Mario Party fans have always had differing opinions with each successive entry into the series. There have been little changes to the formula here and there, but nothing in my opinion as drastic as the change from 8 to 9. No longer did characters move across the board individually, they rode in a vehicle together with the captain being the player of that turn. No longer were spaces set for minigames, they were randomly strewn across the board hidden in regular spaces. 10 takes this same style of play and adds in little extras to spice things up. I personally loved 9 and so naturally I was looking forward to 10. I wasn't disappointed. First, graphically the HD treatment has done well for MArio and crew. Using the same models as the previous entry sans the jaggies, the characters have a clean and bright appearance. They aren't amazing by any means but they dont have to be. The boards are varied (some of the themes are similar to 9) and include lots of animated detail in the backgrounds making the trek through them the first few times interesting, as you'll most likely notice something with each play that you hadn't before. When it comes to the minigames just don't expect anything revolutionary. They follow a pattern through all the MP games: jump up this, punch that, dodge this and collect that. All I can say is if you like the series' staple minigames you'll be content, and if you expect to be wowed you'll walk away disappointed. I had funplaying them. There seemed to be a bit more that were reliant on luck than skill. I guess that's fine since it can turn the tides of a game and nobody is guaranteed to dominate . The car mechanic was something I loved about 9 ands I'm happy it has stayed. Prior to 9 I found that I ended most of my sessions early because they tended to drag on. Other players found themselves far ahead or laps behind even due to the luck of the roll. The ability to exact your revenge on other players also became limited especially on bigger boards because of moments where players were too far from one another. Now, with the introduction of the vehicle, every player moves at the same pace. It allows gameplay to move at a brisker place and nobody gets left behind. It's great for shorter sessions and also for younger players who may have felt discouraged and unable to catch up. You can still screw over the other guy and now you don't have to worry they're too many spaces away! See the mini zstars coming up? Make the next guy lose some stars by rolling that 0/1 dice you've been holding onto and let him or her be the unlucky one to hit them. You've just made an enemy for the rest of the game. There's a slew of other additions to the game in the form of other modes like Bowser Party and amiibo party, both of which I found very enjoyable. In amiibo party you use your Super Mario series amiibo, or the same characters from the Smash Bros series, to play on character themed boards.This mode plays more like a traditional game of Mario Party. There are no vehicles so everyone moves individually and there is a minigame at the end of every full turn. However, I suppose to keep games from being too long the boards are smaller and limited to 10 turns. During play you can collect character tokens that allow you to change fourths of the board to that characters theme which adds different events and bonus spaces also. The characters that have amiibo representing them will have exact replicas in-game as the pieces, with others represented by cardboard cutout-looking characters on plastic bases similar to any cheap kids board game. I loved the attention to detail here. You use your amiibo the roll the dice via the gamepad and even collect tokens that get saved onto your amiibo. If the dice hit your player piece in the game during a roll they topple over just like in real life. Cute! Tokens can also be won at the end of a game that can be used next time you play. Bowser Party quickly became a favorite of mine. Up to 4 players can join up on team Mario with one player using the Gamepad as team Bowser. The object is basically to run away from bowser and get to the finish before you're destroyed. I played with just one other person and we opted to both be team Mario. LEt me say it was as infuriating as it was fun. You are put at such a disadvantage. You all move in the vehicle and take your turns rolling the dice to get it to move as far as possible from the big bad Bowser and once your turn is complete HE takes HIS. Bowser has FOUR die to roll and if he catches up with you a minigame commences where it's all of you against him and the goal is to survive. Each player has hearts to conserve and getting hit means losing heart. Lose them all and you're out, which lessens the amount of die you have to roll on the next turn. It is possible to be put back in but I'll save explaining too much. You can replenish some hearts on various spaces on the board, but I found more often than not that I was barely surviving, and I liked it! Overall, I had an excellent time playing Mario Party 10! Online Play would have been a nice addition but it doesnt suffer for lack of it. Mario Party games were meant to be played with your friends, or enemies, sitting right next to you.