Mario Party 6

Mario Party 6 is the sixth installment of the Mario Party series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms. Released on the Nintendo GameCube in North America on December 6, 2004 (purposefully to make play with the title) and in Europe on March 18, 2005. It is the first GameCube game to make use of a microphone, which comes packaged with the game. Also Toadette, was added to the character roster, but you have to buy her from the Star Bank for 30 Stars.

Story
One day, Brighton and Twila, the sun and moon who watch over the Mario Party world, get into an argument over who's more popular. Eventually, Mario suggests that they collect as many Stars so they can end the feuding.

Gameplay
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. While the object of the game is to amass the most coins and stars before completing a set number of turns, the focus is on the competition itself more than the outcome.

Orbs
Orbs are items that players can either collect on the board or buy with coins at the Orb Hut. They can be used in many ways to give a player an advantage, such as stealing coins from rivals, hampering a rival's progress, or quickly obtaining stars. In Mario Party 5, these are called capsules. Unlike in Mario Party 5, the player does not have to pay orbs on his or her self and may find coins in Orbs. How Orbs are used is determined by the Orb's type. These are: Self, Space, Roadblock and Special. Roadblock type Orbs are one-use only on a space and trigger when passed while a Space type Orb transforms a space into a character space and only works if a rival lands on the space. If a player stops on their own character space, they gain 5 Coins.

Day and Night
On multiplayer 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. This day and night system is reminiscent of Horror Land from Mario Party 2.

Solo Mode
Solo mode is where a single player embarks on a special single-row board with a set number of spaces to collect mini-games. The player may also choose a teammate, (for 2 vs 2 mini-game) also the player plays mini-games with Red, Green, and Blue Koopa Kid. The dice block for Solo Mode only has the numbers 1-6 on it. At the end of the board, there is an exclusive rare Mini-Game space, where the player, as the name states, gets a rare Mini-Game without needing to play it. If the player goes past the rare Mini-Game space, they fall off the board and lose all of the mini-games they have acquired. So to win, the player must land on the rare Mini-Game space, or call it quits (without getting a rare mini-game). Solo Mode is one of the most efficient ways to get both Mini-Games and Stars.

Boards
This game also features a difficulty on the boards. An E, M, or H represents it's difficulty:

Party Mode Boards

 * Towering Treetop
 * E. Gadd's Garage
 * Faire Square
 * Snowflake Lake
 * Castaway Bay
 * Clockwork Castle (unlockable)
 * Rainbow Road (on Maddox's expansion pak

Solo Mode Boards

 * Thirsty Gulch
 * Astro Avenue
 * Infernal Tower

Playable characters
All ten playable characters from Mario Party 5 return in this game with a new partner, and the first secret character ever, Toadette.

Mini-games
There are over 80 mini-games in Mario Party 6. Once again, no mini-games from previous versions return. The mini-game controls range from pressing A repeatedly to using the control stick and A. New to this edition are mic and rare mini-games. In Mic games, players must say words into the mic to perform different actions. 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 mini-games are divided into 4-player, 1 vs. 3, 2 vs. 2, Battle, Duel, DK, Bowser, Mic, and Rare.

Star Bank
The Star Bank is a place where you can buy characters, boards, and even mini-games for the stars you have collected from Party Mode or Solo Mode. The Miracle Book can also be bought along with the pages and can be viewd anytime. The Credits can also be bought and viewed here as well.

Trivia

 * This is one of only two Mario games to use a microphone. The other is Mario Party 7.
 * This is the first Mario Party game where the credits are only shown when they are purchased.
 * The story mode in this game is much different from the past Mario Party games, especially Mario Party 3-Mario Party 5.
 * The USA cover is changed from the Japanese cover.