Just a little over three years ago, Wii Party was released for the Nintendo Wii in a time when we hadn’t had a new Mario Party game in over three years. This was the longest stretch between games in the series and as a result, fans were dying for a new party game for their Nintendo systems. Nintendo decided to take the popular Mii and utilize them in their own Mario Party-esque game, but still didn’t manage to be quite as fun as the Mario Party franchise for multiple reasons.
Earlier this year, Nintendo unveiled that a sequel was coming for the Wii Party series that would utilize both the GamePad and the Wii Remote in tandem for even better mini-game action. Now the question is, did they succeed at building upon the already fun Wii Party or is the this one just a big party pooper? Let’s find out in our review for Wii Party U on the Nintendo Wii U.
One of the absolute best features about Wii Party U is the number of game modes at your fingertips at the very start of the game. When you first start up the game, you will have a few different options to choose from, that each branch out into even more modes. You have the option to choose TV Party, which is the mode most similar to Mario Party or the main party mode in Wii Party. Within TV Party, three play in a board game style fashion, while the other two are a little more unique.
GamePad Island is the equivalent of the main island board mode in Wii Party where you will compete with four other players as you roll the dice and move across the game board. You will play mini-games along the way after rounds and can provide a good 30-45 minutes of fun with your friends. This is the one TV Party mode that requires more than one live player to play. The other two board-like games, Highway Rollers and Mii Fashion Plaza, are similar in style, but with different twists put upon them. The other two options, The Balldozer and Team Building, move away from the board game to unique games that revolve around the different all-play mini-games. All of these modes are a blast to play with friends, and can even be fun playing solo, outside of the 2-4 player GamePad Island.
Your next option on the main menu is House Party, where you can play some very different type games that are much shorter than the previous game types. The longest is listed as 30 minutes, but it took nowhere near that long when I played the mode with a full group. Name That Face is a hilarious game where one person uses the GamePad to take a picture of their own face acting out an expression, while players have to guess between four answers. However, the problem is that the game is too short and way too easy. Each game is only three rounds, and while the game says it should be 15 minutes, it can be done in 5 if you know what you are doing. Almost every game we played ended up in a tie because the answers are so different that it was pretty easy to figure out.
This trend mostly follows a good majority of the other House Party games as well. Do U Know Mii? is a game mode similar to something like The Newlywed Game where one player answers a question, and then the others guess how they believe they answered. Sadly it’s just a little too basic and not fleshed out as I wish it would have been. Sketchy Situation is also plagued by its shortness, but is a ton of fun, as the four players are told an image to draw separately, one of which is different. Then everyone has to guess which is the odd one out. The main problem with the games in House Party mode is that there just isn’t a lot of depth to them whatsoever, and besides the ones I named, the rest are mediocre at best.
