Mario Party 10 - The Car Needs to Go

Normally, I'm not one to talk about a game I haven't played but in this particular instance I feel I have an obligation to talk about it. The main reason why is because Mario Party is a series I grew up with and is a series I still play whenever I get friends together to do so (though we're always playing the Nintendo 64 ones for the most part). It is still a series I'd like to see continue but only if they removed the car from the regular Mario Party mode.

Why the Car is Bad

Let's get this out of the way first. The car is bad for the following reasons:

• Removes strategy to a significant degree.
• Loss of player control, everyone moves together.
• Less choices to make.
• Board design suffers.
• Economic system (mini-stars instead of coins/stars) completely changed to accommodate for everyone being together.
• Shorter overall game time.

I will go over each of those reasons more in-depth.

Removes strategy to a significant degree

This one is what will take the longest to explain. Everyone who has played Mario Party (MP) before likely believes that it is entirely luck based to begin with and that there's very little or no strategy anyway This could not be further from the truth. Mario Party has a surprising amount of depth to it if you make yourself familiar with a particular MP. I have played Mario Party 2, 3, and 5 the most out of any of them and every time I play any of those entries in the series with friends the amount of choices I can make for each one to accomplish what I want in order to win is insane. You have to not just think about your current move but also 5 turns ahead -- planning for bonus stars at the end (like intentionally landing on Happening Spaces) or planning on going to Boo to steal coins from your friends. There's so many options I can't begin to list them all.

The car reduces the strategy because you're all together, you can't possibly go on your own path because the next person in line will want to go somewhere else and has other goals. It doesn't help that the boards are linear anyway (which I will talk about later). You're limited to just hitting the dice block aiming for a 5 or a 6 roll to get the car moving somewhere. And frankly, just hitting the dice block to land on a space to cause something bad to happen isn't very strategic in the first place. It's watered down strategy -- what does that mean? It means that the strategy has been simplified. They've made it so hitting the dice block is the most important strategy, the focus, of the board game instead of having all these external factors laid out on the boards like in the previous games in the series. Or, even having different items to use. They purposely made it focused on the dice block and by putting the players together it compacts the amount of decision-making you have. It means the choice you make on your turn can be overruled by the next person in line and that's simply not okay. It effectively removes the person's strategy and it means any strategy you make has to be on your turn rather than making plans for the future like in previous Mario Party games.

Loss of Player Control

This ties into the above in that now you can't move on your own, you only have two choices: hit the dice block or pick a dice block item and hit that dice block instead. Yeah, sometimes you might come to a fork in the road and have to choose which path to go but that gives the illusion of choice and lack of board linearity. Ultimately, the decision doesn't change anything significantly and it once again is simplifying strategy -- go the bad path and bad things will happen to your other members in the vehicle. Go the good path and good things will happen to your other members in the vehicle. Instead of the more complex thought processes you had to make in previous Mario Party games to be successful in the long-run because not a single path was simply defined as "good" or "bad", every path had different colored spaces and event-like spaces (Bowser space, Chance time, etc).

In other words, the player has way less control over not just themselves but also what happens to them. In previous Mario Party entries, it was chaos but controlled chaos -- if you knew the game well enough and were skilled at the mini-games you could control your fate towards the end of the game. The only way your fate could be changed is by another player, which is what made the previous games so good. You had the choice to dick over your friends. Whereas in this game (and 9) you have less control over being able to dick over your friends and your decision can even dick yourself over. You're not safe in being able to dick over your friends and that's part of this player control aspect that the previous entries had for the board games. When separated it allowed you to be safe to do whatever you wanted but now that you're together it's impossible to do what you actually want to do.

Less Choices to Make

This was covered very briefly in the above section. Basically, you only really have the choice to hit the dice block. There's no items besides just different dice blocks and the spaces you land on there's only about 3 to 4 different types of spaces: the typical red and blue spaces, the VS. space (mini-games), and one other event-space that I can't recall off the top of my head (because I haven't played MP10). Anyway, because there's less unique spaces overall there's less chances for you to even use the dice block to land on a space that will negatively affect the next person in line. You might as well just blindfold yourself, hit the dice block and see what happens on every turn. There's literally not much decision making in this game and Mario Party 9.

Board Design Suffers

This one is going to be extremely quick and straight to the point: the boards are all linear. This is because everyone is in a vehicle and they want everyone to go the same path so they don't waste time going in circles or the game goes on for too long etc etc. They are trying to merge the regular Mario titles' overworld themes with Mario Party which also includes throwing in mini-bosses and Bowser Castles to simulate like you're playing New Super Mario Bros. Basically, they want the board game to be more streamlined so you don't spend over an hour or two playing the board game.

But here's the thing: no one complained about how long the board games lasted. If anything, people hate how they've completely gutted mini-games from the board mode (making them spaces rather than happening every turn). This makes it so you rarely get mini-games which means the board game becomes way more about luck than skill. It heavily weighs on it because then at that point you only get mini-stars from the board rather than the skill-based mini-games. Which I don't even need to say it's bad for you to know it's bad.

As a result of the boards being linear, there's less choices to make, less time spent playing the board game, and you're always doing the same thing for the same board. In previous MP games, if you picked a board it was for its hazards or gimmicks or what have you and those parts of the board not only changed how every board game played out but because the boards weren't linear you never went the same path or made the same decisions. Why? Because there's a wide array of choices you can make in a non-linear Mario Party board.

Basically, linear boards = less player choice.

Economic System

The economic system in the most recent Mario Party's (9 and 10) is just awful. It's built this way because they didn't want the players to try and get a star together -- it simply wouldn't work with the car. Coins and stars can only work when the players are separated because then getting to the star isn't luck based where if they tried to put the coins and stars system for the car mode it would be all up to luck who had enough coins and then who gets the star (because the player has to land on the space for the star).

However, the mini-stars are not a good solution either. They're not a good solution because they're just as easy to accumulate as coins were in previous Mario Party's which means it's more likely for someone to catch up based on pure luck. Nothing bad happening to a player means they will soon catch up with their mini-star count. Again, 9 and 10 are focused more on watering down strategy and putting it all up to luck to streamline the board game experience (when the series didn't need streamlining to begin with).

Shorter Overall Game Time

This doesn't need to be explained extensively. By making linear boards and everyone is together there's less time spent doing other things and more time spent everyone being pushed along to reach the end goal of the board. They've cut mini-games from happening every turn, they removed external factors like Boo and other NPCs, they've cut down on the amount of event-spaces (things like Bowser Spaces, Chance Time, Happening Spaces, etc.) As a result, a board game can last anywhere from 30 minutes to 45 compared to previous Mario Party's where a board game could last anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half (depending on the amount of turns). That isn't bad at all and I'm not sure why the developers felt the need to make the board games shorter but that's what their goal was with this car, I guess.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the car is bad and needs to go. It needs to go because in order for it to work they had to basically gut everything that was good about Mario Party to make it happen. Mini-games happen less, there's less decision-making, boards are more boring, there's less control over what happens, there's more luck involved, and the most fun experience of Mario Party: dicking over your friends is more difficult. Luck dicks over your friends more than you do in Mario Party 9 and 10.

If NDCube (the developers) want to keep the car somehow then I recommend putting Bowser Party in every Mario Party from now on. The reason is because that mode at least works with it and is actually fun (from what I've seen). I mean, I would be interested in a Bowser Party where people are separated but I'd rather the regular mode be that than Bowser Party. Hopefully, from the much more negative and vocal response to Mario Party 10 NDCube (if they do Mario Party 11) will take the hint and ditch the car for the regular mode and go back to how Mario Party's 4-7 were done -- no car, no linear boards, and no mini-stars. If they did that, I would come back to it. Until then, I will keep playing Mario Party 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7.

The Satisfaction of Majora's Mask's Time System (3-Day Cycle)

Majora's Mask in 2000

Over 15 years ago, the original Majora's Mask launched on the Nintendo 64. It was met with mixed reception, many fans liked it while many others disliked it. Back then, people had high expectations for the next Zelda game -- who didn't? The follow-up to Ocarina of Time had to be something amazing, right? Well, instead we got this weird and quirky game in Majora's Mask.

I remember when it came out and my brother wanted to get it as soon as possible. We got it as soon as it launched as the copy of the game we have is the gold cart with the holographic imagery that changed what the characters were doing when you moved the cart at certain angles. Of course, I was much younger than my brother at the time and only watched him play it for awhile before I decided to mess around with the game.

When I played Majora's Mask, I actually never set out to do anything in my brother's save file. I didn't want to mess anything up so all I did was goof around. Whether that was just getting him ruppees and storing them in the bank, running around Termina Field, swimming in the Great Bay as a Zora (probably one of my fondest times with the game back then), or even messing around with the masks he had. I wondered how he got so many masks but I never dared to do anything to progress in the game because it was his save file.

In other words, in 2000, I never actually played Majora's Mask properly. Instead, I played it in a way where I made my own fun with it. Thus, the time system never really bothered me but I definitely remember not liking it that much. And it was because of me goofing around in my brother's save file I never bothered to actually... start my own save file and play -- I think part of me was intimidated by the time system and everything so I just stuck to my brother's save file and goofed around where I could save whenever I wanted without any worry.

Unfortunately, this meant that I would never see the ending of the game, how the temples were completed, how to get masks, etc etc. And not just that, but my brother never even finished the game back then either (to my recollection). Other games came out and took priority. Of course, he revisited the game at some point and finished it but ... me? Nope, I didn't. I never went back to it. That was until now.

Revisiting Majora's Mask 15 Years Later

With the 3DS release of Majora's Mask officially announced in December I knew I had to play it. I had been holding off on going back to the N64 original in the hopes a 3DS release (like OoT3D) would happen. And it did! I bought it day 1 and have been playing it on my Majora's Mask 3DSXL I bought from Best Buy. Currently, I've completed three of the four major temples and I'm on my way to the fourth temple at the moment.

That said, let me talk about Majora's Mask itself coming from a player who never actually played it beyond goofing around in the game world. The 3DS version has made some significant changes to it that certainly help people like myself get into the game but it's not enough to the point where I feel I am being told I'm too stupid to know where to go or what to do. Figuring out stuff on my own in this game feels so rewarding, especially with respect to side quests.

However, I should mention that by watching speedrunners go through the game I have already spoiled the game significantly for myself over the years. But playing through this, there are definitely things I have gotten stuck on despite that -- likely because speedrunners tend to skip large portions of MM by doing bomb hovers and the like. There are certainly instances where I've thought back to a speedrun and it helped me remember what to do but there are also instances where I actually can't rely on that and have to figure it out for myself.

Therefore, this is the case with many of the side quests and also managing my time. The 3-Day Cycle is something that gives the player so much satisfaction it's unreal -- at least, for me. You have to plan your cycle ahead of time, almost like what you do in the real world when you're planning your week or a single day. In 3-Days, I want to accomplish this, this, and this -- do I have enough time to do all of that? And you'll say, yes, and then you'll think on it some more and wonder if you can add more to it. And as you complete the first three tasks you soon realize you still have a bit of time left in this cycle so why not go do this next or this next or this or etc etc.

The time system in Majora's Mask gives you satisfaction that you won't feel in any other game. To be able to accomplish so many things in the allotted time is a feeling you won't get in another game because MM is the only game that has a system like this. To be able to complete, say, three or four different side quests of varying length in a single cycle is really satisfying. You get the mask or heart piece you wanted and you look at the time and decide you want to do something else so you go back to your Bomber's Notebook and see what else you might be able to do. It's a brilliant system.

Heck, you can even probably squeeze in opening up a temple after you've done some side quests. I've done that multiple times throughout my playthrough of the game so far. It's really great to do it because that way if you feel you want to tackle the temple next you can then just reset the cycle and start the temple on Day 1 at 6 AM and have tons of time to finish the temple.

So, after revisiting Majora's Mask I have to say that the 3-Day Cycle really isn't as intimidating as I thought it was 15 years ago. I think, back then, I was so young that the timer just scared me. I didn't like the thought of getting a Game Over from the time running out and I'm sure many other people felt the same way. However, what I didn't realize as a kid was that you needed to apply thinking skills and strategy to the game -- you have to approach it way differently. Plan out the cycle and then follow the plan to a T. Don't waste any time dawdling about or else you will lose out precious time you find you might have needed later on in the cycle.

In that way, Majora's Mask was a game ahead of its time. The time system was far too innovative and advanced for most people at the time. It was different but different in a good way (but some people fail to recognize this and instead bash it for being different). It's a different time period now and the game is well liked by most because more people understood the game better as time has passed. It is unfortunate most games don't or haven't tried replicating this time system as it's really quite special and makes the world feel alive. It also gives the player a satisfaction that no other game can make a claim to -- satisfaction in time management. Everything just comes together so well in MM and I can't wait to finish it!