The first few Mario Parties were some of the greatest 64 games I've ever played, and Mario Party 4, while changing systems stayed true to it's roots and was a great game. Since then, though, the more recent installments have been on a slow decline. Finally crashing at Mario Party 8.

Gameplay
Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous. The rules are the same, but the character selection is getting too overstuffed (Dry Bones and Blooper are clearly just filler). In addition, the boards aren't nearly as elaborate as they used to be (look up Goomba's Greedy Gala in MP4, then look up Goomba's pirate course in MP8, and you'll see what I mean). And why don't they have DK? He was playable in 1-4, and now, he's a board space. A board space! What's next? A Yoshi Coin!? Also, all of the items have been replaced with candy, totally killing the cool items that are now a thing of the past. While this is all disasterous, the minigames do bring some originality to the game with responsive and simple motion controls, but it doesn't compensate for much.

Graphics
The graphics are the only good part of the game. The cinematic-style movement is great, and everything is nicely detailed and textured. The graphics deliver the only good point of this game

Sound
The sound is average. The music is good, but not very in-depth, and the character voices are nicely done, despite all of the game's other problems.

They really only need one Mario Party per console. The team is very talented, but they're being overworked with annual releases. If you want a good Mario Party game, play the old ones, and if you must play a recent Mario Pary, buy Mario Party DS. That one is sprisingly good considering the series' recent disasters.