is a party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the GameCube in November 2005. The seventh main installment in the Mario Party series, it makes use of the microphone peripheral introduced in Mario Party 6, and features twelve characters, including two new unlockable characters: Birdo and Dry Bones. Koopa Kid was omitted as a playable character, after being playable in the two previous games. Mario Party 7 was the fourth and last game in the series released for the GameCube, and was followed by Mario Party 8 for the Wii in May 2007. Gameplay The goal of Mario Party 7 is to gather stars, but each board requires it in a different way. For the first time ever since the series' initial release in 1998, eight players may participate in either Party Cruise or Deluxe Cruise (the 8 player equivalent of the Mini-Game Cruise). Players are split into teams of two and are required to share a controller, with the first player using the L button and the Control Stick in mini-games, while the second player uses the R button and the C-stick. While a mode for a solo player itself isn't new to the Mario Party series, this game's take is very different from any of the previous six games. One player competes against another (either computer controlled or human played), trying to complete the set objective on the board map before the other can. Tasks range from collecting a set number of stars to having a set number of coins on a space. Up to ten slots of different characters with different phrases may be saved. Once a player has completed all six boards, they are added to the rankings section, where it shows the players who took the least turns to complete them. There are 88 minigames in Mario Party 7, the most in the series up to this point. Like all except Mario Party 2, no minigames from previous editions appear. There are nine types of minigames in the game: 4-player, 1-vs.-3, 2-vs.-2, Battle, Duel, 8-player, DK, Bowser, and Rare. For 4-player and 1-vs.-3, there are an additional five minigames that can be played with the microphone. In 8 player minigames, one player uses the Control Stick and L, and the other player uses the C stick and R. The minigame controls range from pressing a button repeatedly to using the