Mario Party (video game)

This article is about the first game in the series. For information on the series as a whole, see Mario Party (series).

Mario Party
North American boxart
Developer(s)	Hudson Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Genre(s)	Party
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Mario Party (マリオパーティ, Mario Pāti) is the first in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular characters from the Mario series. It was released on the Nintendo 64 in Japan on December 18 1998, followed by a North American release on February 8 1999, and a European release on March 9 1999. The game has spawned seven console sequels with Mario Party 8 being the most recent one; there have also been Arcade, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and e-Reader versions, making a total of twelve games in the series.

Gameplay

Consisting of 50 mini games, Mario Party takes the form of a traditional board game, with players taking turns to roll the dice block and move ahead the number of spaces shown. There are many different types of spaces players can land on, each producing a different effect. The primary objective of the game is to collect more stars than any other player. The winner of the game is the player with the most stars after all the turns have been completed. Players can choose to play as either Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Princess Peach, Wario, or Yoshi.

Only one star is present on the board at a given time, appearing randomly on a space on the board where it remains until bought by a player for the specific amount of coins stated (20). After a star is collected, a new one appears on a different space on the game board or stays in the same place depending on what stage you chose. Stars can also be stolen from other players by either dueling them in duels when a player lands on duel spaces or passing a certain location on the board where a Boo resides—the player must then pay Boo 50 coins for the service.

A secondary objective is to gather coins as well, for they are necessary for buying essential items such as stars and determine the game winner in the event of a tie. Coins are earned by landing on blue spaces or winning mini-games. Coins are lost by landing on red spaces, landing on a Bowser space, or losing certain mini-games.

At the end of each round of play (ie. after each of the four players have taken their turn) a random mini-game commences. The mini-games are generally short (about a minute in length), and fairly simple. There are 56 of them in total, divided into 4 different categories.

• Four-player mini-games may be divided into three types:
  • the cooperative games, in which all four players collectively win or lose
  • the competitive free-for-alls, in which players must compete against each other in order to win a limited number of coins
  • the non-competitive free-for-alls, in which players accrue coins independently of one another and one player's loss is not automatically another's gain.
• 2-on-2 mini-games place players on teams, so they have to cooperate with others in the mini game to win (even though they're still competing against each other in the main game)
• 1-on-3 mini-games have a team of three against a lone player. Often, the game's objective is for either the lone player or the team of three to survive for a certain amount of time while the opposing player/team tries to take them out. The team of three must cooperate in order to win.
• One-player mini-games only occur during a round when a player lands on a One-player mini-game space. They give a single player an opportunity to earn (or lose) coins depending on his or her performance in the mini-game.

At the end of the game there are three bonus stars given out. One is given to the player who collected the most coins overall, one is given to the player who collected the most coins in mini-games, and one given to the player who landed on the most "?" spaces. The person with the most stars is declared the winner. In the event of a tie, the player with the most coins wins, and if two players have the same number of both stars and coins, a dice block will be rolled to determine the winner.

Mini-games happen at the end of each round or occasionally during a round when a player lands on Bowser or One-player mini-game spaces. In most situations, the winner(s) of a mini-game receive ten coins for their victory. In some mini-games, the losing player(s) have to pay the winner(s) a sum of coins.

File:Mariopartycharactermontage.jpg

The playable characters in Mario Party, as seen in the instruction booklet.

Modes

Adventure Mode

The standard mode of play, as described in Gameplay above. Up to four players play a board game interspersed with mini games, trying to collect as many stars as possible by the end of a set number of turns. The coins and stars earned in Adventure Mode are tallied up and transferred to a fund which the player can use to unlock things in the game.

The type of mini-game (4 player, 1 vs. 3, and 2 vs. 2) is determined by what color the players' panels are. If all four players have the same color panels, a 4 player game is selected. If there's 1 blue panel and 3 red panels or vice versa, a 1 vs. 3 game is selected. If there's 2 panels of both colors, a 2 vs. 2 game is selected. If there's a green panel, the color will switch to either red or blue randomly.

Mini-Game Island

A one-player mode in which the player navigates a world map and tries to win mini games in order to progress across the map. Winning mini games gives the player coins, and collecting 100 coins grants the player a life. Losing a mini game causes the player to lose a life. If the player loses all of his or her lives, the game ends, and the player must resume from where he or she last saved.

Boards

List of Boards:

Default

DK's Jungle Adventure: Players wander into a jungle with Indiana Jones-style rocks and tricky Whomps which block paths. The star is hidden deep within the jungle. Bowser also hides on the board, trying to make you buy a priceless artifact. The objective is to find the golden banana after the game is over. Toad is randomly placed around the board, although normally in locations the players can't get to if they are chased by the boulder. The aim is to get the Golden Banana. At the end the player in 4th he or she gets chased by the boulder.

Mario's Rainbow Castle: Players wander around the top of a cloud near a huge tower on Peach's castle. Toad waits at the top of the tower every second turn, where Bowser will take his place offering a fake star. A player can change it back to Toad using a Happening Space. The Superstar's power star will make the rainbow shine. The loser will be sent to Bowser.

Peach's Birthday Cake: Peach has made a giant birthday cake, but needs to light the candles. Using the star power, the cake lights in honor of whoever the Superstar is. Goomba offers a lottery, where he will plant a seed. Depending on what type of flower it grows, a player either visits Toad or Bowser. The Superstar makes a victory pose on the cake, while the loser gets his or her butt by a Piranha Plant.

Yoshi's Tropical Island: Players stroll about on two islands connected by a bridge; one island has a star on it, the other has Bowser. A player can switch the location of Toad and Bowser by using a Happening Space. A huge fish called Bubba will swallow Toad and spit him out on the other island. The aim is to stop the whirlpools that separate two Yoshis. The loser he or she will be swallowed by Bubba. Also known for its music which is used in HIs all around the world.

Wario's Battle Canyon: Wario's level takes place on a Battlefield which is divided into five 'islands' by enormous canyons. A player needs to use cannons to reach the other islands, and make peace between the red and black Bob-ombs. Toad is randomly placed on the board, on one of the islands. At the end the player in 4th he or she is fired out of bowser's cannon.

Luigi's Engine Room: This board takes place inside the engine room of Luigi's flying ship. The mechanism has stopped moving, and the powerstars will repower it. To find Toad, a player will need to speak to robots which control which doors are open and thus which paths they can walk down. At the end the player in 4th gets his and her butt toasted by the ? spaces while Bowser laughs at his and her tourcher.

Secret Boards:

Bowser's Magma Mountain: A mountain covered with molten rock and lava. Players work their way on the rock path to the evil Bowser to teach him a lesson.In the end everyone beats up Bowser.

Eternal Star: This broken up star was stolen by Bowser, where he and his minions, the Baby Bowsers (now known as Mini-Bowsers starting with Mario Party 4) spray-painted all over it. Set in outer space, this level requires players to teleport around the board with specialized spaces. Once this level is unlocked players are restricted to this board until it is beaten. To get a star, players need to challenge a Baby Bowser to a dice rolling competition, and get the higher number. The Superstar repairs the star.

Mini-Game House

An area in which up to four players can compete by playing mini games. Players can select to play 1, 3, 5, or 7 mini games of any type in a row. At the end of the series of mini games, the player who has the most coins wins. In the Mini Game House, players can choose to play any mini games that they've previously played in Adventure Mode. They can play the mini games for free if they've purchased them (by paying a once-off fee varying from 50 to 500 coins), or by paying a rental charge of 10 coins if they haven't. The red Mushroom-Headed Mini-Games seller sells Mini-Games the player has found in Board Games or in Mini-Game Island.

The Mini-Game House also contains the Mini-Game Stadium, a simple board map in which up to four players compete to try to earn the most Coins by winning minigames. No stars are given out in this mode and no coins are gained or lost by landing on red and blue spaces.

The Mecha Fly Guy challenge, a game in which a player must rotate the control stick as many times as possible within a 10 second time period in order to make the Mecha Fly Guy fly as far as possible, is also found in the Mini-Game House after purchasing it from the shop.

Development

In May 1998, Nintendo and Hudson began a strategic partnership to design and develop games together for both the Nintendo 64 and the Game Boy. Mario Party was the first of the games that the partnership released. The game also marked the start of a move by Nintendo to franchise off the Mario series to other developers, including Camelot Software Planning.

Reception

Reviews and awards

Publication	Score
Famitsu	31 of 40
IGN	7.9 of 10
EGM	8.6 of 10
GameSpot	7.2 of 10
Compilations of multiple reviews
Game Rankings	76% (based on 11 reviews)
Metacritic	79 of 100 (based on 16 reviews)

Mario Party received mostly positive reviews upon release, with praise to the party aspect of the game. However, its most common criticism is its apparent lack of enjoyment without multiplayer. GameSpot explains: "The games that are enjoyable to play in multi-player are nowhere near as good in the single player mode. Really, it's that multi-player competitive spark of screaming at and/or cheering for your friends that injects life into these often-simple little games, and without it, they're just simple little games." IGN took a similar line, saying that it was the interaction between players rather than the interaction with the game that made Mario Party fun. They also warned of the damage inflicted to controls by the more demanding games, humorously noting: "If you love your controllers, have your friends bring theirs when they come over to play this game." The game was also successful commercially, and proved particularly successful in the rental charts.

Controversy

After Mario Party's release, the game was investigated by then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer over claims that mini games involving excessive analog stick rotation caused blisters and other hand injuries due to a common controller technique where players would use the palms of their hands to rotate the analog stick at a much faster rate than was possible using only one's thumb.

In March 2000, Nintendo reached an agreement wherein it would provide up to four padded gloves to each owner injured by the excessive controller stick rotations required of the mini games. Subsequent versions of the Mario Party series did not include mini games involving stick rotation. (There is one stick-rotating mini-game in Mario Party 5, but the player only needs to rotate it once in that mini-game.)

Sequels

The popularity of Mario Party has led to seven sequels: Mario Parties 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, as well as Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and E-Reader versions, as well an exclusive Japanese Mario Party for arcades called Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party not released in the US, making a total of eleven games in eight years, including at least one every year except 2006. The frequency of the sequels has led to some criticism regarding the games being unoriginal, as many ideas from previous installments of Mario Party have been recycled throughout the series. This is evident in the mini games in the later installments of the Mario Party series which do not differ much from earlier Mario Party mini games. However, new Mario Party games have continued to sell well, despite the claims that they lack originality.