So I beat Mario Party 8. Apparently you actually "win" MP8 after completing the Star Battle. The Goomba board took me two tries and the train board three tries. Overall, the single player part of the game is actually pretty fun and challenging. The best part is that when you win, you unlock tons of stuff. After finishing boards 1-5 (the ones that come unlocked with the game), the creepy little hat dude that runs the show awards you with the Star Rod. BUT - Bowser doesn't like that you are crowned the one and only SuperStar of Mario Party 8 and so he steals the star rod from you and makes you play his game board (thus unlocking it). Even more, he makes you play against Blooper (thus unlocking him). Blooper is actually kind cute so I might have to retire my Toad days and start using Blooper.
Anyway, Bowser's board is set in space. Basically you run around this space station thing and try to steal stars from your opponent (at least in the single player star battle version). To win you have to steal ALL of your opponents stars. There are two new candies just for this board and both are scary and hopefully don't show up in other game boards. One turns you into Bowser, let's you roll two dice and steals two stars from any opponent in your path. The other turns you into a Bullet Bill, let's you roll three dice and steals one star from any opponent in your path. Scary huh?
Then there are the ? spaces that turn the board around and make everyone move in the opposite direction. The only saving grace for this whole thing was the turnstile areas in the map. There are two or three areas where once you go through, your opponent has to go the opposite direction. They end up at the same spot but it saves your hide should someone have one of those scary candies.
So I finished that on my first try and Bowser handed over the Star Rod. But being Bowser, he decided it was time to take it back. So he swiped that thing and made me play some weird minigame that wore me out. Basically you hold the wiimote above your head and swirl it kinda like a lasso all the while dodging all sorts of things from Bowser. Then you when the Star Rod (which you're holding above your head) reaches full power, you throw it at Bowser. Whoever lives, wins. I practiced like 10 times and only one once. My husband practices several times and won only once. I even turned to him at one point and said, "I don't even know why I need this rod. What good does it do me?" to which he said, "I can't believe you just said that." ROFL.
ANYWAY, I went for it and amazingly, survived (barely - only 1 health left!). And then the credits rolled. And rolled. And rolled. And you can't skip them. BORING. But at the end they gave me 200 carnival cards so that unlocked for new games in the extra area for me. :)
So I gave the new games a try. The chain chomp one was okay. The racing moped game.... pretty fun! I actually enjoyed it even tho it's freakishly hard. I so can't wait for mario kart!
