I’m not the biggest fan of the Mario Party franchise, and Mario Party 4 seems to focus a lot on the particular aspects I hate, mainly the sheer randomness. A lot of this is due to the board design, as each board has areas that you can’t reach without reaching a junction that randomly decides which route you’re taking. This means just aimlessly going round in circles until the game decides to let you go the way you need.
Making this even worse is the mini and mega mushroom mechanic. When you land on a mushroom spot, you randomly get one or the other. The mega mushroom makes you grow, lets you roll two dice and steal coins from anyone you pass. The mini mushroom lets you go through pipes to take shortcuts or specific routes. The last issue I have with the boards is that they’re all just grey platforms hovering in the air, so much that you don’t really notice the theme that much.
One neat thing about the minigames is that the story mode has some unique ones, including a final boss fight against bowser that is a platformer taking place on a cube of lava. For the regular minigames, there’s a bunch of good ones such as a 2-vs-2 platform challenge where you and your partner have to hit switches to move obstacles for your teammate, another fun puzzle game where you can interfere with the playing area of other players and a bunch more. There are some modes that let you play just minigames, with various rules for different setups.
However, these minigames don’t save the game. The main mode doubles down on the worst aspects of the boards, and are made even worse by how lifeless the boards are. There’s no fun theming, it’s just another Mario Party.