Over the holidays, I played this classic again for the first time in at least 15 years. It was fun to go back, and not so much fun lol.
Boards: There isn't a bad board in this game, but there are definitely some boards that are better than others. Yoshi's Tropical Island is still the most vibrant. DK, Mario, and Peach's boards were fun. Luigi's board could have been the best if it wasn't for a couple of the star spawn points. Wario Bomb Battlefield was easily the best board for farming stars late. The two unlockable boards were nice additions.
Mini-games: So, it was definitely a love hate situation here. WE all know about the infamous rotating stick games. Some of these games did not age well in their original form. Some of the games that required time to mash a button constantly, almost to the point of breaking my controller, just to beat the CPU by a millisecond was kind of annoying. Maybe I'm getting just old? I don't think so because some of these games are much more playable in more recent Mario Party games. There were a couple games like the Bowser Balloon Burst where I never managed to win. Also, screw you teetering towers.
Mini-game Island- I played it briefly after finishing Eternal Star, but I'm a little burnt out. Not sure if I will return to it, but those are the little extra modes that I miss from today's Nintendo games.
Presentation: Top notch. I'm glad they used the village menu in MP: Superstars
Unlockables: So this is where the grind can really suck. Assuming that you are mostly playing alone, you really need to do the four controller trick at the end of games to multiply your coin and stars. Otherwise, you will be spending a long time grinding. After finishing all eight boards and letting the CPUs go wild for a game on Bomb Battlefield, I still had barely enough coins to collect everything in the shop, and I still have yet to buy a mini-game.
Overall Score: 7/10 A good first entry that started a great franchise, but some parts of this game did not age well.