Wii Party

Fun for all ages! This game is by far the most played of all the games we own (Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, Guilty Party, Scooby Doo, Dance Revolution 2, Mario Kart, Shawn Johnson Gymnastics, Walk It Out!, and My Sims Collection). The variety of games provides something for everyone. My girls (ages 10 and 6), my parents (ages 70+ and 60+), my husband and I (ages 40+) all enjoy this game! You can challenge yourself with one player games, as well as play 2, 3, or 4 people. There are lots and lots of minigames! I thought we'd get tired of them, but there are so many, you get a good variety. We don't care for all of the games, but there are several we don't get tired of playing. Board Game Island is fun, because it's like a board game with lots of specific effects with animation. The free play section allows you to select which minigames you want to play (sometimes over and over and over). Tonight, our family spent 30 minutes just playing the rope swing game, in which you are swinging from a rope tied to a tree and have to time when to release to go the farthest distance. We have had SO many laughs, because many times we just fall to the ground or go backwards (it shows how many negative yards you went). Our 6-year-old has as much of a shot winning as my dad at most of the games! Some games take skill and others are pure chance. My parents, who don't know much about electronics, can play easily. We especially like the Friend Connection, in which two people answer 5 questions in secret and then play a minigame together. Based on whether they answered the questions the same and how well they do on the minigame, you get a score of how close you are (Best Buddies, Good Pals, Working on It, etc). We try to get the highest score possible and beat the other pairings. The dancing by the Miis at various levels of high scores are hilarous. We all crack up at how cute they are, and my girls like to copy the dance moves. There is a good mix of cooperation versus competition games. Hours and hours of good, clean family fun and lots of laughs!

I bought this game so that we would have something the kids or family could all play together beyond the Just Dance games, which have been the primary ones we've done together. Especially since it looked like something that would also be enjoyed by my younger kids as well, and Just Dance is a bit beyond them. (Doesn't stop them from trying, though!) So far, I haven't been disappointed with this! It's possible that it could get boring for a group of adults somewhat quickly, depending on the adults and their personalities, but my husband and I have enjoyed playing it by ourselves sometimes as well. And for kids or a family together, it's a lot of fun. Since that's what I bought it for, and what I expected it to be geared towards, it's definitely a five star game in my house. It has a huge variety of mini games, all at varying degrees of difficulty, though none of them are so hideously hard that no one could do them. There's also some larger party games, which tend to use the mini games as a part of them. My older children (6 and 8) can play pretty much any of the games with no help, while my 3 year old needs help on some and can do some without any help. Honestly, even when they're not getting it quite right, the kids generally have fun. You do need to be able to read to play this, or have someone in the room who can read, as all of the instructions and information are given in text, not recited for you. The graphics are comparable to Wii Fit (in terms of the games, not the personal instructors and their exercises). And it uses the Miis from the Wii, so much like any of the games who do, if you delete a Mii you'll lose them from this game as well. There are options with this game to play as just one player, two players, or up to four. If it's something that requires more people than just the one, two, or three, it'll add in a computer Mii, and you can choose the difficulty for that Mii. One feature which I really like because it helps out anyone who might not have played the particular mini game before is the "practice" option. So before you actually play the mini game, you can have a practice round, which is great if one player has done it but not another. And great for those who don't quite have the confidence to jump in straight away without a bit of practice. Another neat feature, which threw off my oldest at first, was that it lists the approximate times for each of the games when you hover over them in the menu. So you have a general idea of how long it'll take. Definitely a fun game, and definitely one I'd recommend for anyone looking for something fun for their children or the whole family!

We have now received two copies of this disc, the second because the first did not run on our machine. The second copy also does not run so we are applying for money back. A very irritating stste of affairs since the Wii Party was purchased as a Christmas present for our grand-daughter. One lives and learns. Because we are old fogies I typed in "Amazon" and pressed 'enter'. Seems we were connected with Amazon America although we live in the UK. I have been told that I should have typed in Amazon.uk to guarantee getting a product that would work in the UK. But my address is in the UK. Could not Amazon.com have worked all this out simply and sent the right product in the first case? Needless to say we are considerably out of pocket with additional postage charhges etc as well as paying too much in the first place. Sadly all the retailers in Chester were out of stock in November so we were obliged to go on line. DC 8.1.2011

I can understand the hype, this is an awesome game!!!

We have been playing this game since Christmas, 3 days now, and we still are discovering more games that we haven't played yet. If you buy this game, you won't need to spend a fortune to get a variety of games. This one has a little of everything. So much entertainment in one box. My kids had a blast today hiding the remote from each other and finding it by listening for the animal noises, with no fighting! Pros: I really like that each game gives you an estimated game time. If you want to play a quick game, you can. If you think you want to play a certain game but don't have an hour to finish, you know you have to find a different game before you even start. I love having the Mii's in the game. I find it more entertaining than games without Mii's. My kids say it's similar to Mario Party. I can't stress enough - there are so many games! We even "unlocked" more while playing tonight. An added bonus is having the games within the games. I haven't played as much as my kids but I love the "Balance Boat", having to pass the mini games to determine if you get equal-sized Mii's to balance on your ship or strategically placing one large Mii and one tiny Mii because we lost the mini game challenge. And every time I played the "Balance Boat" game, the mini games were different than the last. Cons: I agree that the ringmaster not speaking is a little weird but the read-along text boxes are similar to other Wii games, like Wii Fit. Some of the games leave you wanting more - you get to the end and "finish", excited about going to the next level but that's it. No more levels. If you just bought your Wii system, this is the game you need to get you started. You won't have to buy another game for a long time!

When it has came down to Nintendo, they have definitely delivered with gamers of all ages. Thanks to the Wii, there have been so many new gamers of all ages that know and love. Now, older gamers and younger gamers have been playing much more than they've even been. Thanks to classics like Wii Sports and Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo has really shown the new way to play. But after a few years, Nintendo decided to shake it up a bit. After the success of the Mario Party series from the N64 days, all the way to Mario Part 8 a few years ago for the Wii. It really changed the way we played with Mario Party. But with the success of Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit, it was only time until Nintendo decided to make the Wii Party, and here it is. Wii Party for the Nintendo Wii, brings all we've loved from Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit, to the simple roll of the dice, all the way to play with the Wii-Mote. The gameplay is simple and straight-forward, as you and as many as 3 other friends challenge each other to 70+ mini-games. The games are simple and full of fun as you and your friends can compete against each other in games, from challenging games like Animal Tracker, where you simply put your Wii-motes down and scramble to match the right Wii-mote, with the actual animal sound, Balance Boat where you have to try to align your favorite Mii's and make sure they don't rock the boat too much where they'll all tip over and fall, all the way to word bomb. A game sort of like hot potato, where each player has to spell out a word that fits a category, before time is up, and the word bomb explodes. There are also some unique boards here to play on like Globe Trot, a colorful board that you can play on in a miniature world and collect the most coins, and Spin-off where 4 players compete on a giant wheel, and gamble their way to break the bank. All in all, there is so much to play and love about Wii Party. It is definitely a real treat for anyone who wants a great party to call their own. While it will appeal to anyone who loves all the great mini-games, there is so much about it that just works well. Although the game isn't distinctive to the appeal and love that made Mario Party the signature series of video board games, it still shows that Nintendo can really branch out, and make mini-games for everyone. If you've loved Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit, than give Wii Party a try. It really gives the Mii's a nice turn of the board to call their own. Graphics: B Sound: B Control: B+ Fun & Enjoyment: B for solo play; B 1/2+ for multiplayer Overall: B 1/2+

I have never seen one game bring an entire family with kids ages 3, 10 and 17 come together for such fun times! We bought this at my 10 year old's request for her Christmas present and we have used it as family game night on a few occasions. SO MUCH FUN! The most surprising twist was hearing my 10 and 17 year old, who usually can't even get along for more than 15 minutes, play 2 hours of this game together with non-stop laughing as they tried to identify which Wii remote was "it" in some version of hide and seek. Our 10 year old has even taught the three year old how to play some of the mini-challenge games and how to roll the dice to take a turn in the Island Board Game (which is a family favorite for mom and dad, too), Today, the three year old was jumping up and down for joy while playing because even though she came in last on some of the mini games, she had a great time and felt like she won! She was even able to place first and second on a few of them that just required shaking the Wii remote - I think it was the ones where they have to rock the baby to get it to calm down and one where you have to chop an onion. ANYWAY, this game truly bridges the age game that our family has had hindering it for so many years and is truly fun for ALL ages!!!

We've been playing this game off & on for almost a month. So from what I know so far, I think this is a great game families can add to their Wii library, but for anyone with younger kids, I wanted to point out some of the little issues we have encountered so far concerning the game: 1. The Four-player games are exactly that...they MUST have four players. So if you are a family of three (like my husband, 5-year-old son, & I are) you will be assigned a Mii Party player for these games, controlled by the Wii, so that there will be a total of four players participating in the game. Not a big deal, unless you have younger kids that don't mind always losing! With other Wii games, my husband & I will take turns "dumbing down" our game play, so that every once in a while my son can win (with the occasional wins, it inspires him to keep trying until he gets good enough he can beat us on his own). With these 4-player games, if we don't win, the Wii player definitely will (& sometimes they are so good, not even the adults at first stand a chance). Don't get me wrong, the Wii player should challenge the other players, but it would have been nice to be given the ability to change the assigned Mii's skill level (in addition to the game's level of difficulty) so kids could stand a chance against it (unless I haven't come across this option yet...so please correct me if I'm wrong on this point). We are considering buying a 4th remote, hook it up with one of our extra Mii's & just have it off to the side doing nothing, as a work around when playing with our son. But again, this is just for the four-player game section (a drop in the bucket when you consider all the other sections within this game). 2. Some games require a remote for each player, so be prepared to have enough remotes for the amount of players you have. I'm not saying I don't understand why, if the players have to interact at the same time, you would need a remote for each player, but it's worth pointing out...expect extra money to be shelled out for more remotes if you don't have enough for each player (at least if you want to be able to play the games that require them). 3. Most of the games have time limits, otherwise they would not be challenging, but again, it can be too challenging, if not impossible for younger kids to play. On the plus side, some of the games have options to practice first (like the ones on Wii Sports Resort) and most games have the option to select the level of difficulty, thus making it more family-friendly. 4. This is the first game we have had where the game host/narrator spoke gibberish (I understand from other reviews that this is common in the Sims games & in some Mario games). It drives my husband nuts, but my son thinks it's funny. In the end, it would have been nice to have the ability to turn the character off (obviously we'd miss too much turning the sound off completely). This will, however, make it impossible for any beginning readers to play completely on their own, since there are no verbal instructions given. Overall, this is a really great game with what we know so far. There are still tons of games we have yet to get to/unlock, so it will be quite a while before this ever got old. The limitations I have listed are specifically for anyone with younger children (I know all too well how hard it is to find Wii games for this age range). And these are not issues that would have kept me from buying the game (though I might have waited until the price came down a bit). It is very much a game for all ages, but not a game where all ages can play all the games. Considering it's a fine line Nintendo has to find to appeal to a wide range of ages, I think they did a pretty decent job trying to find a happy medium here.