Mario Party 7 GameCube

Mario Party 7 is, somewhat unsurprisingly, the seventh iteration in Nintendo's hugely popular Mario Party series. It's essentially a great party game for family/friends get-togethers, which you can play with up to seven other players. The number seven is key here! The background story to the game is that our heroes are relaxing on a complementary cruise given to them by Toadsworth, along with two new characters to the series, Birdo and Dry Bones. However, those dastardly critters Bowser and Mini-Bowser find out that they haven't been invited and decide to seek revenge by wrecking the trip for everyone else. Typical eh!? The game combines dice-based movement with an innovative microphone-input control system and loads of cool little mini-games. And we mean loads! In total, Mario Party 7 features a staggering 88 brand new mini-games, which can be unlocked and played in Mini-Game Cruise mode and a Duty Free shop where people can trade in their points in exchange for extra features. Perhaps the coolest feature is that Mario Party 7 comes bundled with the Nintendo GameCube microphone, allowing players to give spoken commands to their on-screen counterpart and take part in question and answer quizzes. The microphone can also be used in multiplayer battles, with one player using the microphone to complete a task, while the other three use the standard game pad to compete with them. The game's main Solo Cruise mode takes on a similar guise to other Mario Party games. The objective on each of the six game boards is to complete the tasks set within a set number of 'turns'. The goal is to collect a minimum amount of coins or stars, and players take it in turns to throw a virtual dice and move around the board. The spaces the characters land on determine whether a mini-game can ensue with coins and stars to be won. Each interactive game board is totally different, ranging from Grand Canal - a classic European-style town featuring balloons and gondolas - to Pagoda Peak, a 4,000 year old Asian mountain, and