Wii Party, Nintendo's latest foray into the genre of party games/mini game collections, follows much the same formula as it's Mario Party series - except it uses your Nintendo Mii rather than Mario, Peach or Donkey Kong. Wii Party has many more modes than Mario Party did though, with the House Party games, which use your living room as well as the Wii and TV to play, the Pair Games, where you can work co-operatively with a friend and Party Games - sets of games, including the Mario Party-esque Board Game Island, designed to be played with somewhere between two and four players.
It was this Board Game Island mode that we got the chance to play at Gamescom in Cologne. Playing as a Mii character, you take it in turns to roll the dice and make your way around the board to try to reach the finish first - which sounds simple, right? Well Nintendo have cunningly placed obstacles in your way - such as the one everyone in our little game got stuck at for a while (they were stuck for so long that I even managed to catch up!) - where you had to roll at least a four to get past.
That bit where you had to roll a number 4 to get through the wall took us a rather long time to get past...
Once everyone has had a turn, the end of round mini-game kicks in. We got to play a three of them, the first of which involved jumping over a series of logs which were rolling towards you. To do this you just had to flick the Wii Remote upwards to jump, and assuming you did it at the right time, you jumped over the log. Which was quite fun, and resulted in a fair few laughs as I continually jumped into each log that came towards her. At least, until I got the hang of it anyway.
Next came one where your little Mii was imprisoned in a ball - much like in Monkey Ball - and was on a snooker table. The idea was to roll around by tilting the Wii Remote and not end up in the holes - something I didn't seem to grasp, as I managed to roll into one straight away, before claiming I 'didn't know which one I was'. Hopefully, no-one will have noticed I was just being my normal useless-at-controlling-anything self and didn't want to admit it.
Finally came the shooting karts game, which played very similar to Bomberman. Your Mii character climbs into a little car that wanders round a track and can fire at other people. If one of your friends gets hit in the back, then they're out of that little mini game. Showing an unusual level of competence, I somehow managed to come second, and only lost because Ian 'crept up behind' her and shot her.
So that wraps up our brief encounter with Wii Party. It should be due out next month, and is available in two different bundles - one with and one without a Wii Remote, and is sure to become a staple of your party game collection.
