Mario Party 4 GameCube

One of the greatest nights in you can ever have is definitely a mammoth four-player Mario Party. But isn't it a board game? You ask. Well technically, yes. But it's no ordinary board game. You start by selecting your character from the full list of Mario favourites, before rolling the virtual dice and moving around the board. Being a Mario game, collecting coins and stars is the way to go and there are a great many ways in which you can acquire them. The main method though is through the game's assortment of mini-games, which fire up after each player has had a turn. Success in the mini-games leads to the acquisition of more coins, which can be used to buy items and, more importantly, stars. Mario Party 4 brings all the fun to the GameCube, with new characters, mini-games, and features, as well as some lovely, revamped visuals. The elusive Waluigi makes an appearance, which is always an added bonus, and new gameplay elements allow players to do things like team up or use items on the board to alter their size, thus allowing access to different areas of the board. What was always the main part of the game and what is indeed the main addition to this latest instalment though is the mini-games element. A total of 50 all-new games make an appearance, offering a diverse collection of fantastically entertaining events. This is where the fun is to be had, especially with four players, as you find yourself in either a team match or a free-for-all, doing bizarre things like collecting butterflies or stacking dominoes. Mario Party more or less invented the party game genre. This fourth instalment on the GameCube delivers everything that was expected of it, successfully defending the game's title of best party game around.