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Mario Party 9 review: Rolling like a boss
Those who have not followed the Mario Party series in recent years could be forgiven for dismissing its 9th console entry as yet another attempt to milk an aging franchise. Hell, even as someone who's been mini-gaming around the Mushroom Kingdom since it required being tethered to an N64, I had trouble mustering enthusiasm for the latest sequel. Allowing that big "9" on the box to mislead you, however, would be a mistake on the level of hiring Bowser as a babysitter.You see, Mario Party 9 -- the series' first entry in nearly five years -- feels surprisingly more like a thoughtful reboot than a phoned-in rehash.%Gallery-125892%
Wii Party review: A quiet get-together
Wii Sports -- and to a lesser extent Wii Play -- proved that in Nintendo's hands, even the most banal motion-based minigames can have a certain spark that makes them addictive. There's just an unidentifiable ... something that nobody else has been able to crack that makes those minigame collections absolutely delightful even to people who desperately want to hate them. Wii Party is a glimpse into what Nintendo minigames would be like without that spark. They all work, they all show plenty of polish, and the controls are totally functional in every single case. But, in a word, they're bland. Toothless. With one major exception, that's the best way to describe Wii Party in general. It's totally inoffensive. You'll have some fun playing it, but you won't really come away feeling satisfied. It's just there. %Gallery-95767%
Wii Party developer bought by Nintendo, probably has a party
ND Cube, the developer behind the Nintendo-published Wii release Wii Party, has been brought into the Big N's fold, according to a new "Iwata Asks" feature on the console-maker's Japanese site. In it, it's revealed that Nintendo has purchased a 96 percent stake in ND Cube, effectively becoming its new owner. (We're counting the days until Nintendo renames it "ND Wii.") The purchase comes after brisk sales of Wii Party, to the tune of 320k copies sold in its first week on shelves. The game was announced for North American release during E3 and is scheduled to arrive on these shores October 3.
