The Mario Party franchise, for you newcomers, is essentially a board game for your TV. While it can be played solo, you will only be enjoying this with someone else, preferably three other people. Right off the bat you have the selection of five different playing boards, and the object of each board is to finish the game with the most stars.

Each board allows a different way to collect stars, ranging from a simple "pass the star and pay some coins" to the slightly more frustrating "one of these treasure chests has a star" style. While certain strategies can be put to use to ensure a win, its all too common for a star to be stolen right out from underneath you, and it's these instances that you'll be happy you are playing with friends instead of the ever-dodgy AI.

Since every board requires you to pay coins to purchase the stars, it's a matter of making sure you have a sturdy supply to ensure you aren't left behind when you come across one. Coins can be earnt by winning mini-games, finding them in useable items or as simply as landing on any blue square - however, they can be lost just as easily. Red squares will see a minimum of three coins drop from your bank, and should you happen to land on an opponent's square they'll swiftly leave your grasp and head right on into their coin total.

After everyone has a turn at rolling the dice play enters the meat of the game: the mini-games. Depending on what squares everyone has landed on, games can range from a free for all style battle to an always interesting 3-on-1, and after a brief screen showing you what game you're about to play and what buttons do what it's all go. Now, while Mario Party 7 does claim to have over 80 new mini-games to play through, you wouldn't know it as the previous iteration of games don't make an appearance. Why Nintendo don't just release a version of Mario Party with every mini-game created is beyond most gamers, but one thing is for certain: we need something new.

The game ends when a pre-determined amount of turns finishes. Coins are totalled - just in case people have the same amount of stars - as are stars, and the winner is then shown dancing about in complete happiness. So with game number one under your belt what else is there to do? After every match you are awarded a certain amount of credits that can be used to purchase unlockables, figurines and many other completely irrelevant items. Mini-games can also be selected to play - as long as you've played them at least once in the main game - so you can hone your skills.

The aural and visual quality are identical to every other GameCube Mario Party game and are becoming more and more outdated with every iteration. Sorry Nintendo, but two new unlockable characters, slight variations to boards and a slew of mini-games that we've probably already played through (but with a different theme) aren't enough to keep people forking out the $100+ that you'll be asking for Mario Party 8. Hopefully, with the Wii releasing we'll see a whole new way to play Mario Party, from throwing the die yourself to an all new WarioWare-esque style gameplay. But for now you might as well pick up a much cheaper Mario Party 6.