Mario Party 5 on track for December

Nintendo has sent out a reminder that Mario Party 5 is launching on December 5th, just in time for Christmas. As with, well, the other four, MP5 will see various Nintendo characters working to restore peace to Dream World by navigating a game board successfully...

Fans of the Mario Party series (assuming such people do exist) will know full well what to expect - a race for a mixture of human/AI-controlled characters to collect star, compete in some of 60 mini-games, and generally pass the time in wholesome family style. This year's array of mini-diversions still won't trouble Monkey Ball for the party crown, but dodging penguins on ice blocks, racing up a beanstalk and picking out dancing plants should at least rival the Sunday Eastenders omnibus for laughs.

If you're looking for something other than Trivial Pursuit to keep the in-laws happy on Jesus' birthday, MP5 may just be the answer. Assuming it is to MP4 what MP4 was to MP3, it's not going to carry Christmas for the GameCube, but it will go nicely in Junior's stocking, and settle you down nicely after hours of cursing at F-Zero GX...

We'll bring you a review of Mario Party 5 as soon as we get our hands on it.