Every game in the main series has a standard Party Mode in which up to four players play through a board, trying to collect as many stars as possible. In every turn, each player rolls a die and progresses on the board, which usually has branching paths. Coins are primarily earned by performing well in a minigame played at the end of each turn. On most boards, players earn stars by reaching a star space and purchasing a star for a certain amount of coins. The star space appears randomly on one of several pre-determined locations and moves every time a star is purchased, usually occupying a blue space. Every Mario Party contains at least 50 to almost 110 minigames with a few different types. Four-player games are a free-for-all in which players compete individually. In 2-on-2 and 1-on-3 minigames, players compete as two groups, cooperating to win, even though they are still competing individually in the main game. Some minigames in Mario Party are 4-player co-op, even though it doesn't say it. In most situations, winners earn ten coins each.
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Mario and friends walking across a board is almost natural, just like in Super Mario Bros. 3
The Mini-games are fairly fun, it’s obvious Hudson are still finding their groove. Along with the good are some absolute stinkers, any game requiring rotating joysticks is an absolute pain - I was one of this kids who gave themselves stigmata spinning the joystick with the palm of my hands.
I played with a few friends who had no clue, I thought some mini-games weren’t really well explained to players new to the game. Later versions have a practice mode which is absolutely fine.
The stages have alright gimmicks but they’re sorta frustrating, it makes collecting stars rewarding when it occurs. But yeah, it can be disheartening seeing your hard earned coins disappear because someone hit a ? Space rotating Toad to Bowser, then taking a turn and immediately losing 30 coins in one hit.
I should probably say it has a killer soundtrack and I adore the CG title screen artworks.