I agree with all of this. Though anyone who hasn't played it yet should know that the one-round fights are in normal time (unlike the original which had something like 3x-speed time). So the fights have the same total maximum time as far as I know.
I'm still going to pick this up. For a great pick-up-and-play game like this, I think it's worth having it ready to boot up instantly. It's perfect for blasting through over and over.
The main reason the Mario Party series might not pop up is because they all are too similar ... they might not want to cannibalize sales of Mario Party 8 and its sequels with downloadable versions at a fifth of the price.