Fun with Mario Party 10!

My 9-year-old son loves Mario.  Though he’s only a recent Mario Bros. lover.  We’ve had a Wii for years, but somehow never ventured over to the Mario Bros. side.  We used our Wii for sports games and fitness.  But about a year ago we got the Super Mario Bros. U game and my son…and our family…was hooked.

We love that all four of us can play at the same time.  And now with the Wii U, it extends the play into new ways.  For instance, in the Super Mario Bros. U game, 3 of us can play and the person with the Wi U controller can build steps for us so we don’t fall to our deaths below as we leave from one area to another.

Nintendo recently came out with a new game, Mario Party 10 for the Wii U that uses the Wii U controller in even more innovative ways.  When we were first sent the Mario Party 10 package, I saw that the game came with a Mario amiibo character.  I thought it was cool until I realized that I didn’t have a portal.  With the Skylanders and Disney Infinity games, you need a portal to put your characters on, but there didn’t seem to be one for Mario Party 10.  I figured I’d have to purchase it somewhere.

With a little investigation on the Mario Party 10 website, I realized that no portal is needed!  This is so cool, instead of having to purchase a portal (that changes every year with a new game!), Nintendo built the portal into their Wii U controller!  You just tap your amiibo character on your Wii U controller and it gets transported right into the game!  Clever!  And less things to have to put away or store.

Mario Party 10

The first Mario game launched on the Nintendo 64 back in 1999.  Since then, Mario has sold more than 39 million copies worldwide.  Mario and his friends have staying power.  The new Mario Party 10 is rated “E” for Everyone by the ERSB board.  It’s a fun, family-friendly game that kids will love.

The new Mario Party 10 has three “parties” to play…

1.  Bowser Party – in this game mode, Bowser chases Team Mario characters around the game board as they try to survive long enough to get the Star.  Up to 5 players can participate (if you have 4 controllers).  You can even use the Wii U controller to be Bowser yourself and chase your friends around!

2.  Mario Party – play up to 70 mini-games with your favorite Mario Bros. characters. Games like Toad’s Room, Mario Party Challenge List, Flash Forward, Jewel Drop, and Paintball Battle will keep families laughing for hours.

3.  amiibo Party – in this party, you can place your amiibo character in the game using your Wii U controller ‘portal.”  You can customize the gameboard to suit your character and power up with tokens.  Players play against each other as they move around the board and collect coins and gather as many Stars as possible.

Mario Party 10 sells for $41 plus shipping through Amazon.

A Mom’s Perspective

Once again, with the latest Mario Bros. game, Mario Party 10, all members of our family are able to play together.  Although, after my son had a taste of the power and destruction Bowser can do to the other players, he was hooked and never let anyone else play Bowser.  It’s gets tiring being pulverized by Bowser throughout the game.  But no worries, even when the rest of the family wasn’t up to the abuse, my son could play Bowser on the unsuspecting computer players!

Personally, I favor the Mario Party section of the game.  We enjoy playing a multitude of mini-games, learning new skills in the game, the competition among each other, and the fun and laughter thegames elicit.

At a gathering we had, my son found himself with 3 other boys (of various grade levels) and the pressure to come up with something they could all do together.  After some thought, he pulled out Mario Party 10 and all four boys were on board…and played well together for an hour or so…until it was time for everyone to go.  You can’t go wrong with Mario!

Mario Bros. has a way of bringing people together and immerse them in a world of cunning, engaging fun.

*   I was given a copy of Mario Party 10 in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.