Mario Party 4

Mario Party 4 is a puzzle and party video game based on an interactive board game played by four characters from the Mario franchise. The game features eight playable characters in total, Mario, Princess Peach, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Princess Daisy, Yoshi, Wario, and Waluigi. or by either winning the most minigames, most coins, or landing on the most "Happening Spaces" squares. There are two types of mushrooms that the player can acquire: a mega mushroom, which gives the player an extra dice, increases the player's size, and the ability to steal 10 coins from another player, and a mini mushroom, which shrinks the player and limits the dice to first five numbers, but allows the player to go through pipes, which allow the player to access shortcuts on the board. and the Boo's crystal ball, which allows the player to steal another player's star. while on the ghost-themed Boo board, a ghost train transports the player around the board. Besides the standard multiplayer mode, the game offers a "pure minigame mode" and a singleplayer campaign called the "Story Mode", which allows the player to play alone with three artificial intelligence (AI)-controlled players. The game supports progressive scan for HDTV players. == Development and release ==

Mario Party 4 was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. It is the first Mario Party game to be released for GameCube. It was targeted as part of the 2002 roster of Nintendo games, which they rated as their "biggest year" for software at the time. Nintendo presented a playable demonstration of the game at E3 2002, featuring a limited set of minigames. The game was released on October 21, 2002, in North America, November 8 in Japan, and November 29 in Europe. == Reception ==

Mario Party 4 received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. In Japan, four critics from Famitsu gave the game a total score of 30 out of 40. Reviewers positively received the minigames of Mario Party 4. Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer disliked the "reversal of fortune" space, calling it "unfair", and the big size of game boards, adding that "interest wanes very quickly in a group of four".'' Reviewers also disliked the singleplayer mode for having the player watch AI-controlled players take turns. Bramwell, Hare, and Bryn Williams of GameSpy praised the game's controls. Den of Geek viewed it as the fourth best game in the Mario Party series, citing its minigames. Sales and accolades Mario Party 4 won "Family Game of the Year" during the AIAS' 6th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. It was nominated for GameSpots annual "Best Party Game on GameCube" award, which went to Super Monkey Ball 2. The game sold 1,100,000 units from its release to December 27, 2007, in North America, and an additional 900,000 copies in Japan, bringing its overall sales to 2,000,000. == Notes ==