Mario Party 4

Mario Party 4
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Hudson Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date	October 21, 2002 November 3, 2002 November 8, 2002 November 29, 2002
Genre(s)	Party
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone) OFLC: G8+
Media	1 × GameCube Optical Disc

Mario Party 4 (マリオパーティ 4, Mario Pāti Fō^?) is the fourth in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular Nintendo characters. It was released on the Nintendo GameCube in North America on October 21, 2002 uniquely before the Japanese release on November 8, 2002. It was released on November 29, 2002 in Europe.

Mario Party 4 is the first Mario Party game that was released on the Nintendo GameCube. Each board had its own host, including Toad, Goomba, Shy Guy, Koopa, and Boo. Mario Party 4 also contains some characters new to the franchise: Thwomp and Whomp. Klepto, Dolphin, Lakitu, and Star, along with a completely new character named Ztar, are included as well. Mario Party 4 retains the Story Mode found in Mario Party 3.With over 2 million copies sold in total, the game is the seventh best-selling game on the Gamecube.

Playable characters

Minigames

As with all Mario Party games, Mario Party 4 has many minigames. The controls range from alternating buttons to moving around. The item mini games and Game Guy mini games do not return in this or any future games. In Bowser games, all players must try not to be the loser. In Story games, 2 players face off in a 1 on 1 battle. They are divided into "4-player", "1 vs. 3", "2 vs. 2", "Bowser", "Story", and "Etc".

Battle minigames are like the 4-player games, but are sometimes a little more elaborate. Battle games are usually tense because every player has to put a certain number of coins (from 5 - 50) into a pot. First place gets 70% of the pot, second place gets 30%, and a random player gets any coins lost in rounding.

A new addition to the Mario Party series was the Bowser mini-games. Players play in a very elaborate mini-game that ends when one player is eliminated in various ways. (See Bowser mini-game section below) The loser loses a pre-specified item, usually coins, items and even a star. Another new addition was the Lucky Minigame, in which the winner(s) could win twice or thrice as many coins as usual (foreshadowing the DK mini game in later editions).

Voice Artists

• Scott Burns as Bowser
• Charles Martinet as Mario, Luigi, Wario and Waluigi
• Jen Taylor as Peach, Daisy and Toad
• Kazumi Totaka as Yoshi
• Richard Yearwood as Donkey Kong

Reception

Most reviews for Mario Party 4 were positive, and had sold over 2 million copies worldwide.

IGN: 7.0

Gamespot: 7.2

Gamestats: 7.4

DL Game Reviews: 7

Awards

The game won the Family Game of The Year at the 2003 Interactive Achievement Awards.

External links

• Mario Party 4 at MobyGames