Mario Party 9

Mario Party 9 (マリオパーティ9 Mario Pāti Nain) is a party video game for the Wii. It was officially announced at E3 2011 and was released on March 2, 2012 in Europe, on March 8, 2012 in Australia, on March 11, 2012 in North America, and on April 26, 2012 in Japan. It is the first Mario Party game in the series to be developed by Nd Cube Co., Ltd., as they take over development of the series from Hudson Soft. Hudson Soft was namely absorbed by Konami Corporation in March 2012.
==Gameplay==
Like previous Mario Party titles, two to four players take part in each game, composed of a virtual board, and move around a variety of themed lands to collect Mini Stars, while avoiding certain spaces. A gameplay element in all of the boards is that all four players move around in one vehicle. The number of spaces the player moves is determined by a roll of the dice block found within the game. Minigames reappear, and have a larger focus on the gameplay than they did in the previous game. Mario Party 9 features twelve playable characters, with two unlockable. Instead of trying to collect coins to buy stars, players receive Mini Stars (bananas in DK's Jungle Ruins) if they pass by them. Players must also try to avoid Mini Ztars (Z-bananas in DK's Jungle Ruins), which deduct their current amount of Mini Stars. In this game, the minigames don't appear after everyone moves, but only when a player ends up on any of the spaces or events that triggers a minigame. A person can play on solo mode to unlock the final stage, as well as two playable characters.
Each board culminates in a boss battle that is played with all players in the vehicle. There is also a boss battle at the halfway point of a board. There are many more mini-games in Mario Party 9, and game length has been set to 45 minutes.
At the end of each stage, the number of Mini Stars (bananas in DK's Jungle Ruins) the player collects is converted into Party Points, which can be used to buy new stages, constellations, vehicles, difficulties, and sounds.
==Reception==
Mario Party 9 has received mostly positive reviews. It has an aggregate score of 73 on Metacritic based on 44 reviews and an aggregate score of 74.69% on Gamerankings, based on 27 reviews.
German magazine N-Zone gave Mario Party 9 a 75% score for single player mode, and 85% for multiplayer mode. Nintendo Power gave it an 8/10, saying that "the majority of the game's 78 activities are fun", while commenting that "some may be discouraged by the game's radical changes". Nintendo World Report gave the game a score of 8.5/10.
IGN gave the game a 7.0 "Good" rank, praising its graphical improvement and its control style. Like previous Mario Party games, IGN strongly criticized the luck-based factor of the game. UGO Entertainment gave the game an A-, criticizing the game's single player mode, but praising its multiplayer and improvement from previous titles. 
MyNintendoNews gave the game an 8.5/10, criticizing the game for not having an online mode, but stated that the game is "immensely entertaining" and an improvement from past Mario Party games. GamesRadar gave the game a score of 8/10, praising Mario Party 9 for being balanced, but criticized the predictability of the boards. NintendoLife gave the game a score of 8/10.
On the less positive side, Gamespot awarded the game a 6/10, stating that the game is too "predictable".
==Links==
*http://www.gamesradar.com/mario-party-9-review/
*http://www.gamespot.com/search.html?qs=mario+party+9
*Mario Party 9 North America Official Website
Category:2012 video games
Category:Most Wanted Games