Mario Party (video game)

Mario Party (マリオパーティ , Mario Pāti^?) (also known as Mario Party 64 or Mario Party 1) is a party video game for the Nintendo 64 game console, developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on December 14, 1998, in North America on February 8, 1999, and in Europe on March 9, 1999. The game was going to be released on the Virtual Console on the Wii Shop Channel, but was not due to its mini-games which involved spinning the N64 controller's central joystick in furious circles, resulting in many broken joysticks and blistered hands. In May 1998, Nintendo and Hudson began a partnership to design and develop games together for the Nintendo 64. Mario Party was the first of the games that the partnership released. Mario Party was followed by Mario Party 2.

Gameplay

Consisting of 56 mini games (plus 3 hidden single player 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.

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 the stage chosen. Stars can also be stolen from other players by passing a certain location on the board where a Boo resides—the player must then pay Boo 50 coins for the service of him stealing stars; coin stealing is free.

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 (i.e. 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. The coin star award is given to the player who collected the most coins at any one point during the game, the mini-game star award is awarded to the player who collected the most coins in mini-games, and the player who landed on the most "?" spaces earns the Happening Star. It is common for more than one character to be awarded the same bonus star; this happens if there is a tie for the category in question. The person with the most stars after the bonus awarding has concluded 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 a Bowser space 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.

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 are 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 (usually blue) randomly.

Mini-Game Island

A one-player mode in which the player navigates a world map and must 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. After beating 49 mini games and reaching the goal, a waiting Toad can be found. The player will then be challenged to a game of slot car derby. Once the player wins, Bumper Ball Maze 1 and Bumper Ball Maze 2 (If the player completed all 49 mini games preceding the goal) are unlocked; upon winning 1 and 2 in the mini-game shop, Bumper Ball Maze 3 is unlocked. The Bumper Ball Maze mini games are only playable in the mini game shop.

Playable characters

Players can choose to play as either Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Wario, Donkey Kong, or Yoshi. The game has been discovered to have a slight bias against Wario.

Game Boards

There are eight game boards in total, six of which are available from the beginning of the game, as listed below, and two of which could be unlocked with 980 Coins and 100 Stars respectively (Bowser's Magma Mountain, and Eternal Star).

• DK's Jungle Adventure
• Mario's Rainbow Castle
• Luigi's Engine Room
• Wario's Battle Canyon
• Yoshi's Tropical Island
• Peach's Birthday Cake
• Bowser's Magma Mountain
• Eternal Star

Reception

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."^[5] 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. Another common criticism was the game's dependence on luck rather than skill, though this was seen by many to add to the game's board game atmosphere, as players who were comfortably in the lead one turn could be losing the next.

Mario Party has been well received by an audience of all ages. Aside from varying age, Mario Party players vary in skill. The game's simplistic and intuitive nature combined with its carefree competitive aspect make it fun for everyone to play, regardless of age or skill. The game's appeal to such a widespread demographic has greatly contributed to its success and the success of the series as a whole.

Sequels

The popularity of Mario Party has led to seven sequels: Mario Party 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, as well as Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and E-Reader versions. A Mario Party for arcades called Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party was released only in Japan, making a total of twelve games in ten years, including at least one every year except the years 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010. 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.^[7][8] 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, and Mario Party is still a very popular franchise.^[9]

Lawsuit

In Mario Party, certain minigames required players to rotate the controller's analog stick. Some players got blisters and other hand injuries from rotating the analog stick using the palms of their hands instead of using their thumb.^[10] Some wore away the stick because it was not very durable. Some parents filed a lawsuit against Nintendo of America because of this. Nintendo was found guilty and had to pay fines to the parents and promise under United States Law to give gloves to anybody who hurts their hand(s) while playing these mini-games.^[10]

The analog stick rotation has been used sparingly since Mario Party 2. As of March 2011, Mario Party has not been re-released for the Wii Virtual Console. Nintendo skipped it and instead re-released Mario Party 2, possibly because of the controversy caused by the analog stick rotation gameplay mechanic.^[11] It is unknown if the original Mario Party will ever be released.

References

External links

• Official Nintendo Japan Mario Party site
• Mario Party at MobyGames
• Mario Party at the Internet Movie Database