To be honest the idea of the game is fine and all and it plays really well but there's only 1 stage and 4 cars. Once you 100% completed it there's little to no reason to re-play it. Not like it matters anyway because the timer is pointless. The ONLY thing it gatekeeps is the mission where you have to finish the track without running out of time. Other than that the timer does not hamper you at all so you can just screw around and complete the other missions.
A glitch occured while I was playing the game. After the 1st minigame 2 players tied for the loss and the game didn't know how to handle it. This caused a glitch where no one would say anything effectively soft locking the game.
Update: I managed to beat the game but honestly I didn't enjoy my time. The last minigame just felt too much for me even if the audience was just cardboard cutouts and with only 3 questions part of the fun in high scores is lost completely. Not to mention the online leaderboards just seem rigged since it doesn't explain how to get on the leaderboards so even if you get the maximum possible score it's not good enough. I honestly wish there was some sort of offline leaderboard so you could keep track of your own scores.
As creepy as this game is, hopping is useless due to the lack of powersliding or drift-boosting and the interstate section is not very clear as to where you're supposed to go if you end up driving the wrong way. Not to mention the timer means nothing since it does not get displayed upon beating the game and when your tires get blown out it doesn't stop meaning if you end up speed running this game it can feel like a slog.
I'll be honest the game being an remake of Turbo Outrun sounds good but way the game handles the upgrades feels more like I'm playing an arcade version of Gran Turismo than Outrun. And since parts can break at a moments notice combined with how you have a limited amount of them plus a meter on the left side of the screen which I find completely useless means it can get overwhelming for some people and since the more realistic upgrade system is forced into the original mode there's no way to turn it off.
I'm also not a fan of the engine noises because MY GOD the default settings are too loud to even hear the music. You basically have to turn the engine noises down manually just to hear anything which is just ridiculous.
Also I just wanna mention something: Why are we not allowed to adjust the car's color? Like seriously other cars on the road can have different paintjobs (Like how the Ferrari F40 can be seen white when driven by NPCS) so why can't we?
I'll be honest this game does have interesting ideas and it even uses minigames from Bishi Bashi of all games but honestly?
Graphics wise the game has quite the charm. It looks like something you would find in a children's coloring book but the cast is kind of disappointing. Though one positive I can give the cast is that modding them is possible. So if you want to have characters from different series you can definitely stand out. (Assuming you know what you are doing)
Presentation wise it is really clean and the boards from other games is a pretty cool idea even if some of the boards do suck. (Luigi's engine room is a great offender in my opinion)
The sound department does contain music and sound effects from other games but it tends to glitch out. However it does let you adjust the SFX and music manually so if you want to quiet down the music but keep the SFX the same volume you can do just that.
Gameplay wise the game lets you adjust plenty of things before the game starts way more than any normal Mario Party game but one thing I would have liked to see is the option to have 2nd and 3rd place still recive a small amount of coins. That was a pity feature of Mario Party that still made it feel like you have a chance and it would have benefited with the game's bad AI. The AI is sometimes utter garbage and sometimes it is just brutal. I had a situation in the cherry minigame during a 2v2 where both my teammate and the other team were utter garbage and would not throw the cherry far enough towards me making it the most annoying moment I had to put up with and most of the time the AI were just out for me and would not stop until I was dead. And keep in mind I was playing with the AI set to normal. Not to mention if you play on teams on the board there is literally nothing stopping your partner from screwing you over. Having a option to turn off friendly fire would have ben appreciated because my partner kept being a massive jerk to me even though we were both on the same side.
The board can easily drive anyone up the wall and I know some people love that but I personally hate it. And before people yell at me saying "It'S a MaRiO pArTy ThInG bEcAuSe It'S a BoArD gAmE!" It's not just the dice blocks! The computer players can just screw you over at the worst possible moments! Even if you set the Luck based minigames off the game will just throw RNG right into your face with the AI!
The minigames are easily the best part of the game but sadly you can only play tournament mode with the minigames which I find stupid. The one part of the game that I like has little to no replay value? That's just ridiculous.
So in all honesty it may be better than the Mario Party series as a whole but when the Mario Party series is so bad it isn't worth playing unless you wanna kill friendships it is not saying much. Honestly? I find the game bad.
It's not a awful game don't get me wrong it does have it's good elements like large amount of customization for the board, fun mini-games and clever ideas for the settings but it suffers HEAVILY from the main mode still being a chore to play, the AI being coded very poorly especially in the team modes, little to no minigame replay value and a mediocre roster.
I apparently managed to soft-lock the game. When I got the headphones I used them in the ice room and I couldn't move at all and the menu would not open. The only way out of this was to X out of the game.
Update: Another issue I am having with the game is that the event for drinking 5 times at the pub in the city can randomly freeze the cutscene softlocking the game forcing me to reset the game.
Update 2: Another cutscene can softlock my game. This time it's the event on the boat.
I found 2 bugs at 2:09 in the video.
The first is near the bunny's house. There is a spot behind the house where it seems like you can walk past no issue but there is a random invisible wall stopping you. Why not just have a fence there so it shows that you can't go that way?
And the 2nd bug involves the river. I seen ways to make the scooter glitch out by riding it near the lake so I did it myself on-foot and hey! I can walk on water! But the space is really tight and I can't get out. Resulting in me softlocking the game. And when I tried to reload my file (Which takes longer than it should since the quit option boots you back to your computer) it respawned me in the same spot forcing me to start a new file and start all over.
This basically states that the river can hard-brick your save file if you're not careful.
I have mixed opinions on the new version.
First the new design of the areas look nice as they add some skill and the difficulty options are nice but once you get the lantern you can't leave the castle so part of the new designs go to waste. I get that you are trying to show off the bug fixes before adding new parts of the castle but why couldn't the outside have some chests and souls to collect like in the older versions? That would have given the new designs of the castle's exterior some use!
