'Mario Party DS' picks up exactly where the Wii version leaves off and all the good things you've come to love are there: favourite characters, wacky game boards, lots of silly unlockables and over seventy different mini games.

This game keeps you busy.

For those who have never played 'Mario Party', some clarification is needed: The game revolves around the 'party board', a board-game-style setup where you roll dice to progress along the squares with the aim of collecting all-important stars.

The board is riddled with hazards (and some bonuses), and each round is punctuated with a four-player mini game. The winner is the one who collects the most stars at the end of a set number of rounds. There are more elements that come into play (too many to name) and, though chance plays a large role, strategy is an equally important factor.

It's quite hard to summarise the game in one go ? it contains such a wide variety of activities. One point that applies to the whole package though, is the quality: 'Mario Party DS' is a solid product in all aspects and has plenty of replay value. The controls are spot-on (barring a very few mini game glitches) and creatively implemented throughout. Sound and design are just right.

In the interest of clarity, this review will look at each game mode individually.

Story Mode

As the game's star single-player feature, Story Mode presents a cute narrative that involves your character battling three NPCs on five game boards. Your mission is to collect five something-or-others to save the kingdom ? it really isn't important though.

Each game board has a theme (library, music) and all of them are full of character, beautifully designed and even come with matching music. Each one also contains completely unique elements: on one, you'll be teleporting up and down between two levels, while on another, you can buy several stars in one go. The variation keeps it interesting.

You battle against three NPCs (and yes, you sit through each of their often-prolonged turns) and the one who collects the most stars gets to battle the end boss. The catch, of course, is that only you can defeat him.

This leads to pretty much the only really annoying part of the game: if you fail the first time, you'll be repeating the game board challenge until you do win and, as all things 'Mario Party', last minute random events can totally cramp your winning streak.

Party Mode/Multiplayer

Where Story Mode is the game's single-player experience, Party Mode is (presumably) the raucous multiplayer experience.

There are three play options, depending on how many players are around: Battle Royale is the standard four-player fare, Tag Battle is a variation, and Duel Battle is a welcome two-player mode.

Now, I say presumably because you can't actually multiplay on a single DS; each player needs their own console, though only one game card is necessary. In my mind, this is a huge failing: the game board stage can be played one-at-a-time, and surely they could come up with some mini games that don't require concurrent play?

As the lone DS-owner amongst my friends, there's no way for me to really test this feature out. Sure, I can play Party Mode as a single player (with computer-controlled NPCs), but that's not really the point.