| Game Party | |
|---|---|
 European box art | |
| Developer(s) | FarSight Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Midway |
| Platform(s) | Wii |
| Release |
|
| Genre(s) | Party game |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Game Party is a video game developed by FarSight Studios and published by Midway. Game Party was retailed as a budget title for the Wii. It is the first game in the Game Party series. It was released on November 27, 2007, in North America; on February 14, 2008, in Australia; and in Europe on February 15, 2008.
In 2006, Midway teamed up with FarSight Studios to create a minigame collection only for the Wii. So in early 2007 Midway announced its fall lineup for Nintendo consoles. Later Midway released new information and screenshots. Before the game's release, Midway announced that Game Party was going to be a budget title. The game was released, yet experienced some manufacturing difficulties.[ citation needed ]
Game Party features a collection of classic skill games from around the world, from American sports venues to European gathering spots. Using the Wii's unique control interface, the player can compete in classic games such as darts, modern favorites such as air hockey and hoop shoot, or participate in multiplayer trivia contests. More than a half dozen games are available. The player can earn tickets to unlock new minigames, characters, tables, etc.
Game Party received vehemently negative reviews from critics, some of whom listed it as one of the worst games of all time, with a Metacritic score of 25 out of 100. [1] IGN said that this game started the wave of "shovelware" on the Wii, criticizing the graphics and the mini-games. [2]
Many places gave this game a 1 out of 10: Eurogamer criticized the graphics and the fun factor of the game, saying "The Game Party experience is like going to a party where there's nothing to drink but Tesco Value brandy and there are only four other guests and they're all racist and then your ex turns up and gets off with a Danish supermodel." [3] AceGamez criticized the controls and said that the game is trying to simulate the fun of games like WarioWare: Smooth Moves , unsuccessfully. [4]
The first Game Party received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), [5] indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom. [6]
On February 12, 2009, Midway announced the Game Party series had sold over 3 million units. [7]
On April 18, 2008, Midway announced a sequel - Game Party 2, at their Gamer Day event in Las Vegas. The game was released on October 6, 2008, once again for the Wii. [8] and was released in Europe and Australia as More Game Party.
On April 6, 2009, Midway announced Game Party 3 during their 10-K filing. [9] Following Midway's bankruptcy, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment purchased a majority of Midway's former assets, including the Game Party franchise and released the game for the Wii on October 6, 2009. [10]
Other titles in the series include Game Party: In Motion for the Xbox 360 Kinect, and Game Party Champions for the Wii U.
Rayman Raving Rabbids is a 2006 party video game developed and published by Ubisoft. It is a spinoff for the Rayman series and the debut title for the Rabbids franchise. The story follows Rayman as he was interrupted by an earthquake, in which he was also kidnapped and forced to play minigames with the Rabbids. The game received generally positive reviews from critics, with some criticizing the minigames either being broken or unenjoyable.
Cooking Mama is a cookery simulation-styled minigame compilation video game for the Nintendo DS, and it was later ported to iOS as Cooking Mama: Lets Cook! in 2015. It was developed by Office Create and published by Taito, Majesco Entertainment, and 505 Games. It was awarded IGN's "Best Of E3" award for 2006. It is the start of the Cooking Mama series, with 4 more main series titles on DS and Nintendo 3DS, two spin offs on Wii, and a spin off on 3DS. It also spins off into the Gardening Mama series. For later titles in the series, the publishers and Office Create joined together to form Cooking Mama Limited, which was made exclusively to develop the Cooking Mama series.
Mario Party 8 is a 2007 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Wii. It is the eighth main installment in the Mario Party series, as well as the first title in the series to be released for the Wii.
Cars is a 2006 adventure racing game published by THQ. The game is based on the 2006 film of the same name. It was released for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable in June 2006, with versions for the Xbox 360 and Wii released later that year. The Wii version includes functionality geared towards its Wii Remote controller and was a launch game for the system. Taking place after the events of the film, the game follows Lightning McQueen as he participates in the new racing season with his goal set on finally winning the Piston Cup. While doing so, he races and trains with the local community of Radiator Springs.
Sonic and the Secret Rings is a 2007 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Wii. A spin-off from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, it is the first title in the franchise for the system, and follows Sonic the Hedgehog's quest to stop an evil genie named the Erazor Djinn. In addition to the basic platforming gameplay of previous Sonic titles, Secret Rings uses a system of experience points and levels, as well as special moves that are unlocked by means of progression.
WarioWare: Smooth Moves is a party video game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo the Wii. It was released in Japan in December 2006, and in Europe, North America, and Australia in January 2007. It is the fifth game in the WarioWare series of games, and the only game in the series to be physically released for the Wii. Like its predecessors, WarioWare: Smooth Moves is built around a collection of microgames that last about five seconds each, and which require that the player hold the Wii Remote in specific positions. The game offers the microgames to the player in rapid succession, by first instructing the player to hold the Wii Remote in a specific manner, and then showing them the microgame. The microgames are divided into several stages, each of which loosely connects the microgames with the help of a story. Additionally, this was the first spin-off Mario game to be released for the console.
Wii Music is a music video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game was released in Japan and North America in October 2008, and in Europe and Australia in the following month. Wii Music is part of both Nintendo's Touch! Generations brand and the Wii series.
Finding Nemo is a 2003 action-adventure video game based on the film of the same name by Disney and Pixar. The GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions were developed by Traveller's Tales, the Game Boy Advance version of the game was developed by Vicarious Visions, and its Microsoft Windows and Mac versions were developed by KnowWonder. All versions were published by THQ.
Wii Play is a party video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii console. It was released as a launch game for the console in Japan, Europe, and Australia in December 2006, and was released in North America in February 2007. The game features nine minigames, including a Duck Hunt-esque shooting range, a fishing game, and a billiards game, each of which are designed to showcase the features of the Wii Remote controller.
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, known in PAL regions as Big Brain Academy for Wii, is a video game released for the Wii. A sequel to the game Big Brain Academy for the Nintendo DS, it too measures a player's brain's weight, but with new games and puzzles to solve. The game makes use of Miis and uses WiiConnect24 features, allowing competition amongst users' friends, whose codes are automatically imported from the Wii's internal address book.
Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends is the sequel to the Nintendo DS video game Cooking Mama and its Wii spin off, Cooking Mama: Cook Off. The game has twice as many minigames as the original, new recipes, and a new multiplayer "Cook Off" mode. The game includes voice clips similar to the ones used in Cooking Mama: Cook Off.
Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2008 in Asia and sometimes called World Soccer: Winning Eleven 11 (PS2) in North America, is an association football video game in the Pro Evolution Soccer series by Konami. The game was announced on 18 June 2007. Its title is different from the other Pro Evolution Soccer games in that it is of a year and not a version; this was due to EA Sports' FIFA series naming their titles with two digit numbers, which would seem that PES was a year behind FIFA. It was released for Windows, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360 And mobile. The game sold 6.37 million units worldwide. PES 2008 was succeeded by Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. This was the first game of the series to be released for the PS3 and Wii, as well as the first game in the series to be internationally available on a Nintendo home console.
Carnival Games is a video game for Wii, Nintendo DS and iPhone, with a re-release for Nintendo Switch. It was the last game published by Global Star Software, before it was absorbed into Take-Two Interactive.
Wii Fit is a 2007 exergaming video game designed by Nintendo's Hiroshi Matsunaga for the Wii home video game console, featuring a variety of yoga, strength training, aerobics, and balance mini-games for use with the Wii Balance Board peripheral. Matsunaga described the game as a "way to help get families exercising together". It has since been adopted by various health clubs around the world, and has previously been used for physiotherapy rehabilitation in children and in nursing homes to improve posture in the elderly.
Big Beach Sports is a sports game for the Wii developed by HB Studios and produced by THQ. The game is a collection of six beach sports simulations, in which players compete on a beach resort location. The sports include: American football, volleyball, soccer, bocce, cricket and disc golf. The games are not highly realistic simulations of the sports, but more orientated towards unrealistic physics, stylized beach scenarios, and a simplified rule set. It is most notable for being the third Wii game to feature connectivity to the Nintendo DS. Big Beach Sports also features the first cricket game on the Wii. It was released on 24 June 2008.
Guinness World Records: The Videogame is a party video game based on the Guinness World Records series of books of world records. Developed by TT Fusion and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the game was released on November 7, 2008, in Europe, November 11, 2008, in North America, and November 12, 2008 in Australia. The game involves attempting to beat real-life world records through minigames. The game saw mixed to positive reviews upon release, and was considered better than most minigame compilations that were on Nintendo consoles at the time.
Pac-Man Party is a party game by Namco Bandai Games for the Wii, Windows Mobile, and Nintendo 3DS. It is similar to the Mario Party series and Monopoly games for the Wii. In the game's story mode, players must retrieve a stolen cookie recipe from Pac-Man's enemies Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde and return it to its rightful owner, Mr. Cookie. The game was released to coincide with Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. The game notably features redesigns of the main characters which would carry over to following Pac-Man titles in the mid-2010s, culminating with Ghostly Adventures.
101-in-1 Explosive Megamix is a video game developed by Nordcurrent and published by Atlus for the Nintendo DS. It was released in Europe on November 28, 2008 and features 10 hours' worth of 101 minigames. A version for the WiiWare service was released on September 22, 2011 in Europe and on October 13 in North America.
Game & Wario is a 2013 party video game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published for the Wii U console, named after LCD Game & Watch titles. It is the eighth installment in the WarioWare series and part of the larger Mario franchise. The story stars Wario and his friends, who take advantage of a newly released video game console with two separate screens by making games for monetary gain. Game & Wario consists of 16 minigames that exclusively utilize the Wii U GamePad and its functions. Additional modes and collectibles are also unlockable. The majority of the minigames are single-player, although some are designed for multiplayer only.
Big Brain Academy is a series of puzzle video games developed and published by Nintendo. Similar to the Brain Age series, each game features a number of activities designed to test, measure, and improve the player's mental skills. The first two games were released under the Touch! Generations brand, which has since been discontinued.