From mini Mario Kart-ing, to racing over a collapsing walkway, to playing bomb basketball, Mario Party packs more diversity, variety and pure joy into its cartridge shell than many developers will be able to bear. Ranging from four-player rucks, to team affairs, and even the stupidly unfair but gleefully vindictive three-vs-one variety, it'll take you ages to see them all.

The rules, as with everything great, are wonderfully simple. Players move around one of the six themed boards collecting coins (for winning mini-games, among other things) which can be traded at certain points for stars. The player with the most stars at the end of the game - the length of which is decided by a set number of turns - wins.

Chuck in a few well-balanced extras - the invariable bad-luck charm that is Bowser, environmental hazards, random-event squares, and so on - and the game is a far better bet than Monopoly. At times, Mario Party seems designed to consciously provoke animosity, the Boo square being one such example. Land on it, and the thiefy ghost will steal coins from your choice of opponent. The game's packed with such revenge-creating opportunities.

Of course, you'll never play Mario Party on your own, and you will require a couple of hours, some friends, and liquid refreshment to get the most out of it, but it's simply too enjoyable to ignore. And, moreover, it's good to see some game characters with personality back on the scene, having been over-exposed, of late, to various dismal dullards of the Crash, Spyro and Gex variety.

Be in no doubt, Mario Party is an obscene amount of fun. One day, someone will pass laws about this sort of thing.