As everyone knows, the Mario Party series has not been doing great since Mario Party 4 as it has a very repetitive board game formula and it doesn't bring anything new to the franchise. I received Mario Party 8 in August 10th 2010 for my birthday.
On the positive side, the game has great mini-games, awesome multi-player, a wealth of modes and content for all the players to enjoy and the board environment's gimmicks.
The game's main flaws would have to be the repetitive formula of Mario Party and the poor graphics which look like it belongs as a GameCube game.
Overall, this is actually a good game. I do not know why GameSpot rated it 6.5, but that's them I guess. This is a recommended title for family and friends.