It’s certainly true that the Wiimote activities can illicit uproarious laughter and banter, but those are too few and far between, especially since moving around the board is rather mundane. You have the most opportunities to play the mini-games during the four-player mode; however, that also means you have wait for four people to amble around the board before you get to play the next game. During the two-player mode, instead of playing mini-games after every series of turns, duels are had when you or your opponent lands on a specifically designated square on the board — and there aren’t many of them.

It also doesn’t help that the game modes are essentially all the same. Even if you wanted to just play mini-games, which is an appealing idea, you can only play those you’ve unlocked. In a way, it almost feels as though you’re slightly forced to play through some of the boring filler in order to get to the good stuff.

There’s not much to say about the single player mode, either, which is essentially the two-player mode against the Wii. But really, the game is Mario Party, and really, parties are more fun with other people, so you can’t hold it against the game that its single player mode doesn’t carry much weight.

There are, however, some definite positives about Mario Party 8. Should you actually unlock several mini-games, many of them are quite enjoyable, especially those that take full advantage of the Wii’s controls. A few that come to mind are walking across a tight rope and pouring sand onto a scale. The controls themselves are very welcoming to first time gamers who might not have liked the multitude of buttons on previous consoles.

There’s also one unique board in the game that incorporates Monopoly-like qualities, which is far more engaging that the rest of the boards. On this particular map, players need to invest coins in hotels as they move around the map. If they have the most “stock” in the hotel by way of coins, they own that hotel’s stars; however, other players can come along and top their opponents in the amount of invested coins, thereby taking control of the stars. As a twist, the more cumulative coins in the hotel, the more stars it’s worth. This particular board forces players to strategize far more than in the other modes. Every turn becomes interesting and important, and less luck is employed. This is by far the most enjoyable mode.