With Mario the partying never stops! Mario Party 6 has come rolling along, and you would be completely wrong if you thought Nintendo could never dream up any more addicting mini-games than it has for the previous five Party games.

Mini Magic

The Mario Party formula remains rock-solid, and it appears to remain as much a recipe for success as say starring Mario in a video game. This time you get 75 brand new mini-challenges and six new game boards. As in earlier iterations you and up to three pals play with classic Nintendo characters and in turn-based fashion move them around the layouts like pieces in a regular board game in order to collect stars and unlock the mini-games.

The mini's are the main attraction here. They pit players in combos of two-on-two, three-on-one, or every Mario-friend for themselves in a variety of often frantic, thumb-mashing challenges. After you've unlocked the minigames by playing the Party Mode game, you can eschew the board game layout and just play all that you've unlocked in the Mini-game Mode.

The games are deceptively simple videogame fare like bashing bobbing gophers or leaping over a revolving spiked log, or swimming through a whirlpool to escape the clutches of an octopus. Most require simple button-jamming and stick moves that the controls easily master. On their own they pose no real threat to players of average skill, but pit four such players against one another and watch the tension grow. MP6 offers up microphone games, too. The mic games are an entertaining gimmick, but while interesting fans will likely stick to the more familiar Mario Party challenges.

For Party People

As the always, the multiplayer games here are a ton of fun. Mario Party mainlines your funnybone. It taps into that unique magic that happens when you and your pals play a game together, face-to-face, and no mater how simple or goofy the competition it just makes you laugh, win or lose. Mario Party 6 just rocks on. There's a less compelling reason to purchase this game if you think you want to play it on your own. But if you're a video game people-person, it's guaranteed to be the life of any party.