'Mario Party 10' Official Launch Trailer, Review: New Features, What's Changed - Pros & Cons [VIDEO]

Nintendo released the tenth installment in their 'Mario Party' series on March 12, 2015, and now, they've gone ahead and released an official launch trailer for it. While the 'Mario Party' series of games has been around for what feels like decades, this installment, 'Mario Party 10' comes on Nintendo's Wii U platform.

For those that may not know, 'Mario Party' is a virtual board game where players compete to accumulate coins and stars in an effort to have the most stars at the end of the game. While up to four players roll the die and move along the board they land on various board tiles and compete in various mini-games.

Stepping into the latest version of the game, 'Mario Party 10', there's some good aspects to it, as well as some bad, and certainly some changes. In an review by IBTimes the first thing that's mentioned is how great the game looks graphically. Next they bring in the fact that there's about 70 mini-games to play, and they're pretty fun at that.

The review makes it a point to mention that if a player sticks to the mini-game mode, than they're going to have fun in "15-minute bursts."

Beyond that, the report goes on to say that there's a new mode that seems to be getting a lot of attention, and that's Bowser Party mode. Evidently, a player can assume the role of the iconic Mario villain, Bowser, and try to take out the other players in various mini-games.

To clarify, with Bowser Party, one player gets the chance to play Bowser while the others, be they Mario, Luigi, Toad, Peach, etc. work as a team to survive the encounter.

Stepping away from some of the great parts of the game, IBTimes goes ahead and shines some light on the poorer aspects of 'Mario Party 10'.

One of the more "watered" down aspects of this installment of the franchise is that when players travel together along the board, there's no individual movements, no splitting paths, no items, and no individual stars to collect. Since everything is done as a collective, the gameplay might come across as a touch stale for players of the previous installments.

Beyond that, another point the report makes is that it seems as though the game is punishing those in the lead in a effort to balance out the game for those behind in score. While this is a common practice for many Nintendo games (like 'Mario Kart'), this time around, 'Mario Party 10' goes a little too far.

Last but not least, there's the Amiibo factor. For those that may not know, Amiibos are miniature game pieces specifically designed to sync with gameplay on certain titles for the Wii U console, and 'Mario Party 10' is one of them. On that note, while the use of Amiibos comes across as a fun way to use the collectables and enjoy 'Mario Party 10' at the same time, some are of the view that it's a little bit of an overkill.

A quote by the IBTimes report reads, "To select tokens, you have to touch your Amiibo to the GamePad. To pick up dice blocks, you have to touch your Amiibo to the GamePad. See where I'm going with this? Touching it once at the beginning and ending of the game is fine, but why do you have to do it four times a turn?"

All in all, while factors like Bowser Party and the Amiibo integration put a special Nintendo touch on 'Mario Party 10', those accustomed to the way the game used to be, ought to pick up an older installment in the series and stick to that.