I was so happy when I heard about "Mario Party 8", but I was so dissapointed when I played it. There are so many things WRONG with this game.

First of all, this game should have been released for the Gamecube, not Wii. As a matter of fact, the whole game looks like it was completed for Gamecube, then quickly converted to Wii. Let's take when characters shop. The "Yes" and "No" options are at the bottom of screen. So usually when you point the controller so far down, the sensor bar looses contact with the control, so you have the "re-aim" the control several times. This was the design of the previos Gamecube games, but then you could just steer the controlstick and hit "A", here you have to aim and choose. This is annoying and frustrating, why couldn't they move the Yes or No to the middle of the screen?! I mean, when you choose what you want to buy, you have three things on the middle of the screen. Then when you've chosen what you want to buy, the options move to the bottom of the screen again - to ask you "Are you sure you want to buy this?" - ARGH!!! This was the design of Mario Party 6 and 7, so it's obvious this game WAS done for Gamecube first, then quickly converted. The same problem occours when that character with the hat asks if you want to hear a secret about the board you play, you have to AIM for "no".

The minigames also suffers from the quick conversion. A lot of the minigames, you just turn the control to the side, use the plus for steering and 1 to kick/hit and 2 to jump. This is Wii, you'd expect to use the control like in other Wii games, not pretend the control is a Gamecube control!! And those games that use this control are so boring. Other games where you are supposed to steer, you "tilt" the controller either left or right. And some other games you turn the control, while it's up, from side to side. Why does the controls have to change so much?? Sometimes it's difficult to get contact with the sensor bar, even when you hold the control like you're supposed to. Take the game with the chimps, the game tells you to steer left or right to move the monkey. The game responds so bad, whether you move the control fast or slow, the chimp takes 2-3 seconds to respond. Bad conversion.
There are a very few games which really feel like you play on Wii, like the "Shaking Soda can" minigame, or the "Clean Chomp" game. There's also a game where you should do 3 different things - saw, hammer and paint a wall. These games are easy and may seem boring, but they are funniest because you get to do something with the Wii remote, it feels like you are really playing. But believe me, the boring minigames are overload and they are regurlarly chosen instead of the fun minigames. I also felt the "Battle Minigames" were all boring, one game is impossible to be the only winner, because there's a limit on how much points you can get. And I HATE the cutting ropes game. It's totally random and I've never won it.

It gets worse. In previous Mario Party games, especially in the first Mario Party, the easy computer players were so bad you were laughing at how badly they played certain games. I remember in the first game, I was laughing so hard watching Luigi play a memory game, he would run to the correct place, but then change direction and go to another place, then another, and another and choose wrong. Talk about stupid! In this game, I felt the easy players weren't easy, they play rather good for being supposed to suck at the game. So because they are easy, they play good at a slow speed or if the games requires a certain distance, they fail at certain distances. In previous games, easy computers was a laugh, here they appear really good.

Anyway, let's say you play a game with a friend, you are forced to use 2 computers. You use them on easy, they never win a single minigame. That would make you a winner right? Wrong. This game is purely luck and walking fast. The computer players always hit 5-10, they land on all the bonus places and they can get 20-50 coins on a single turn. There is also a secret star area, when you hit a golden space, you get transported there. Me and a family member played this game, Toad was a computer player. Within 2 turns, he had already gone to the secret area. Then he went there TWO TIMES MORE. And yourself usually get to the secret area 1 out of 5 times playing a whole board game. So at the end, he got over 6 stars within 5 turns. That's just impossible to prevent, there is no chance time and duel only let's you steal 1-20 coins (I've only seen stars as a choice twice). So basically, the computer players never win a single minigame, but are so lucky they get coins and stars all the time.

It gets EVEN worse. The boards feel uncreative and slow. The only way you get starts if you are quick enough, that means hitting 5-10 all the time. This what the computer players do. This is not what you do. Yourself get 1-4, if you're really lucky you get 10. I mean, sometimes I get 1 several times in a row and the computer player is almost at the star. To sum all the boards up
Donkey Kong: Star is far away, so get there quickly
Goomba: Star is very far away, it's also free, so you just gotta get there quickly.
Shy Guy Train: Star is far away, costs 10 (or 20?), get there Q U I C K L Y
Koopa Town: Only board worth it, you put money into hotels to be the owner. You don't need to be quick here.
Boo's Mansion: Get QIUCKLY to Boo to get a star for 10 coins.
It's all about walking fast, since you get so much money from bonuses, you don't NEED the minigame money. Basically, I can have 70 coins, but I only hit 1-3, then I don't have much to use the coins for, because I can't buy stars or candy if I don't QUICKLY get there.
The 1 player Star Battle was pure torture, it was all about luck to win against the computer players.

Another problem with this game is that there is a lot of dialogue and scenes you can't skip. Especially when the last 5 turns are announced, I button mash the A button like crazy, but each text box takes 1-2 to get rid of. Then it takes 1-3 seconds to show each player, then MORE dialogue. It takes 1-2 minutes just to get through this scene.
And on the board, especially when you walk on the golden space, sometimes you need to be transported. You sit in a car and get driven to the place you need to go. It takes like 30 seconds to a minute to get there. And you CANNOT skip it. This slows the game down so bad!

This game is only fun when you play with 3 friends, and even then the game can be boring. You can only win this game is you are lucky. Out of 20 times playing, I've won 2 times. I just don't bother doing my best anymore, because I know I'm going to loose anyway, just because I'm so unlucky in this game.

One last warning, do not buy the thing that allows you to tease your opponents in the "Fun Zone". You CANNOT turn this off, so everytime you move your control the characters starts making the same sounds over and over. Even if you just move the control to put the control somewhere, the characters starts talking. For example, Peach can say "I am the princess" and "Bleeeh!". She says "I am the princess" 1 time out of 50. So when you move the control, just slightly, she goes "Bleeh!".
"Bleh!", "Bleh!", "bleh!". It's beyond irritating!
I was so happy when I heard about "Mario Party 8", but I was so dissapointed when I played it. There are so many things WRONG with this game. First of all, this game should have been released for the Gamecube, not Wii. As a matter of fact, the whole game looks like it was completed for Gamecube, then quickly converted to Wii. Let's take when characters shop. The "Yes" and "No" options are at the bottom of screen. So usually when you point the controller so far down, the sensor bar looses contact with the control, so you have the "re-aim" the control several times. This was the design of the previos Gamecube games, but then you could just steer the controlstick and hit "A", here you have to aim and choose. This is annoying and frustrating, why couldn't they move the Yes or No to the middle of the screen?! I mean, when you choose what you want to buy, you have three things on the middle of the screen. Then when you've chosen what you want to buy, the options move to the bottom of the screen again - to ask you "Are you sure you want to buy this? " - ARGH!!! This was the design of Mario Party 6 and 7, so it's obvious this game WAS done for Gamecube first, then quickly converted. The same problem occours when that character with the hat asks if you want to hear a secret about the board you play, you have to AIM for "no". The minigames also suffers from the quick conversion. A lot of the minigames, you just turn the control to the side, use the plus for steering and 1 to kick/hit and 2 to jump. This is Wii, you'd expect to use the control like in other Wii games, not pretend the control is a Gamecube control!! And those games that use this control are so boring. Other games where you are supposed to steer, you "tilt" the controller either left or right. And some other games you turn the control, while it's up, from side to side. Why does the controls have to change so much?? Sometimes it's difficult to get contact with the sensor bar, even when you hold the control like you're supposed to. Take the game with the chimps, the game tells you to steer left or right to move the monkey. The game responds so bad, whether you move the control fast or slow, the chimp takes 2-3 seconds to respond. Bad conversion. There are a very few games which really feel like you play on Wii, like the "Shaking Soda can" minigame, or the "Clean Chomp" game. There's also a game where you should do 3 different things - saw, hammer and paint a wall. These games are easy and may seem boring, but they are funniest because you get to do something with the Wii remote, it feels like you are really playing. But believe me, the boring minigames are overload and they are regurlarly chosen instead of the fun minigames. I also felt the "Battle Minigames" were all boring, one game is impossible to be the only winner, because there's a limit on how much points you can get. And I HATE the cutting ropes game. It's totally random and I've never won it. It gets worse. In previous Mario Party games, especially in the first Mario Party, the easy computer players were so bad you were laughing at how badly they played certain games. I remember in the first game, I was laughing so hard watching Luigi play a memory game, he would run to the correct place, but then change direction and go to another place, then another, and another and choose wrong. Talk about stupid! In this game, I felt the easy players weren't easy, they play rather good for being supposed to suck at the game. So because they are easy, they play good at a slow speed or if the games requires a certain distance, they fail at certain distances. In previous games, easy computers was a laugh, here they appear really good. Anyway, let's say you play a game with a friend, you are forced to use 2 computers. You use them on easy, they never win a single minigame. That would make you a winner right? Wrong. This game is purely luck and walking fast. The computer players always hit 5-10, they land on all the bonus places and they can get 20-50 coins on a single turn. There is also a secret star area, when you hit a golden space, you get transported there. Me and a family member played this game, Toad was a computer player. Within 2 turns, he had already gone to the secret area. Then he went there TWO TIMES MORE. And yourself usually get to the secret area 1 out of 5 times playing a whole board game. So at the end, he got over 6 stars within 5 turns. That's just impossible to prevent, there is no chance time and duel only let's you steal 1-20 coins (I've only seen stars as a choice twice). So basically, the computer players never win a single minigame, but are so lucky they get coins and stars all the time. It gets EVEN worse. The boards feel uncreative and slow. The only way you get starts if you are quick enough, that means hitting 5-10 all the time. This what the computer players do. This is not what you do. Yourself get 1-4, if you're really lucky you get 10. I mean, sometimes I get 1 several times in a row and the computer player is almost at the star. To sum all the boards up
Donkey Kong: Star is far away, so get there quickly
Goomba: Star is very far away, it's also free, so you just gotta get there quickly. Shy Guy Train: Star is far away, costs 10 (or 20? ), get there Q U I C K L Y
Koopa Town: Only board worth it, you put money into hotels to be the owner. You don't need to be quick here. Boo's Mansion: Get QIUCKLY to Boo to get a star for 10 coins. It's all about walking fast, since you get so much money from bonuses, you don't NEED the minigame money. Basically, I can have 70 coins, but I only hit 1-3, then I don't have much to use the coins for, because I can't buy stars or candy if I don't QUICKLY get there. The 1 player Star Battle was pure torture, it was all about luck to win against the computer players. Another problem with this game is that there is a lot of dialogue and scenes you can't skip. Especially when the last 5 turns are announced, I button mash the A button like crazy, but each text box takes 1-2 to get rid of. Then it takes 1-3 seconds to show each player, then MORE dialogue. It takes 1-2 minutes just to get through this scene. And on the board, especially when you walk on the golden space, sometimes you need to be transported. You sit in a car and get driven to the place you need to go. It takes like 30 seconds to a minute to get there. And you CANNOT skip it. This slows the game down so bad! This game is only fun when you play with 3 friends, and even then the game can be boring. You can only win this game is you are lucky. Out of 20 times playing, I've won 2 times. I just don't bother doing my best anymore, because I know I'm going to loose anyway, just because I'm so unlucky in this game. One last warning, do not buy the thing that allows you to tease your opponents in the "Fun Zone". You CANNOT turn this off, so everytime you move your control the characters starts making the same sounds over and over. Even if you just move the control to put the control somewhere, the characters starts talking. For example, Peach can say "I am the princess" and "Bleeeh! ". She says "I am the princess" 1 time out of 50. So when you move the control, just slightly, she goes "Bleeh! ". "Bleh! ", "Bleh! ", "bleh! ". It's beyond irritating!