It's been a long time since I actually bought a Mario Party game. At the time that the original was released I frequently hosted gaming parties for college class mates. Tetrisphere and Puzzle Fighter tournaments were the rule of the day. When Mario Party was released, I gleefully purchased it the day of the next gathering. It was a surefire hit.Except that everyone hated it, save for me. Even the shortest game settings provided less than acceptable levels of gratification. My friends all insisted on a clear winner after rounds of no more than a few minutes. The trivial winnings garnered by the mini-games of Mario Party were not enough to massage their egos into a moment of victorious extacy.
A few years later I'm at a friends house. This friend had not been a part of that afore-mentioned group, being an aquaintance made as many of those class mates were moving away to high paying jobs in other states. We're playing some games and he busts out Mario Party 3. I'd previously enjoyed several rounds of the original Party, but I'd since soured on it after many attempts at getting people to play, and most giving up halfway through. I didn't even want to bother at first when he presented his copy of 3, but I relented. I discovered that not only could I enjoy Mario Party still, but in the company of someone who truly enjoyed the format of mini-game competition it held the potential of inducing me into a state of gamer rage. It can get ugly.
When I started dating my wife, I learned that she had a certain passion for the Mario themed video board game. She wanted me to play with her, but I resisted for a long time for fear of scaring her off with a fit of anger inspired by Bowser taking all of my stars and givine them to my competitors (ie, her). Eventually she won out, and obviously everything turned out ok.
This weekend, I placed a pre-paid pre-order for Mario Party 8. It's the first time I've given a pre-order as a gift, but also the first time I've bought a Mario Party game since the original, and I'm just as exicted as she is.
1 comment:
As one of the aforementioned college buddies... I actually liked Mario Party originally. Although I agree that most everyone else wasn't too crazy about it.... or at least not as much as they were about the aforementioned puzzle titles. :)
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