Mario Party 4 is a party video game for the GameCube, developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. Mario Party 4 is the fourth installment in a series of board game style, and was the first game in the series to be released for GameCube. It was released in North America on October 21, 2002, in Japan on November 8, 2002, and in Europe and Australia on November 29, 2002. It is the fourth game in the Mario Party series. Mario Party 4 is followed by Mario Party 5. Mario Party 4 features eight playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong, Princess Daisy and Waluigi from the Mario series, who can be directed as characters on six themed game boards in the game. The objective of the game is to earn as many stars as possible, which are obtained by purchase from a single predefined space on the game board. Each character's movement is determined by a roll of a die, with a roll from each player forming a single turn. Each turn in Mario Party 4 is followed by a minigame in which characters compete for coins they can use to purchase items and stars. Mario Party 4 was met with positive reception, although there were several complaints regarding a lack of originality and slow pacing during games. The game won the Family Game of The Year award at the Interactive Achievement Awards of 2003.
