Mario Party franchise FORCED to use party bus going forward?

[lord_of_flood]

Gammalad said:
Honestly I don't know how you could patent that type of gameplay? If it was a proven formula that worked then why hasn't Konami had them make a Party game with those mechanics?

Nintendo patented the sanity effects found in Eternal Darkness, so yeah, you can patent gameplay mechanics. I don't believe for a second that Hudson Soft patented anything from Mario Party though. Pretty sure Nintendo would own any patents regarding Mario games since it's their flagship IP. I'm guessing ND Cube just wants to do Mario Party their way, which is honestly pretty stupid.