is a 2004 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the sixth installment in the Mario Party series, the third title in the series for the GameCube, and the first GameCube game to make use of a microphone add-on. The game was released in Japan on November 18, 2004, in North America on December 6, 2004, in Europe on March 18, 2005, and in Australia on September 15, 2005.

Mario Party 6 received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for the day-and-night system, game boards, and minigames, but criticism for the microphone feature and its perceived lack of originality.

Mario Party 6 was succeeded by Mario Party Advance for the Game Boy Advance in 2005. The next home console game in the series, Mario Party 7, was released for the GameCube the same year.

Gameplay

thumb|250px|[[Mario battling Luigi, Princess Peach, and Yoshi in the "Verbal Assault" minigame]]

thumb|right|Mario Party 6 was the first game to make use of the [[GameCube accessories#Microphone|GameCube Microphone.]]

In Mario Party 6, up to four players take turns moving on board game-style stages, often playing multiplayer minigames to earn coins and stars. The object of the game is to amass the most coins and stars before completing a set number of turns. This is the first game to take out the coin bonus star, replacing it with the Orb star, which is awarded to the player that used the most Orbs. On multiplayer game boards, the sun will periodically set or rise (every three turns), producing different effects. Changes include spaces moving, different characters appearing, and changes to minigames. This is reflected in two new characters, Brighton and Twila, representing the sun and moon, respectively. Mario Party 6 completely overhauled the capsule system from the previous game in the series. In Mario Party 5 capsules could only be obtained from the free-to-use capsule machines—but costed coins to use. Finally, capsules exclusively could be placed on a space, i.e. they all functioned like the "Space" Orb type.

Solo Mode is where a single player embarks on a special single-row board with a set number of spaces to collect minigames. The player may also choose a teammate (for 2 vs 2 minigames). Also the player plays minigames with the computer-controlled Red, Green, and Blue Koopa Kids. The dice block for Solo Mode only has the numbers 1–6 on it, unlike Party Mode where the dice blocks have numbers ranging from 1–10. At the end of the board, there is an exclusive rare minigame space, where the player receives a rare minigame without needing to play it. If the player goes past the rare minigame space, they fall off the board and lose all of the minigames they have acquired. To win, the player must land on the rare minigame space, or quit (without getting a rare minigame).

There are 82 minigames in Mario Party 6. No minigames from the previous installments of this series return. New to this edition are mic and rare minigames. In mic minigames, players must say words into the GameCube microphone to perform different actions. The majority of rare games are usually obtained by stopping on the space at the end of Solo Mode, although one is purchased in the Star Bank. The minigames are divided into 4-player, 1-vs.-3, 2-vs.-2, Battle, Duel, DK, Bowser, Mic and Rare.

Development

Mario Party 6 was first announced at E3 2004, though no details were provided aside from the title of the game. Due to Mario Party 6 and Mario Party Advance initially being scheduled for release on the same date, GameSpots Chris Kohler speculated that there could be interconnected gameplay between the titles.

Reception

Critical response

The game received "mixed or average" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

During the 8th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Mario Party 6 for "Console Children's Game of the Year".

Sales

Mario Party 6 sold 1.63 million copies, making it the worst-selling home console Mario Party game and the 15th best-selling game for the GameCube.

Notes

References

de:Mario Party#Mario Party 6