Mario Party 7

Mario Party 7 is the seventh installment of the Mario Party series, it was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo in November 2005. It was also the fourth and last Mario Party game for the GameCube.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Great graphics, even for GameCube standards.
 * 2) The soundtrack is amazing and somewhat memorable.
 * 3) A great minigame selection, despite the short amount of 4-Player minigames.
 * 4) This game introduces the concept of random bonus stars. There is 6 bonus stars, and the game randomly selects 3 of them. They are the Red Star, Shopping Star, Minigame Star, Running Star, Action Star, and Orb star. This entices players to compete for the highest amount of the requirements to potentially gain these stars at the end of the game, much more competitively than in the previous games.
 * 5) Has one of the best board selections in the series with each board being highly unique and fun. Each board is based on a real life location. For example, Pagoda Peak is based on both China and Japan.
 * 6) The Story Mode is interesting, as it involves traveling around the world on a cruise ship.
 * 7) Birdo and Dry Bones make their debut as playable characters.
 * 8) The orb system from Mario Party 6 returns in this game and it's just as fun to use as ever.
 * 9) The 8-Player mechanic is very creative and unique. In 4-Team Battle, four teams of two players compete against each other on a board. There's also Deluxe Cruise where players can try out the 8-Player minigames anytime in 8-Player Free Play and 8-Player Ice Battle.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Koopa Kid is no longer a playable character. On top of that, this is his last appearance in the series.
 * 2) Over emphasis on the microphone. Worst offender is the overpowered mic space on the boards, the minigame from it can double a players coins and its really easy to win the game.
 * 3) The small amount regular four player minigames can be a turn off, with only thirteen of them. This is the least amount of 4-player minigames in the entire series if you exclude the mic games.
 * 4) The Single Player DK Mini-Games can be a pain to play, as they can be luck-based.
 * 5) The Bowser Time mechanic can get really annoying.
 * 6) Speaking of Bowser, his scene in the opening cutscene may scare some people.
 * 7) The character orbs, while useful in their own ways, are imbalanced. The Triple Shroom and Magic orbs are extremely good and can be used at anytime, while others like the Fireball or Egg orbs are situational and can only be good when the opportunity presents itself.

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