Mario Party 8

Due for Release: March 2007

Mario Party 8 is an upcoming game for the Wii . It was announced during Nintendo 's press conference on September 14 , 2006 . It will be the tenth game in the series (eleventh in Japan ) and the first to be released on Nintendo's new console. The first videos and screenshots for the game were revealed during the Nintendo World event in Japan on November 3 , 2006 . The game will be released on March 5 , 2007 in the United States, February 8 , 2007 in Japan, February 23 , 2007 in Europe, and February , 2007 in Australia.

This is the first Mario Party game to be released more than a year after its predecessor , thus ending a seven-year streak of annual Mario Party releases for only Japan and the US.

Little is known about the game in general and how it will use the Wii Remote 's capabilities to its advantage. However, the following information has been disclosed:

Characters will let out an exclamation through the Wii Remote speaker the player is controlling, signifying it is his turn to play.
There has been mention of "candy powerups" that can affect gameplay. These powerups, resembling the Orb system present in Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 7 , will "transform" characters into different things to suit situations. For instance, characters will be able to transform into "bowling balls, springs and vampires."

Mario Party 8 has been confirmed to have 14 different playable characters in the game. Not dissimilar to Mario Party 7 where Dry Bones and Birdo first made their appearance in the series, two new characters will join the original roster from Mario Party 7:

Mario
Luigi
Peach
Yoshi
Wario
Daisy
Waluigi
Toad
Boo
Toadette
Birdo
Dry Bones

The two new characters to first appear as playable characters in the Mario Party series have been confirmed to be:

Hammer Bro.
Blooper

It is noteworthy that these new characters both made cameo appearances in Mario Party 7 . Currently, it is unknown which other characters from the Mario universe will appear as cameos in the game. It is also unknown whether or not the game will feature more than 15 characters, although it seems to be unlikely.

Little is known about the features of the boards and how they differentiate themselves from preceding Mario Party games. Thus far, only two boards have been revealed for the game. They are:

DK's Treetop Temple
Goomba's Booty Boardwalk