Mario Party

MARIO PARTY

So, um, not going to lie, I'm about as intimidated by this series as I was by the RPGs. Possibly even more so, considering I at least had my own personal experience with the RPGs to help me contextualize and make sense of all the content. The Mario Party series, however, I have little to no personal experience with them prior to all this, so I only have the research I did in preparation to rely on. Wish me luck!

The Mario Party series is probably one of the most popular spinoff franchises of the Mario series, after Mario Kart of course. The game plays out like a board game on steroids, with Mario characters moving around on a map, rolling dice to determine how far they move, and with certain spaces having certain effects. In order to gain points, the characters compete in an assortment of simple mini-games. Now, this is where it all gets difficult, as its sort of in this weird halfway state where, like the sports games, all the characters compete in all the events and so none of it can be necessarily attributed to any one of them, but unlike those sports games, all of the mini-games are generally built around various elements of the Mario series and its characters, so it technically all can be attributed to them, and I just . . . I . . . I don't know, man. I'm going to do my best.

Our playable characters in the game include Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and Donkey Kong. Basically, the Mario Kart Eight, without Toad and Bowser, who act as the referee of the game and final boss respectively. The plot revolves around the six players arguing over . . . what basically amounts to a joystick-measuring contest, if you know what I mean. Toad cuts in and decides that the only way to decide which one of them is the best is by having them compete in a series of games. Bowser and his minions try to crash the party and cause trouble, including an original character (sort of) called Koopa Kid, which I'm pretty sure was supposed to be the Koopalings but the programmers didn't want to have to program all of them or single any one more them out so they just made a generic sort of mishmash of all of them.

Anyway, the game takes place on a series of game boards based on each characters. We have: DK's Jungle Adventure, a jungle-themed board; Peach's Birthday Cake, a delicious-looking board I just want to run my finger through; Yoshi's Tropical Island, generally taking inspiration from Yoshi's Story; Wario's Battle Canyon, a board split into five distinct sections and full of bombs; Luigi's Engine Room, a factory-style board with a number of warp pipes; Mario's Rainbow Castle, a sky/Peach's Castle-themed world; Bowser's Magma Mountain, a standard Bowser's Castle-type world, and Eternal Star, a space-themed world like you often see as the final level of a lot of Mario games.

Across the boards, you have a number of special spaces. Blues are pretty basic and give you three coins for landing there, Reds take three away, Happening Spaces cause board-specific events to occur that shake up the game, Chance Spaces will cause the player to play a quick game of chance, Mini-Game Spaces will activate a mini-game, Mushroom Spaces will give them a roulette block that will either give them an extra dice roll or cause them to lose a roll, Bowser spaces will cause you to play a special mini-game against Bowser, and a star space will give you a star when you pass it.

Several items can also be used in the board game section, including: the plus block, giving you coins; the minus block, taking away coins; the speed block, giving you large amounts of coins; the slow block, giving you only small amounts of coins; the warp block, to let you change position on the board; the event block, which causes Boo, Koopa Troopa, or Bowser to appear, Koopa to give you coins, Boo to steal coins from a competitor, or Bowser to take coins from you; a parrot to mimic characters' voices; a No Koopa or No Boo sign to stop Boos and Koopas from appearing on the board; and gameballs to unlock mini-games.

The game has fifty total mini-games all across the board. I'm going to do my best to cover them. We have: Buried Treasure, with the characters digging to get to treasures first; Treasure Divers, with the characters deep-sea diving; Hot Bob-Omb, playing hot potato with a bomb; Musical Mushroom, basically musical chairs; Crazy Cutter, carving out an image of a Boo; Face Lift, basically just messing with Bowser's face; Balloon Burst, inflating a Bowser balloon; Coin Block Blitz, trying to hit the most blocks; Skateboard Scamper, trying to avoid getting hit and falling into lava; Box Mountain Mayhem, trying to collect the most coins; Platform Peril, jumping across falling platforms; Mushroom Mix-up, trying to not fall in water; Grab Bag, collecting coins; Bumper Balls, trying to knock everyone else off; Tipsy Tourney, trying to uncover a full image; Bombs Away, avoiding bombs coming at the stage; Mario Bandstand, playing the right notes at the right time; Shy Guy Says, basically Simon Says; Cast Aways, fishing for coins; Key-pa-Way, trying to keep a key away from your opponents; Running of the Bulb, trying to get away from a giant Boo; Hot Rope Jump, basically jump-roping with fire; Hammer Drop, avoiding a Lakitu's hammers; Slot Car Derby, racing around a track; Pipe Maze, trying to get through the right route; Bash and Crash, smashing opponents with hammers; Bowl Over, bowling against your opponents; Tight Rope Treachery, crossing a tightrope with projectiles trying to hit you; Crane Game, I think you get that one; Piranha's Pursuit, running from a walking Piranha Plant; Tug of War, over a giant Piranha Plant; Paddle Battle, rowing down a river; Coin Shower Flower, collecting coins; Bobsled Run, pretty obvious; Desert Dash, running down a course; Bombsketball, basketball with bombs; Handcar Havoc, racing down a track on a handcar; Memory Match, a memory game; Slot Machine, pretty obvious there too; Shell Game, avoiding spinning shells; Ghost Guess, finding the Boo's leader; Pedal Power, biking to keep a ghost away; Whack-a-Plant, Whack-a-Mole but with Piranhas; Ground Pound, pounding in pegs; Teetering Towers, getting through a course of unstable platforms; Knock Block Tower, knocking away Thwomps; Limbo Dance, a limbo game; and Bumper Ball Maze, a balancing game.

Phew! Please tell me that's it. Um . . . yeah, I think so. There's a couple of alternate modes but those mostly seem to let you explore the content already listed in other ways.

Here's what we've got so far:

Gimmick Rep (Koopa Kid?): Happening Space, Chance Space, Mushroom Space, star space, plus block, minus block, speed block, slow block, warp block,  event block, parrot, No Koopa or No Boo sign, gameballs, digging, deep-sea diving, bomb, musical chairs, carving, messing with Bowser's face, inflating a balloon, hitting blocks, skateboarding, collecting coins, platforming, grab bag, bumper balls, tipping, instruments, Simon Says, fishing, key, lightbulb, jump rope, slot cars, hammers, bowling, tightrope, Crane Game, Tug of War, rowing, bobsledding, handcar, Slot Machine, biking, ground pound, limbo.

Mario

Luigi

Princess Peach

Yoshi

Donkey Kong

Wario

Toad

Bowser

Koopa Kid

Koopa Troopa: give coins

Boo: steal coins

Stages:

DK's Jungle Adventure

Peach's Birthday Cake

Yoshi's Tropical Island

Wario's Battle Canyon

Luigi's Engine Room

Mario's Rainbow Castle

Bowser's Magma Mountain

Eternal Star

Various Mini-Games

Items:

All listed above

Thanks for reading! Next up we have Mario Party 2, and SO MANY more to follow. I think this is going to get a little rough.