Wii Party

Wii Party[lower-alpha 1] is a party video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console.[4] The game heavily borrows game play elements from the Mario Party series, another Nintendo franchise. It is also the first game in the Wii series that Shigeru Miyamoto did not produce.[5] The game was released in Japan on July 8, 2010,[1] in North America on October 3, 2010, in Australia on October 7, 2010, and in Europe on October 8, 2010. Wii Party was revealed by Satoru Iwata in a Financial Results Briefing on May 7, 2010.[6] It received somewhat mixed to positive reviews from critics and sold 9.34 million copies worldwide as of September 2019. A sequel, Wii Party U, was released for the Wii U on October 25, 2013.

Wii Party
Developer(s)NDcube
Nintendo SPD Group No.4
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Shuichiro Nishiya
Producer(s)Atsushi Ikeda
Hiroshi Sato
SeriesWii
Platform(s)Wii
Release
Genre(s)Party
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay
Friendly Face-Off, one of the minigames in Wii Party, in which players race to complete puzzles of their Miis' faces.

Wii Party features nine different game modes divided between three categories: Party Games, House Party Games, and Pair Games. Most of the game modes integrate use of Wii Party's 80 minigames. The game also offers additional modes that make exclusive use of the minigames.

Party Games

Party Games are games in which up to four players compete against one another.

Board Game Island

A player rolls dice and proceeds the indicated number of steps (Miis are used as players' game pieces). The order players roll the dice each round is decided by a minigame. Players who come in first, second or third win a bonus die to roll along with the standard die. The player who reaches the top of the island first wins.

Globe Trot

Players turn over numbered cards and move the indicated number of spaces. Players win coins in minigames (1st = 10, 2nd = 5, 3rd = 3, 4th = 1) that can be used to purchase vehicle cards to help them advance, or at airports and seaports to travel long distances. When players reach a hot spot, they can purchase a souvenir photo for 10 coins. After 10 rounds, overtime begins and the first player to reach a hot spot and take a souvenir photo ends the game, winning a bonus photo. The player who has collected the most souvenir photos at that point wins, ties are broken by number of coins.

Swap Meet (known as Mii of a Kind in the European version)

Players take turns choosing a Mii from the middle to swap out with a Mii from their area. Players who collect three Miis with outfits of the same color in two different rows win points. Various bonuses are possible depending on how Miis are matched, so the points players will receive also vary. The player who has the most points after a set number of rounds is the winner.

Spin-Off

Players take turns spinning a wheel to earn medals. Depending on where the wheel stops, players can win medals, lose medals, or add medals to the bank. Players can also win medals saved up in the bank by winning minigames. If two or three players tied, the winners split the bank. If all the players tie, nothing happens. After ten rounds, overtime begins, and the game ends after somebody wins a Bank Battle, or ten more rounds. The player with the most medals wins.

Bingo

Players check off Miis on their bingo cards that match Mii balls that drop from a large bingo machine. If a minigame ball drops from the bingo machine, players play a minigame and the winner checks off a Mii of their choice. If there is a tie, a dice rolling contest decides the winner. The first player to complete a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row gets a bingo and is the winner.

Pair Games

Pair Games are designed for two players and are either cooperative or competitive.

Friend Connection

The players answer five questions before playing a cooperative minigame to test if they are a good pair or a bad pair. They get a better score if their answers to the questions are identical, and if they do well in the minigame.

Balance Boat

Players work together to balance Miis on the sails of a ship. If the players successfully balance 20 Miis, they win the game. If the ship tips over, the Miis will all fall into the sea and the players will lose.

Match-Up

Players match up Miis wearing shirts of the same color into pairs to score points. The color of the Mii shirts are hidden until chosen. If players fail to match up a pair, they lose their turn. Players occasionally play duel minigames against each other to win a second turn. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

House Party

House Party Games are activities that focus on the players' environments, with most of them prohibiting the use of the Wii Remote's wrist strap due to the unique ways the controller is being manipulated. One of the games, Quick Draw, is exclusive to the Japanese version.

Animal Tracker

Line up Wii Remotes so all players can reach them. An animal comes up on screen and makes a sound, in which each Wii Remote will make an animal sound but only one of them will mimic the animal sound on the tv screen. Whoever grabs the correct Wii Remote scores a point. First to 3 points wins.

Hide and Hunt

One player hides all Wii Remotes that will be used. Everyone else has a time limit to search for all of them. Every 10 seconds, each Wii Remote will make an animal sound to make locating them easier.

Time Bomb

Only one Wii Remote is used regardless of number of players. Players gently pass it while holding the button shown on the screen. If the Wii Remote is shaken too much or the wrong button is pressed, the bomb will explode.

Word Bomb

Only one Wii Remote is used regardless of number of players. Players pass it like it’s a bomb after saying a word that matches the given category. Whoever is holding the bomb when it explodes loses.

Buddy Quiz

This game is the only one in the house category that requires 3-4 players. After choosing a player to act as the "Buddy", the other players attempt to predict the Buddy's answers to various questions about themself and get points for predicting correctly.

Minigame modes
Free Play

Play any minigame.

Battle

Be the first player to win this many mini games.

Challenge

Regular minigames where you can set new records

Solo

A one player minigame quest

Spot the Sneak (known as Rule Reversal in the European version)

A player is assigned to be the sneak in each minigame. The sneak is given help from the game to place first in each minigame (such as zombies chasing everyone else besides them) but must attempt to avoid being caught using the advantage. After each round, players vote for who they suspect the sneak is, and the sneak isn’t penalized regardless of who they pick. Correctly guess the sneak, you steal 10 points from them. Incorrectly guess and the sneak steals 10 points from you.

Development

After the development of Mario Party 8, several of Hudson Soft's key designers left to work for Nintendo subsidiary NDcube.[7] Wii Party was first revealed to the public by Satoru Iwata during a presentation to investors at E3 2010 on May 7, 2010.[6] In an Iwata Asks interview, NDcube said that "One of the attractions of Mario Party is that you can play with your favorite character", but they "thought that using Mii characters would strengthen the impression that you yourself are playing together with your friends." Iwata also hoped "people will play Wii Party for years to come as the new standard in party game software."[8]

Reception

Wii Party received mixed reviews from critics, with an average Metacritic score of 68/100.[10] GameSpot awarded Wii Party a score of 8 out of 10, praising the wide variety of minigames and modes. GameSpot also added that the game's multiplayer mode "is a blast," and believe that Wii Party is "faster and better" than Mario Party.[14] Nintendo World Report also gave the game an 8/10, citing that "A common complaint about Mario Party is that it has too many things that slow gameplay down to a near halt, such as multiple traps on one game board and waiting for the player to finish his or her turn. Wii Party avoids this by speeding up gameplay".[17] IGN gave the game a 7/10, criticizing the graphics as bright and colorful, but "not exactly pretty", but praising Nintendo for doing a good job of allowing players to follow instructions to get through objectives.[16] GameTrailers gave the game a 7.9, saying "Aside from a few dud modes and some minor control issues, there isn't a whole lot to fault."[15]

Phil Kollar of Game Informer stated in a negative review that "Wii Party's 80-plus minigames share the same uneven quality I've come to expect from Mario Party, which makes sense given that many of them are iterations of games from that series. The metagames are even worse. Whereas Mario Party gave players multiple boards to play through, Wii Party features multiple game types, each less exciting than the last."[13]

Sales

In its first week of release in Japan, Wii Party sold 230,000 units and was the country's best-selling game that week.[18] As of October 5, 2010, Wii Party has sold 1,350,791 units in Japan.[19] The game has sold 9.35 million copies worldwide as of September 2020.[20]

Notes
  1. Wiiパーティ (Wī Pāti) in Japanese

References
  1. Wii Party release date. Nintendo Official Magazine. 2 June 2010.
  2. "Gamescom: Kirby, Donkey Kong Release Dates Announced". IGN. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 17 August 2010.
  3. "Make your Wii the life and soul of the party!". Nintendo. 11 August 2010. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  4. Ronaghan, Neal. Nintendo Reveals Wii Party. Nintendo World Report. 7 May 2010.
  5. Iwata Asks: Wii Party, Page 3
  6. "Financial Results Briefing for Fiscal Year Ended March 2010: May 7, 2010 Presentation by Satoru Iwata, President". Nintendo Co., Ltd. Retrieved 2011-07-08.
  7. "What Wii Party And Mario Party Have In Common". Kotaku. Retrieved 2010-08-26.
  8. Wii.com - Iwata Asks: Wii Party
  9. "Wii Party for Wii". GameRankings. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  10. "Wii Party". Metacritic. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  11. "Wii Party Review". 1UP.com. 5 October 2010. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  12. Christian Donlan (6 October 2010). "Wii Party Wii Review". Eurogamer. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  13. Phil Kollar (3 October 2010). "For The Love Of God, Don't RSVP To This Party". Game Informer. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  14. "Wii Party Review for Wii". GameSpot. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  15. "Wii Party: Review, Trailers, and Interviews". GameTrailers. 6 October 2010. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  16. "IGN's Wii Party Review for Nintendo Wii". IGN. 3 October 2010. Retrieved 5 October 2010.
  17. "Nintendo World Report:Wii Party Review". Nintendo World Report. 30 September 2010. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
  18. "Wii Party Rocks Japan". Gawker Media. 18 July 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
  19. "Media Create Sales: September 20 to 26". Nintendo World Report. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
  20. "Top Selling Software Sales Units". Nintendo. 2020-09-30. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
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