Board 8 > Kamek Ranks & Rates Anything Mario Party Related

(+) Yeah! (+)

Feeling cute, and as I have an abundance of worthless Mario Party knowledge and experience, thought I'd share with the masses. State anything from Mario Party - any mini-game, item, character, board, game, song, costume worn in 2, feelings of discontent, whatever - and I'll rank it for the Hell of it based solely on its Mario Party appearances. If it appears in multiple games, please specify, otherwise I'll rate it overall based on all appearances. I have Mario Party experience in every game other than the two 3DS titles and Mario Party e,

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Slapparazzi in Super Mario Party

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were you able to win the tug of war games in Mario party 1?

IIRC in the "Campaign", there were one of two routes you could take and I remember one of them was this and I could never win it. I had to skip it

its been years since I played that game so I might be remembering it wrong

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Kamek (Mario Party 2)

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Booksquirm

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Control stick spinning

Bumper Balls

I need to know whether or not I can respect your Mario Party opinion

Toadette

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Punnyz posted...

were you able to win the tug of war games in Mario party 1?

One of the routes had Tug-O-War, which was the 1v3 rotation game where you're the 1. The other route starts with Cast Aways, which was the weird fishing rod one that ALSO had you rotate to mimic reeling in the line. The fishing one sucks significantly more for having you try to control how strong you flick the N64's crummy stick.

Slapparazzi (SMP)
Funny game is funny. Positioning is based on timing your punch right before the camera flash, meaning that the usual jank of Mario Party character models is mitigated somewhat by there being a proper, if not easily detected, timing to shove the big-body boys out of the way. Everyone has a good time and actively screams at each other and insults the body types of Mario characters. Very good game, if a bit imprecise and questionable as to how exactly it determines who's the most prominent in the photo sometimes.

Kamek (MP2)
Yo low-key, Darkness Lamp sucks. You pay 10 coins in Horror Land in order to shift time from Day to Night. The issue with this is, there are more than 10 spaces in between the Darkness Lamp and Big Boo, who will steal coins or stars from all three players only at night, AND Big Boo is behind a skeleton key door, so you can't mushroom to guarantee Big Boo. Using the lamp also turns it to night immediately, meaning that once your turn ends, you'll shift to late night, essentially giving you one turn to roll high and get Big Boo. The only time the Darkness Lamp is useful is if you're at the top left-corner of the board to start the turn (or bottom-left Mr I Warp), roll very high, AND it's early day AND you have a Skeleton Key, or someone's about to go into the 2-boo alley through the center of the map and you wanna immobilize Whomp to prevent that... which only really matters if you have the star lead. And worst of all? This bastard is the one sober enough after an all-night bender in a mansion to wake up and ask if you want to fund his party, then not invite you to it. He's an ass who brings alcohol to a party and then acts too superior and noble to drink it. Kamek sucks.

Booksquirm (MP4)
Probably among the best 4-player mini-games in the series. There are few arguments that cannot be solved with a game of Booksquirm. It is fair, it is relentless, and it is always tense. And it has the stupid goofy "eh, whatever happens happens" music going on in the background. The chance for dicking your friends over is minimal due to no jumps to cause the 'flatten' state, and in spite of that, you can STILL get accusations of shoving someone into the crush zone. It's the envy of mini-games and deserves its spot as a legend.

Control Stick Spinning (MP1)
Some would say scarring and blistering your hand is a detriment, but that's a FEATURE. The reason it sucked so much was that the N64 control stick was the equivalent of driving a plastic spoon into your hand after chewing on it for a while and rubbing it down. With alternate controllers, it still burns, but it goes from "intolerable" to "it hurts". Thus, spinning mini-games become a battle of "is it really worth destroying my hand for these coins?" This becomes wonderful in games like Paddle Battle or Tug-O-War, where the 1 player in the 1v3 can try to talk the other team into throwing so that their hands will survive, and if ONE of the three decides "yeah sorry this baby board game isn't worth physical pain", then everyone is upset, two people are in pain for no reason, and one person is laughing the pain away. It's not GOOD, physical pain is a bad thing in general, but it is VERY Mario Party to find joy in suffering.

Millennium Star Tier
Booksquirm (MP4)

Super Star Tier
Slapparazzi (SMP)

Happening Star Tier
Control Stick Spinning (MP1)

Sonic Shuffle Tier
Kamek (MP2)

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Lights Out (MP2)

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Duel Mode (MP3)

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Faire Square

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Bumper Balls (MP1 & MP2)
Some would say that Bumper Balls is a fun game of bumper cars but with fun balls. They are wrong. Some would say that Bumper Balls is a game that always ends in a draw because two players bump into each other infinitely at the end. They are also wrong. Bumper Balls is a game of politics, plain and simple. The lower players wordlessly communicate to bounce each other into the winning player, knocking them out. Once the undesirables are eliminated, you have roughly 30 seconds to debate who deserves 10 coins more and what they can do in order for you to give them the win. As this counts toward the mini-game star, this is FAR more valuable than trying to convince them not to steal from you with Boo. It is the stage of destiny on which alliances are formed. But... yeah it kinda sucks 1v1 if your opponent isn't willing to play ball. The hilly variation in 2 helps that, though! I wish it were the only one there! Evens out to about middle of the road, entirely dependent on who you're playing with if it's good or boring.

MP1 Bower Balls > MP2 Star Balls

Toadette
Man, Toad just wasn't the same after he gargled salt water and rusted nails down his throat when the Gamecube came out. Toadette represents the lesser of two evils - you want to be cute mushroom, but you don't want to have an ear-piercing screech. However, she faces stiff competition from Peach and Daisy in the "girl power" department, and from Yoshi and Boo in the "cute" department. AND she is gated behind a 30 star wall in Mario Party 6, something that you COULD spend unlocking Clockwork Castle or more CPU difficulties. She's FINE, but she's far from an instantly appealing choice.

Lights Out (MP2)
Actually a rather clever way of solving the issue with Mario Party 1's hammers! Bash 'n' Cash and Coin Block Blitz were supremely gimped by how predictable the hammer was (B&C less so because that's just delicious cruelty incarnate), simply by removing the ability to see the hammer player. Actual jump scares can happen if the hammer player's any good, and the lightbulb players not being able to jump is especially nice. Vertical slam is absolutely useless, not only is its range worse, but horizontal slam leaves the corpses of the fallen for their living counterparts to trip on, making circling the perimeter rough. It's a pretty fair game for all four players, good fighting game. Not quite tippity top tier as neither role feels ENTIRELY great to be (hammer feels clunky at times and the powerlessness of the light bulb players limits options to constantly making survival-based mind games), but it's very good.

Duel Mode (MP3)
SO much better in concept than it is in practice. Some of the maps (Backtrack, Mr. Mover) are actively unplayable, and the rest range from bad to "yeah I guess Blowhard's alright". Giving each character their own signature partner is a great idea, but Wario and DK might as well not exist with how bad their starters are (Wario a lot moreso). Needing to change a partner with every Start loop and the Lucky Roulette only showing up every three turns makes crafting a party just unfun. The Miss chance ruins the limited number of interactions the players actually have (there is NOTHING worse than succeeding the 2/5ths roll for Baby Bowser to transform, only for Bowser to miss), and Piranha Plant's kinda broken if you have 20 or more coins, they did NOT need to give his 'extra dice' gimmick to that partner. The worst thing, though, is the "Restore Heart Pieces" chance on the Happening Spaces - absolutely disheartening to get one of these as it just resets the game state. So much of this mode can be boiled down to "I sure do hope I roll high enough to continue stalling the game and maybe run out the clock", which is an absolute shame. There are so many little things that could be done - having Pipesqueak have a consistent rotation like Eternal Star that can get reset to another system, choosing one of three random partners from each Start pass, introducing just the Poison and Reverse Mushrooms to the game, reducing Thwomp's salary or swapping him with your partner in back after he's crushed someone - that would bring out this mode's full potential. But for the most part it's just... bad. The song's a bop, though. Not the Story Mode one, that one sucks.

Faire Square (MP6)
The shell game to the right side of the board is just a free star during the Day. That's the only real flaw with this board; that game being too easy overcentralizes the mechanics, making it "get a star in the center at night, head to the right side during the day, swoop back in at night if it's lower than 20, get more cup stars if it's higher". The conceit of the board is amazing - high price haggling to cash in all of your chips at once, gambling to make the high count not snowball too much and leave those who get a slow start in the dust, and a high-interest area to booby trap the crap out of with orbs. Orb placement shines in this board due to that, and it's a great place to grind stars to get Clockwork/make everyone feel important in spite of you being much better at Mario Party than them. It's really only got that one issue keeping it from greatness - no complaints with the rest, even the star-gambling Happening Space.

Millennium Star Tier
Booksquirm (MP4)

Super Star Tier
Faire Square (MP6)
Lights Out (MP2)
Slapparazzi (SMP)

Happening Star Tier
Bumper Balls
Control Stick Spinning (MP1)

Red Star Tier
Toadette

Sonic Shuffle Tier
Duel Mode (MP3)
Kamek (MP2)

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Mushroom Mix-Up

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Mario
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Mario Party 8

Toadette is actually really adorable and totally worth the coins! I like her color scheme a lot.

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Chance Time

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Underleveled posted...

Mushroom Mix-Up

Hexagon Heat

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Day at the Races

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Monty Mole (Super Mario Party)

With the stipulation you don't talk about his useless dice.

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Wiggler (Mario Party 2)

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Raka_Putra posted...

Toadette is actually really adorable and totally worth the coins! I like her color scheme a lot.

It's a cute color scheme! I just see her as a half-measure between a lot of characters. Hot Pink's a good color, though!

Mushroom Mix-Up (MP1)
This is the classic. I mean, I assume it sucks if you're colorblind, then it may not be a classic, but there's so many good strats to this game. Jumping into the water just as the mushroom start to rise to psyche your opponents out, ground pounding on an opponent hogging the edge in order to return to center, body blocking when they're desperately trying to leap to safety, "Long Live The King"ing them into the briny abyss. I also appreciate Toad being the host, so often are one of Bowser's minions in charge of a mini-game, but Toad proves to be just as cruel of a taskmaster as Hammer Bro or Shy Guy. Just a relief and fun whenever it shows up on the roulette. Has a better aesthetic than Hexagon Heat, too.

Mario
I understand why you would pick Mario in Mario Party and Mario Party 2. If Luigi's taken, you still need someone to be heroic, despite the lack of personality and inferior voice lines. You may delude yourself into thinking you're an altruistic destined hero, but this is Mario Party. If you're playing with that line of logic, your soul animal is already Wario, so either you're deluding yourself or someone's already picked him. And I guess you just hate animals and girls or whatever, or don't want the CPU's in 2 to pick a character who likes Mushrooms instead of the far more situational Skeleton Keys or Warp Blocks.

That excuse goes out the window as soon as Waluigi and Daisy come in and have personality pouring out of their single-polygon ears. Mario is the equivalent of white bread: all filler, no killer. You lack the exceptional voice lines of Wario or Luigi, the obnoxiousness of Peach, the cuteness of Yoshi, the weird jank hitboxes of Waluigi or DK... you simply exist. You serve your function... okay, I guess, but that's about it. You do not become a Mario main by choice, you do it out of circumstance. Or you really, REALLY love Super Mario 64 and that is the ONLY Mario game you love other than Mario Party, which means you have incredibly specific and strange tastes.

Every time Mario gets to be unique, he's a disappointment. Partner in duel mode? Koopa Troopa, a boring choice that's uber-defensive, but lacks the economy advantage of Peach or taking the intentional nerf in picking DK's Whomp. You're not keeping things interesting or playing to win, you're just... playing, I guess. Fireball orb in 7? Worse Bowser Suit, with all of the "potential to roll low" drawbacks, and none of the incredibly broken benefits of Peach, Boo, or Toad's orbs. Even his dice block in Super is incredibly boring: 1-3-3-3-5-6. The spread lacks the consistency of Daisy or Shy Guy, and has the exact same odds as just rolling the damn regular dice, unless you REALLY hate the numbers 2 or 4 VERY specifically. But in almost every scenario, another block is going to be better or more interesting (except maybe Yoshi's, poor Yoshi).

There are only two redeeming qualities to Mario that keep him out of the dredges of Mario Party. The first is that in MP2 and MP3, during the last five turns, a Whomp has a chance of showing up and predicting who will win. Whomp is such a Mario fanboy that he will pick Mario EVERY time, giving him 10 coins. I am glad that GameFAQs Mario followed suit with a last-minute boost every time, as Mario rigging things in his favor by being Freakin' Mario is canon based on this. He also has an incredible taunt in 7 where, instead of annoying grunts and sounds, Mario yells out "Hey, Stinky!" This is a top-tier taunt, and while it's not worth choosing Mario because of his low-tier personal orb, it is pretty exceptional. But that's about it. You aren't playing Mario Party for Mario; it ain't Smash, he isn't inherently fun, he simply is.

Mario Party 8
A tale of two games. You have some of the best boards in the series (with one being in contention for THE best board) filled with strategy, proper uses for every candy (and the candy oozes charm with its effects), some of the best 2v2 minigames, Blooper as a playable character who is utterly adorable, and that one funny moped game where a Thwomp rides a moped.It also has some of the most luck-based, "go through the motions" boards since 1 with none of 1's utter propensity to dick players over, perhaps THE WORST selection of 4-player mini-games in the entire series, the worst final boss, the worst Bowser board, and the Golden Space that utterly destroys any sense of other strategy as "just target that space" will see you through MAJORLY. Mc Ballyhoo also exists, and I like him - he's perfectly annoying and his HAW HAW HAW sound clips are very easy to mockingly imitate. Being frustrated is good in Mario Party. Ultimately, I do prefer having good boards to having good mini-games, especially in the randomized bonus star world where being the best at mini-games guarantees nothing (a mark against it but whatever). I find 8 neither a step up or down from 7 - just making it a lot more uneven in between the 'good' and 'bad'. It's a Mario Party of extremes.

Chance Time
Next to the Bowser Space, definitely the space that varies the most in quality from game to game! MP1 had a really unique system where every time a Star was obtained, the space that it occupied would turn into a Chance Time space. 2 had a center dice block with totally consistent cycles based on what turn it was that started in the same place in the cycle every time, making it THE most abusable Chance Time in the series. From then on, it started getting weirder - 3 stopped letting you choose the order of the wheels, 4 turned it into a weird pachinko machine, 5 and 6 had a rough system where if you were on a team, you could target your teammate and then the whole thing would be considered defunct, and then 7 gave the thing a damn failure chance making it completely neutered. It's peaked at 2 and has gotten weaker with every iteration of Mario Party, until it's a sad shadow of its former self, like Blizzard or WWE Return Kurt Angle. Accounting for its bullshit with unstealable bonus stars is part of the game, so I fully encourage its presence, but later game weakness makes it a lot more depressing an entry. At least we still have the memories, you can never take away from the legend.

Hexagon Heat (MP2)
It's slightly better than Mushroom Mix-Up because it's in a less shitty world in Mini-Game Coaster than Mix-Up's world in Mini-Game Island. Cast Aways bullshit.

Millennium Star Tier
Booksquirm (MP4)
Hexagon Heat (MP2)
Mushroom Mix-Up (MP1)

Super Star Tier
Faire Square (MP6)
Lights Out (MP2)
Slapparazzi (SMP)
Chance Time

Happening Star Tier
Bumper Balls
Control Stick Spinning (MP1)
Mario Party 8

Red Star Tier
Toadette
Mario

Sonic Shuffle Tier
Duel Mode (MP3)
Kamek (MP2)

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The Big Boo in Horror Land who can steal multiple stars

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Shake It Up (Mario Party 8)

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i played a game of mario party once where i was winning the entire time, then got wrecked by a chance time that swapped coins/stars

and i thought it was hilarious! imo, if you're not willing to accept the silly nonsense in mario party, you should not be playing mario party

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Naye745 posted...
and i thought it was hilarious! imo, if you're not willing to accept the silly nonsense in mario party, you should not be playing mario party

Absolutely, gotta roll with the punches in Mario Party. They just started removing the thing's teeth as time went on from "can definitely screw someone, but who knows who benefits from it" to "random" to "what is pachinko" to utterly neutered.

Day At The Races
https://pastebin.com/UJNPkrbQ

That explains and breaks down all the odds for every single racer. The fact that childhood beliefs of "oh Whomp looks sad" or "Boo has the best odds" are, in fact, TRUE is great. It becomes a lot closer to actual horse racing this way. I'm always a fan of luck-based mini-games being Battle games; putting a ton at risk and only having your gumption to get through is fantastic. Screaming at Boo for tripping when he has no feet, Whomp defeating people by just trying very hard and his forehead counting as crossing the finish line, Bob-omb choosing to end his own life and light himself on fire just to win a race - all fantastic. Too bad Thwomp sucks. And that DatR is only the second-best luck-based battle game in its own game.

Monty Mole (SMP)
Honestly he's more flexible than Mario and Yoshi. Utterly adorable animations, a brilliant choice to round out Bowser's villains crew. Also has the best contextual animation in the entire game, where when he has to bop another Monty Mole during a mini-game, his eyes shoot wide open and he looks so distressed. That's the kind of little detail I LIVE for.

Wiggler (MP2)
The Hootenanny event is only weakened due to the board that it's on. Western Land has two Boos, so there really isn't a good place on the perimeter to stick it for the sake of space denial. Swap its placement with the Item Shop and it's SUPER deadly and worth it. That said, getting everyone blackout drunk on milk is always fun. I do think that the Wario's Battle Canyon Fly Guy and his 10 coin cost is better bang for your buck than Wiggler's 20 coin cost, but Wiggler accusing you of hating parties and fun if you don't want everyone to get drunk on milk is pretty solid. And it CAN be used for temporary denial... it's just not as strong since you put everyone roughly 3 turns away from Boo. Sub-par in pretty much all regards.

The Big Boo (MP2)
The epitome of "cool but impractical". Due to being night-only AND behind a skeleton key door, you're in a rough place trying to get him unless you're going first and are on a mid-day cycle. Even then, it is going to be incredibly rare that you're going to 1. get 150 coins in order to steal three stars and 2. have three targets to steal from. It is far more economical and effective to go through the middle Boo row. However, there is one element that The Big Boo does very well: fear. Absolute terror that someone might get the most devastating power in the entire game overrides the logic that it's not actually that great. There is no point in choosing to play on Horror Land and NOT trying to flex on everyone by hitting Big Boo.

Shake It Up (MP8)
Amazingly, competitive jerking it is one of the most enjoyable mini-games of the MP8 bunch. Everyone has a good time.

Millennium Star Tier
Booksquirm (MP4)
Hexagon Heat (MP2)
Mushroom Mix-Up (MP1)
Day At The Races (MP2)

Super Star Tier
Faire Square (MP6)
Lights Out (MP2)
Monty Mole (SMP)
Slapparazzi (SMP)
Chance Time

Happening Star Tier
Bumper Balls
The Big Boo (MP2)
Control Stick Spinning (MP1)
Shake It Up (MP8)
Mario Party 8

Red Star Tier
Wiggler (MP2)
Toadette
Mario

Sonic Shuffle Tier
Duel Mode (MP3)
Kamek (MP2)

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Space World

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I don't think that I've ever successfully used the Big Boo star steal or been in a game where it happened. But you're right, the mere threat of it alone is enough to sway decisions, and everyone always goes for it anyway. They just never get there when everything lines up.

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The inflatable Thwomps from The Great Deflate

I always thought that they were some kind of weird water Thwomps

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Tumble (Mario Party 3)

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Skeleton Key (MP3)

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Waluigi's Island (MP3)

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Koopa Kid

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Space Land (MP2)
In a game with great board music and themes, this has arguably the best one. Neon highways with stoned drivers, Black Hole Bowser in his crappy Robotnik mech, an efficient police force that has to be bribed to do its damn job - it's a fun board to look at. Balance-wise, it probably has one of the best Skeleton Key gates in the series, letting you avoid a bank space, escape a potential Happening Space infinite, access a Chance Time, AND see Boo. Actual uses for Skeleton Keys in MP2 are ALWAYS a good thing. The board is small enough with enough branching paths that you're never stuck in one area unless you're sitting in the top left and didn't get an item to let you escape it (which... why would you do that? What are you even doing, the shop was RIGHT THERE). Bowser's countdown, however, is unfortunately pretty weak. The diagonal he shoots at is only useful if you're trying to get positional advantage toward the star, and usually that'll be an early-game move. In order to really abuse the countdown in the middle, you need to make a conservative effort to abuse the loop on the right with a Mushroom, at which point... whatcha doin', mate? You could be getting Boo with that, who is intensely tempting and gets out of the Bowser Beam's way in a hurry. Bowser Bomb remains a more efficient way of screwing everyone out of all of their coins. Its item game is good, nice and learnable, and its duel game is one of the better ones, but requires a learning curve for when the damn time bomb actually starts counting down. It's the poster child for "great board design", but it doesn't quite slip into the tippity top tiers. Probably the 3rd best board in one of the strongest board selections in the series.

Inflatable Thwomps From The Great Deflate (MP4)
Spiky Thwomp > Blue Thwomp. The only exception to this is in Mario Kart 64, where they have the evil pitched-down Wario laugh and mock you for hitting them. With that said, it's a pretty good demonstration of the Gamecube's finesse in rendering objects, but if it were really good, it'd get sadder as you deflate it. And it's in a weird mix of Totem Pole Pound and Balloon Burst, which were better on their own than they were mixed together. I guess I like the sound design, though.

Tumble (MP3)
Insofar as hosts go, he's one of the weaker ones. You never really get a good read on the guy's personality - sometimes he's encouraging you to fight forward, other times he's worried and underestimating you that no one can POSSIBLY get THIS star. The fact that his host duties are undermined by the Millennium Star in most situations also limits his appeal. I guess he gets being the one plot twist in the Mario Party series, but Honestly the Fake Millennium Star was better anyway. AND turned everyone into weird dolls in a cardboard world. Tumble just kinda sat around like the DBZ Supreme Kai and let everything happen.. He's CUTE but he's... kind of absolutely nothing else AND is overshadowed as a host in his own game? At least he gets Mario Party Advance cameos?

Skeleton Key (MP3)
Its usefulness absolutely depends on the board. In Waluigi's Island, it's nearly useless, a Reverse Mushroom or a regular Mushroom will accomplish what it can do a good 80% of the time. In Chilly Waters, it's a godsend in order to get a fast Boo without needing to traverse the entire map or risk your Golden Mushroom on a random slippery slope. On Spiny Desert, having it and a Reverse Mushroom and heading to the top right of the map is nearly busted, can easily hit Boo three times in two turns. However, this is the thing you're gonna be discarding more than anything else. It is pure disappointment when you get a Hidden Block and the only thing inside is a Skeleton Key. Baby Bowser will clog your inventory with this junk and you'll throw away at least two in the process of trying to get more item. I like that they took the joke of it clogging up the inventory of MP2 and rolled with it, but the movement options offered in MP3 makes it less useful than in MP2. Also the keys are less cute in this game, that's an issue. It's a good option, especially since it's available in both shops, but rarely is it the best option or particularly exciting to have. More just stumbling into something half-decent.

Waluigi's Island (MP3)
Probably the 2nd best board in Mario Party 3! Too bad that doesn't mean as much when only three of the boards are particularly good! The lore of this board is so strong - Waluigi hiring Piranha Plants and his own construction company to destroy Luigi's house and make a stupid, booby-trapped island is kind of amazing. I like the Happening Space Circle to farm Happening Star here a lot more than I do in Spiny Desert, as you're essentially giving up Coin Star due to the big dynamite gimmick. Central splitter is a beginner's trap (you just hit the button when the arrow you want to go in is lit up, you'll get the timing right at every speed), and the Island of Rotating Spaces is really damn fun, very nasty idea that it has two Star Spawns right up there. However, it has the absolute worst Skeleton Key gates in the entire series, and it locks Boo and a star spawn behind an unskippable 50/50 chance check. I know that Bowser's Magma Mountain did something similar, but that fit in with the far more dickish nature of Mario Party 1. Locking you out of Boo - THE prime source of all strife, inter-personal debates, and grudges in Mario Party board play - is never a strong idea. The utter chaos of the dynamite pile and isle o' many spaces makes up for it, but keeps it from tasting true greatness. This is a board where everyone suffers; you will not actively lose friends playing it unless you adamantly insisted that you play on this board.

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Koopa Kid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inWQAC5Zk5c#t=56m18s

Timestamp pretty much sums up my feelings on Koopa Kid: hes an intentional child troll, and its pretty great. Technically, Koopa Kid only showed up in the Gamecube Mario Parties - Baby Bowsers were the guys in Mario Party through MP3, though they slide into their role nicely starting in MP3. Koopa Kid has his highs and his lows - he effectively brings the Bowser Space to its lowest point in MP4 by locking all of Bowsers fun events behind his stupid mug showing up instead. However, when hes allowed to be next to Bowser is when he can really shine - Koopa Kid desperately fanning Bowser in order to calm him down is pretty fantastic. Him being an utter joke in Super Duel Mode in 5 also really establishes his place as completely pathetic. You play Koopa Kid when youre trying to be ironic, or you really desperately want to play as Bowser and are willing to settle for the most pitiful alternative out there. However I really hate him in single-player once he splits into three. Those designs are just IMPRESSIVELY ugly in all regards.

Honestly Ive come down harder on the little guy than Ive wanted to. Hes annoying in every respect, but he absolutely sends a message when youre playing as him: you want to win with the worst thats out there. Playing as him lets your friends know that you are not worthy of respect, but if they lose to you, they are beneath that which has no dignity. He IS Mario Party, in all of its hatred and disappointment. If we count Baby Bowser hes MUCH higher, but I feel like being pedantic today.

Millennium Star Tier
Booksquirm (MP4)
Hexagon Heat (MP2)
Mushroom Mix-Up (MP1)
Day At The Races (MP2)

Super Star Tier
Space Land (MP2)
Faire Square (MP6)
Lights Out (MP2)
Waluigi's Island (MP3)
Monty Mole (SMP)
Slapparazzi (SMP)
Chance Time

Happening Star Tier
Koopa Kid
Bumper Balls
The Big Boo (MP2)
Control Stick Spinning (MP1)
Skeleton Key (MP3)
Shake It Up (MP8)
Mario Party 8

Red Star Tier
Wiggler (MP2)
Toadette
The Inflatable Thwomps From The Great Deflate (MP4)
Mario
Tumble (MP3)

Sonic Shuffle Tier
Duel Mode (MP3)
Kamek (MP2)

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Kamekguy posted...

In a game with great board music and themes, this has arguably the best one.

can't argue with that. mp2 music is so exceptional in general. (honestly, this is true for the whole of the n64 era mario parties)

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Kamekguy posted...

Honestly he's more flexible than Mario and Yoshi

I disagree with this, Yoshi's is absolutely bottom tier with him (yet I always pick Yoshi when I can because Yoshi is my Ride or Die boy through and through) but Monty Mole's dice block is absolutely horrendous and Mario's is better. You want anything that is more different than the standard dice and Monty Mole's is literally the same except at +1 coin instead of a 1 roll. I can accept his animation and expression during mini games reasons but I will absolutely OBJECT to his die being better than Mario's.

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Game Guy (Mario Party 3)

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Super-Duel Mode (MP5)

By the way, I object to Sonic Shuffle being the lowest tier. That game gets way too much hate!

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The car

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Kameks Library (Mario Party DS)
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2's Soundtrack

Toad becoming playable starting in MP5

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Bane_Of_Despair posted...

I disagree with this, Yoshi's is absolutely bottom tier with him (yet I always pick Yoshi when I can because Yoshi is my Ride or Die boy through and through) but Monty Mole's dice block is absolutely horrendous and Mario's is better. You want anything that is more different than the standard dice and Monty Mole's is literally the same except a +1 coin instead of a 1 roll. I can accept his animation and expression during mini games reasons but I will absolutely OBJECT to his die being better than Mario's.

I value stall a lot more than others. Avoiding exactly 1 ahead of you will almost always be better than avoiding 2 or 4 ahead, just because you have the potential to farm a single Event Space. It's not a GREAT option, he's strictly an inferior Shy Guy in every way (and Shy Guy's, like, mid tier), but he has a 1/6 chance of farming and I respect that if, for some reason, you hate using Rosalina, Shy Guy, Waluigi, Wario, Diddy Kong, Bowser, AND Donkey Kong.

Game Guy (MP3)
First off, Shy Guy with a bow tie. You may not like it, but this is what peak character design looks like.

With how much weaker the Bowser Space is in MP3, I'm so glad that we get a space with some TEETH to it. Guaranteed risk all of your coins in order to put it all on the line is REALLY strong. Better yet, every single option that is not a pure x2 multiplier is intensely risky, so whilst you CAN go for an absolutely ridiculous result, it's intensely unlikely to happen, and requires a roll that no one would want to get in order to make it happen (you're not gonna risk 75 coins on Game Guy when you have enough to both get a Magic Lamp and steal a star with that total). Honestly, he's got a shockingly fair casino - Lucky 7's is blackjack where you win in a tie, and the guy actively tells you if he falls off and you're on 1 "there is literally no risk to rolling again to try to max out your coins". Sweet Surprise has a consistently reliable bet in Big Chomp. Magic Boxes is just straight up a coin flip with Press Your Luck mechanics. The ONLY one where you're likely to lose coins from the outset is Game Guy Roulette. It says a lot that the Bowser Phone is a common item, but Game Guy's Lucky Charm is a rare one - nothing has shake-up potential quite like this guy. I might have liked it if the item version let the user choose how many coins were being wagered, but I love the space as an all-or-nothing. It's a great addition that I wish would return, perhaps with a few more mini-games so that the very consistent Sweet Surprise showed up a little less often.

Super Duel Mode (MP5)
The flavor on this mode is off the charts. Every character getting their own, named vehicle that you have to fight them in the finals in order to figure out? An actual incentive to playing specific types of mini-games? Hosted by the nerd star who would totally be into mecha? Nice. There's actually a lot of really cute conveniences to this mode - being able to save vehicles to a specific memory card so you can grind one out on your own save file to fight a friend's, Donkey Kong being unlockable along with all of his random-stat parts and death banana cannon, variations slowly scaling with the difficulty? Sure, there are better weapons and builds than others, but the possibility and flexibility is really fun to see! It's great to see Mario Party give a reason to have coins, and while that would be improved eventually with the Duty-Free Shop in 7 (I think tying it to Stars in 6 wasn't entirely great comparatively), it doesn't quite have the cool factor of this one. It's not the best diversion of 5, not when Card Party exists... but I mean, it's better than actually playing Mario Party 5! That counts for something, right?

The Car (MP9 & MP10)
Yup don't like it. Not because it's non-traditional - please, the last three games were stuffed to the brim with non-traditional gimmick boards - but because it removes some of the better systems from previous games. The scope of items is toned down drastically from the Orb/Candy heydays since you can't really safeguard or trap spaces anymore, only doing things to affect yourself. You can still dick other players over, but usually only the one directly behind you. You do have to consider your position and where your roll with put the others behind you, but with three turns to consider and a wide range of rolls, that doesn't do you as much good as it could. For a few boards, and DEFINITELY for Bowser Party where this format shines, I think it could've been a good gimmick. But the fact that it overtakes the entire system is frustrating and limiting. Shoots itself in its own wheels.

Kamek's Library (MPDS)
The worst classic-style board in the entire series Do you like Mystery Land, going around in loops forever? Well, what if we made it so that there are ONLY two or three happening spaces on each isolated area instead of, like, 8? And THEN what if we added the Neon Heights gimmick of having three Star Spaces that you have to pay slightly less for, but one of them sends you back to start! In a board where it's AGONIZING to target any place OTHER than the start area? Oh, but a Warp Block could fix that, assuredly... except in Mario Party DS, the Warp Block was changed so that instead of swapping with another player, you're just teleported to a random space. In a board with an event where Kamek rotates everyone around is the non-teleportation based Happening Event. You might be able to say there's some merit to hexing the spaces around the teleporters... but that's the easy, dominant strategy. EVERYONE is going to want to do that, so strategy becomes overcentralized or just a rush to pick up the absurdly low-priced Star Pipe in this game. Absolutely the worst "fake star" map in the series due to the mitigated usefulness of Mushrooms, one of the worst "segmented map" boards in the series, combined with the absolute weakest item selection of games that actually have items. And wonderfully plodding, tinny music. An utterly miserable time.

Mario Party 2 OST
I use it commonly in videos, because I think 1 and 2 have absolutely killer OST's for mood. Woody's theme is the most failure-iffic song, all of the board themes have very strong melodies, with Space Land and Western Land being utterly exceptional in that regard. "This Way That" is probably the most 'cartoon hijinx' song that you could ask for (weird that it's strapped to Crane Game of all things instead of, like, Grab Bag), and the credits theme starts out incredibly strong, matching or surpassing MK64 or SM64's in just comfortable emotional impact... and then it goes a little goofy and simply becomes very good and comforting. Sound design in this game is just fantastic all around, matching cartoon hijinx whilst still retaining strong melodies. I don't think it's QUITE as good as Mario Party 1's - it's hard to match Mario's Rainbow Castle and the Credits theme there, Mitsuda does some awesome work - but I'd call it standout music insofar as its ability to fit a theme. If it were in a video or something, I'd smile and be able to pick out the song immediately as from Mario Party 2, and probably remember the mini-game and tone, so it's more than doing its job.

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Kamekguy

Toad becoming playable starting in MP5
Man, Toad was a king in the N64 days. Sitting there, watching you play whatever, suffering through Mini-Game Island, then revealing that he's an absolute boss at Mario Party and thrashing you at Slot Car Derby. Encouraging you, "aw c'mon champ, you can beat me THIS time. Guy gets kidnapped by Bowser, doesnt even flinch, just keeps selling you stars like usual. You cant beat Metal Bowser after Bowser reveals he had a zenkai boost after Mario 64 to make him Giant Swing-immune? Toad tosses you the Spirit Bomb of star power in order to toss him across the galaxy. Even in Mario Party 3, where his role was greatly reduced, the man can smell your greed and refuses to reward you for being an ass with his item questions, and insults your intelligence in MPIQ. Things started going downhill for Toad with 4, where he proved that he was inessential as a host, and his Bowser Bop mini-game was easy and dragged him down to mortal status. Out of the characters we received in 5, Toad made the most sense for joining the party - hes a good choice, you have people enjoying him for being THE STRONGEST in Mario 2, and he fulfills a niche of tiny but mighty that none of the other characters filled. Was it worth what we lost? Absolutely not, Pink Boo and Chain Chomp are crappy substitutes for the sheer beauty that was Boo Classic, and I lost my main and identity that day, scrambling to figure out what to do. But Toads addition as playable? Absolutely fine. Good, smart idea even, bringing the God down to Earth slowly through several games until it didnt seem unfair to use his power.

Millennium Star Tier
Booksquirm (MP4)
Mario Party 2 OST
Hexagon Heat (MP2)
Mushroom Mix-Up (MP1)
Game Guy (MP3)
Day At The Races (MP2)

Super Star Tier
Space Land (MP2)
Faire Square (MP6)
Lights Out (MP2)
Waluigi's Island (MP3)
Monty Mole (SMP)
Toad (Playable)
Slapparazzi (SMP)
Chance Time
Super Duel Mode (MP5)

Happening Star Tier
Koopa Kid
Bumper Balls
The Big Boo (MP2)
Control Stick Spinning (MP1)
Skeleton Key (MP3)
Shake It Up (MP8)
Mario Party 8

Red Star Tier
Wiggler (MP2)
Toadette
The Inflatable Thwomps From The Great Deflate (MP4)
Mario
Tumble (MP3)
The Car (MP9 & MP10)

Sonic Shuffle Tier
Duel Mode (MP3)
Kamek (MP2)
Kamek's Library (MPDS)

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Unique Dice for Each Character

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Mix-and-match board customization in Amiibo Party

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the physical n64 cartridge of mario party 1

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