Wii Party

Gameplay

Wii Party features 9 different game modes divided between three categories: Party Games, House Party Games, and Pair Games. Most of the game modes integrate use of Wii Party's 80 mini-games. The game also offers additional modes that make exclusive use of the mini-games.

Party Games

Party Games are games in which four players compete against one another. In all party games except Spin-Off if the minigame ends in a tie, a die roll decides.

A player roll dice(s) and proceeds the indicated number of steps (Mii characters are used as players' game pieces). The order players roll the dice each round is decided by a minigame. Players who come in first, second or third win a bonus die to roll along with the standard die. The player who reaches the top of the island first wins.

Players turn over numbered cards and move the indicated number of spaces. Players win coins in minigames (1st = 10, 2nd = 5, 3rd = 3, 4th = 1) that can be used to purchase vehicle cards to help them advance, or at airports and seaports to travel long distances. When players reach a hot spot, they can purchase a souvenir photo for 10 coins. After 10 rounds, overtime begins and the first player to reach a hot spot and take a souvenir photo ends the game. The player who has collected the most souvenir photos and coins at that point wins.

Players take turns choosing a Mii from the middle to swap out with a Mii from their area. Players who collect three Mii characters with the same-colored outfits in two different rows win points (various bonuses are possible depending on how Mii characters are matched, so the points players will receive also varies). The player who has the most points after a set number of rounds is the winner.

Players take turns spinning a wheel to earn medals. Depending on where the wheel stops, players can win medals, lose medals, or add medals to the bank. Players can also win medals saved up in the bank by winning minigames. (If 2 or 3 players tied, the players split the bank. If all the players tie, nothing happens.) After 10 rounds, overtime begins, and the game ends after somebody wins a Bank Battle, or 10 more rounds. The player with the most medals wins.

Players check off Mii characters on their bingo cards that match Mii balls that drop from the bingo machine. If a minigame ball drops from the bingo machine, players play a minigame and the winner checks off a Mii of his or her choice. (If there are 2 or more winners, a die roll decides.) The first player to complete a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row gets a bingo and is the winner.

Pair Games

Pair Games are designed for play with only two players, either cooperatively or competitively.

The 2 real players answer questions. After 5 questions are answered, the players play a minigame to test if the players are a good pair or a bad pair. The starter Miis for the best pair are Matt and Lucia (70) while the starter Miis for the worst pair are Tatsuaki and Abby (26).

Players balance Mii characters while matching the outfits. Balancing 20 Miis wins the game. If the boat tips over, the Miis will fall into the water, and the players will have to start again.

Players match up Mii characters wearing the same-colored shirts into pairs to score points (players don’t know what color the Mii characters’ shirts are until they select them). If players fail to match up a pair, they lose a heart. If players lose all of their hearts, they lose a turn. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner!

House Party

House Party Games are activities that focus on the players' environments. One of the games (Quick Draw) was included only in the Japanese version.

Find the Wii Remote for a period. In every 10 seconds, the Wii Remote makes a sound.

Players pass the Wii Remote gently while holding specified buttons. Don't shake the Wii Remote too much or the bomb will explode.

Say a word that matches a category and pass the bomb.

Buddy Quiz

Players predict the response of a "buddy" and get points for predicting correctly.

Minigame modes

Play any minigame.

Players win a set of minigames.

Puzzle minigames.

A one player minigame quest

Players play minigames by earning points and take points from a cheater.

Development

After the development of Mario Party 8, several of Hudson Soft's key designers left to work for Nintendo subsidiary Nd Cube. Wii Party was first revealed to the public by Satoru Iwata during a presentation to investors at E3 2010 on May 7, 2010. In an Interview on Iwata Asks, Nd Cube said that "One of the attractions of Mario Party is that you can play with your favorite character", but they "thought that using Mii characters would strengthen the impression that you yourself are playing together with your friends." Iwata also hoped "people will play Wii Party for years to come as the new standard in party game software."

Reception

Wii Party received a mixed reception, with an average Metacritic score of 68/100. GameSpot awarded Wii Party a score of 8 out of 10, praising the wide variety of games and modes. GameSpot also added that the game's multiplayer "is a blast," and believes that Wii Party is "faster and better" than Mario Party. Nintendo World Report also gave the game an 8/10, citing that "A common complaint about Mario Party is that it has too many things that slow gameplay down to a near halt, such as multiple traps on one game board and waiting for the player to finish his or her turn. Wii Party avoids this by speeding up gameplay". IGN gave the game a 7/10, criticizing the graphics saying, despite being bright and colorful, that they are "not exactly pretty", but praised Nintendo for doing a good job to allow players to follow instructions to get through objectives. GameTrailers gave the game a 7.9, saying "Aside from a few dud modes and some minor control issues, there isn't a whole lot to fault."

Phil Kollar of Game Informer stated in a negative review that "Wii Party's 80-plus minigames share the same uneven quality I've come to expect from Mario Party, which makes sense given that many of them are iterations of games from that series. The metagames are even worse. Whereas Mario Party gave players multiple boards to play through, Wii Party features multiple game types, each less exciting than the last."

Sales

In its first week of release in Japan, Wii Party sold 230,000 units and was the country's best-selling game that week. As of October 5, 2010, Wii Party has sold 1,350,791 units in Japan. The game has sold 9.24 million copies worldwide as of September 2016.