''Wii Party'' is a
party video game
Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games.Frankel, Lillia ...
developed and published by
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
for the
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
video game console
A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...
. The game heavily borrows game play elements from the ''
Mario Party
is a party video game series featuring characters from the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or computer-controlled characters (called "CPU (gaming), CPUs") compete in a board game interspersed with mi ...
'' series, another Nintendo franchise. It is also the first game in the ''Wii'' series that
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer, producer and game director at Nintendo, where he serves as one of its representative directors. Widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential designers in the history of video games, he is ...
did not produce.
The game was released in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
on July 8, 2010,
Wii Party release date
''. Nintendo Official Magazine. 2 June 2010. 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
was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contr ...
in a Financial Results Briefing on May 7, 2010.
It received mixed to positive reviews from critics and sold 9.35 million copies worldwide as of September 2021. A sequel, ''
Wii Party U
''Wii Party U'' is a party video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U in 2013. It was announced in a January 2013 Nintendo Direct, and later detailed at E3 2013 and the October 2013 Nintendo Direct. It is the sequel to the 201 ...
'', was released for the
Wii U
The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4.
The W ...
on October 25, 2013.
Gameplay
''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 Partys 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 (
Mii
A Mii ( ) is a customizable avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles and mobile apps. Miis were first introduced on the Wii console in 2006 and later appeared on the 3DS, Wii U, the Switch, and various apps for smart devices. Miis c ...
s are used as players' game pieces). 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 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 (Mii of a Kind in the PAL versions): 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 based on how Miis are matched. 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. After ten rounds, overtime begins, and the game ends after ten rounds or until any player wins a Bank Battle. 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. 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 twenty Miis on the sails of a ship without tipping the ship over.
;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: This game involves lining 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: Players play any of the minigames provided.
;Battle: Two or four players face off in minigames to determine who will win the most minigames.
;Challenge: This mode features minigames that get progressively harder for players.
;Solo: This is a one player minigame quest in which the player challenges five, ten or fifty minigames, to reach the rocket and attempts to last as long as they can.
;Spot the Sneak (Rule Reversal in the PAL version): A player is arbitrarily assigned to be the sneak in each minigame. The sneak is given help from the game to cheat 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 and that player steals 10 to 20 points from the sneak. Incorrectly guess and the sneak steals 10 to 20 points from that player.
Development
After the development of ''
Mario Party 8
''Mario Party 8'' is a 2007 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The game is the eighth main installment in the ''Mario Party'' series, and the first title in the series released for the Wii. It wa ...
'', several of
Hudson Soft
was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo ...
's key designers left to work for Nintendo subsidiary
NDcube
is a Japanese video game developer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo based in Japan with offices in Tokyo and Sapporo. The majority of the company is made up of former employees of Hudson Soft. They have also been the developers of the ...
.
''Wii Party'' was first revealed to the public by Satoru Iwata during a presentation to investors at
E3 2010
The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010 (E3 2010) was the 16th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 14, 2010, and ended on June 17, 2010, with 45,600 total attendees. Ther ...
on May 7, 2010.
In an
Iwata Asks
is a series of interviews conducted by former Nintendo president and chief executive officer (CEO) Satoru Iwata from 2006 until his death in 2015. In these interview articles, Iwata discusses with various colleagues select details about Nintend ...
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."
Reception
''Wii Party'' received mixed reviews from critics, with an average Metacritic score of 68/100.
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
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
is a party video game series featuring characters from the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or computer-controlled characters (called "CPU (gaming), CPUs") compete in a board game interspersed with mi ...
''.
Nintendo World Report also gave the game an 8/10, citing that "A common complaint about ''
Mario Party
is a party video game series featuring characters from the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or computer-controlled characters (called "CPU (gaming), CPUs") compete in a board game interspersed with mi ...
'' 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".
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
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.
GameTrailers
''GameTrailers'' (''GT'') was an American video gaming website created by Geoffrey R. Grotz and Brandon Jones in 2002. The website specialized in multimedia content, including trailers and gameplay footage of upcoming and recently released v ...
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."
Phil Kollar of ''
Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
'' 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."
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. As of October 5, 2010, ''Wii Party'' has sold 1,350,791 units in Japan. The game has sold 9.35 million copies worldwide as of September 2021.
The game would go on to be rereleased by Nintendo under its
Nintendo Selects
''Nintendo Selects'' (formerly ''Player's Choice'') was a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games on current Nintendo game consoles that have sold well. ''Nintendo Selects'' titles were sold at a lower price point (usually $19.99 ...
collection of games.
Notes
References
External links
Official websiteOfficial website
{{Portal bar, Video games, 2010s
2010 video games
Digital board games
Nintendo games
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development games
Party video games
Touch! Generations
Wii games
Wii-only games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Asymmetrical multiplayer video games
Video games developed in Japan
Pack-in video games
NDcube games