which have been previously mentioned under ‘Classroom Facts’ are a combination of real world and traditional Mario Bro’s animation. Colorful schools of fish and bright clear sea water reminds players they are on a cruise while the games on the cruise remind one of playing board games.

There are twenty-four souvenirs which can be bought using cruise mileage points, (earned like frequent flyer rewards), or alternatively can be discovered. Two of the souvenirs are secret players that can only be unlocked with the right amount of points.

Hudson Soft developed a uniqueness of play in the mini games and battles with tasks ranging from snowboarding down slalom courses, to hammering as many balls onto the opponents side before a timer runs out. The eighty-six (86) new mini-games each with their own objectives gives Mario Party 7 its’ own distinct flavor. The game is user friendly and the tutorial, which gamers can accept or decline at the beginning of each game or cruise, explains the individual aspects of each board.

Business skills are mildly used in Mario Party 7. Coins are a medium of exchange and orbs, stars, and bananas are a few unique items of value in the game. Orbs give players different advantages; some boost players ahead on the map, others give coins, and some take coins from the opposing team and give them to the player. Coins can be spent to purchase orbs as well as services, such as rides, and shortcuts. The gamer may only carry three orbs at a time and therefore must choose them wisely. Orbs cannot (or at least should not) be hoarded, because a player already carrying three will have to discard one without use if a better one is earned.

Cruise Mileage is another medium of exchange in the game. One mileage point is awarded for each space traveled on a game board, with additional points awarded for certain accomplishments, such as ten points for each mini game completed. Mileage points are traded in at the duty free shop for souvenirs, (trinkets and stuff), secrets and secret characters, and other things.

People skills are encouraged in Mario Party 7 through team work and pitting one gamer against another (or as many as 8). Playing with friends can be more challenging than playing against the computer, depending on the player’s skill level, but mercy can be shown by gamers who can gracefully choose not try as hard, or who allow others to receive a handicap at the beginning of the game.

Playing on a Solo cruise against one of the party characters resembles two person board games which allow constant one on one play, though against a computer character. However, even in multiplayer games, there are mini games which pit individual opponents against each other in one on one type matches. During some mini games, players must assist their counterparts even if they are not on the same one on one challenge team.

Interaction is vital because if players do not make decisions for when to roll the dice, which direction to move, when to use an orb or to buy things, nothing can happen and the game does not advance. In team battle the orb limit is five, so negotiating takes place regarding which orbs should be carried. Further mandatory interaction is required at the setup of each cruise when players decide how many turns per cruise, character difficulty, whether there will be a bonus as the end of the game, and so on.

Mario Party 7 permits gamers to sharpen their problem solving skills by solving a wide variety of mini-games along the path of the main board game. In fact, there are 86 new mini-games in MP7 in addition to some that appear in earlier versions. They come in a wide variety including racing, obstacles, chance, teamwork, duel, and have themes and twists.

The basic strategy for most of the cruises is to collect as many stars as possible per game in order to beat the opposition, and each board awards stars differently. While collecting stars may sound a simple matter, the board game aspect means that challenges are a close as the next roll of the dice. Many small tactical decisions are made on a regular basis, such as which way to move, whether to play an orb, and what to do when something unexpected happens to the gamer or their opponent.

Many of the mini-games have obvious benefits to the player, such as timed mini game picture puzzles that exercise recognition skills. The gamer who wants more challenge can increase the level of difficulty for the mini-games and the computer player units.

Mario Party 7 does not feature simulation.

Above average reviews were written for Mario Party 7. As sometime happens, we found that users rated the game higher than critics.

Mario Party 7 received extra points for humor with the its cleverly written puns.

There are five different mini-game settings: all, easy, action, hard, and weird, as well as difficulty level settings for computer player units. The gamer can pause, go back, or select options to change eight other settings. Mini-game instructions can be on or off, and the tutorial can be accepted or declined at the beginning of the game.