Mario Party 2
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| Mario Party 2 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Hudson Soft |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Release |  December 17, 1999  January 24, 2000 October 12, 2000
 November 6, 2000 |
| Genre(s) | Party |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Mario Party 2 is the second in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular Nintendo characters. It was released on the Nintendo 64 in North America on January 24, 2000 following a Japanese release on December 17, 1999. It was released in the PAL region much later on October 12, 2000. It is generally considered to be the best in the Mario Party series, with later installments facing criticism of being too similar to their predecessors.
Characteristics
There is a one-player mode in which the player has to clear all of the minigames, one at a time, by defeating computer controlled opponents. The game contains a standard party mode in which up to four players play through a board, trying to collect as many stars as possible. The star space would appear randomly on the board, and players would have to reach it before anyone else. However, the stars carry a price tag of 20 coins, and player has to acquire these coins through various methods such as by winning minigames which take place at the end of each turn (after all the players have rolled the dice block, which will always roll a number from one to ten).
Battle minigames appear for the first time in Mario Party 2. These games are like the 4-player games, but generally (with many exceptions) a little more elaborate. Battle games are usually tense because every player has to put a certain number of coins (from 10 - 50) into a pot. First place gets 70% of the pot, second place gets 30%, and a random player gets any coins lost in rounding. Duel games also make their first appearance in Mario Party 2. Duel games pit two players against each other. In Party Mode, one player initiates the duel, and bet coins or a star against another player. The winner of the duel wins all of the coins or stars in the bet.
Every Mario Party contains 60 to 80 minigames of a few different types. Four-player games are a free-for-all in which all players competed against each other. 2-on-2 and 1-on-3 minigames put players in groups, so they have to cooperate in the minigame to win, even though they are against each other in the main game. In most situations, winners of these games make 10 coins each.
Playable characters
Items
A player may only hold one item at a time, and may only use an item before hitting his or her dice block.
Mushroom - 10 coins - Player hits two dice blocks instead of one. Hitting the same number twice will earn the player ten coins from Toad; if both numbers are sevens, Toad will instead give the player twenty coins.
Skeleton Key - 10 coins - Player has the option of entering a locked gate on the game board, useful for taking shortcuts or accessing hard to reach areas.
Plunder Chest - 15 coins - Player steals an item from a randomly chosen opponent. Hard to use because of the inherent randomness, and it can never be used on the turn it is acquired - all players have a chance to use their items before they would be stolen.
Dueling Glove - 15 coins - Player selects an opponent to engage in a Duel Mini-Game, and chooses how many coins will be wagered. Does not move players on the game board.
Warp Block - 15 coins - Player switches places on the game board with a randomly chosen player.
Golden Mushroom - 20 coins - Player hits three dice blocks instead of one. Hitting the same number three times will earn the player twenty coins from Toad; if all three numbers are sevens, Toad gives the player fifty coins instead.
Magic Lamp - 30 coins - Player calls upon the Mushroom Genie for transportation to Toad, where he or she may purchase a Star before hitting his or her dice block.
Boo Bell - Cannot be purchased - Player calls upon Boo to steal coins or stars from other players as if the player had encountered Boo on the game board.
Bowser Suit - Cannot be purchased - Player puts on a Bowser Suit and steals 20 coins from each opponent he or she passes on the game board during his or her turn. Players who have less than twenty coins lose all of the coins they have.
Bowser Bomb - Cannot be purchased - Is used automatically at the end of the turn it is acquired. Baby Bowser becomes Bowser and rolls three dice blocks. Any player who Bowser encounters during his movement about the board loses all of his or her coins.
Hidden Blocks - Cannot be purchased - Players find them randomly scattered about the board if Bonuses are turned on. Each contains either twenty coins or a Star, to be given to the player who finds it. Usually placed on Blue Spaces. Subject to criticism for drastically increasing the amount of luck inherent in the game.
List of new space spots
Item Space - is where a chance to play an Item Game in various locations.
Battle Space - is where a chance to play Similar to a 4-player game, but a chance to take some coins away.
Koopa's Bank Space - Players that pass this space must pay 5 coins to the bank. Players that land on this space get all of the coins in the bank!
List of boards
| Console | |
|---|---|
| Handheld | |
- Pirate Land
- Western Land
- Mystery Land
- Horror Land
- Space Land
- Bowser Land
Mini games
4 Player
- Abandon Ship (Players climb the masts in order to stay ahead of the rising water and reach the top first)
- Bombs Away (from Mario Party ver. 1 not only the bombs, but they add the Bullet Bills.)
- Bumper Balls (similar to Mario Party ver.1, except there are three different settings)
- Deep Sea Salvage (Use your submarine to swim around collecting sinking coins that are coming from the pirate ship.)
- Dizzy Dancing (Everybody is spun around and thrown against the corners. Object is to get the note in the center with the now funky controls.)
- Hexagon Heat (Identical to Mushroom Mix-up from Mario Party 1)
- Honeycomb Havoc (players take turns to jump a die. If any player got a Honeycomb, the player is knocked out. This continues until one player is left.)
- Hot Rope Jump (similar to Mario Party 1, but the fire is set to blue but it changes to orange in every 10 times and it keeps rolling the Hot Rope faster. Normally everybody jumped 20 times, now being the last leader to win.)
- Lava Tile Isle (This tile will move forwardly. Whoever is last wins the game.)
- Mecha-Marathon (Tap A continuously to give more strength to fly. The person flys the Mecha farthest wins.)
- Platform Peril (from Mario Party 1)
- Roll Call (See how many people doing something. Whoever gets the right call number wins.)
- Shell Shocked (Whoever shots a cannon to the player twice, the player is eliminated. This continues until one left.)
- Shy Guy Says (similar to Mario Party ver. 1 except the balloons were made. If anyone make a mistake, the Shy Guy will throw an arrow and pops the balloon and the player falls down.)
- Skateboard Scamper (similar to Mario Party 1 except the ghost)
- Slot Car Derby (from Mario Party ver. 1)
- Sneak 'n' Snore (Look out, hide in a barrel, if anyone didn't hide in a barrel, a Chain Chomp will pull the person in the pipe. If a player push the button, it'll open the door and whoever gets back to the door wins the game.)
- Tile Driver (Whoever gets the picture that's displayed in the center wins.
- Toad in the Box (Whoever matches Toad five times wins.)
- Totem Pole Pound (Whoever pounds the Totem Pole wins)
1 vs. 3
- Archer-ival (a single player will throw an arrow to the other players' wall. If a player throws Toad, the player wins 2 coins.)
- Bob-omb Barrage (single player moving the barrage, the other three are throwing the bombs. If any of the other three throwed the bombs to the single player's barrage, the bombs explode, and the other three wins. If any of the other three holds the bombs too long, the bombs explodes and the player's head spins.
- Bowl Over (similar to Mario Party ver. 1, normally they have one chance, now they have two chances)
- Crane Game (similar to Mario Party ver. 1. Normally, the player grapped one person in the pipe, now to get everything in the pipe line, for example, if the player get "+30" in 15 seconds, it increases to 35 seconds and so on.)
- Filet Relay (One player is the penguin with the fish attempting to reach the goal while the other three are doing the same thing in legs)
- Lights Out (a single player will do the hitting other players, while other three have lights. The light will go darker.)
- Look Away (If any of the other three players looked the same way as the single player's choice, they are knocked out. If all of the other three players knocked out, single player wins. 5 tunes played.)
- Move to the Music (a little similar to Mario Bandstand from Mario Party ver. 1, now a single player decides the move, and other three must duplicate what the single player moved.)
- Quicksand Cache (one player spins the desert by pressing the left or right arrow keys while other three running around looking for coins.
- Rainbow Run (Identical to Tightrope Treachery from Mario Party 1)
- Shock Drop or Roll (single player doing the rolling, and other three are jumping around. If all three landing on an electrocution, the single player wins.)
2 vs. 2
- Balloon Burst (similar to Mario Party ver. 1 in 4-player game)
- Bobsled Run (from Mario Party ver. 1)
- Cake Factory (One player is in charge of placing the cake, the other in charge of putting the strawberry on top of the cake. Both players must work in sync to make more cakes than the other team)
- Destruction Duet (Two players must work together to destroy their Bowser statue. The two statues are on the same field, so players can interfere with each others progress if they wish)
- Dungeon Dash (Similar to Desert Dash from Mario Party ver. 1)
- Handcar Havoc (from Mario Party ver. 1)
- Looney Lumberjacks (Using a large saw, a team must work together to cut a log)
- Magnet Carta (Use your magnetized car to grab as many coins as possible, and put them in your team's sack.)
- Sky Pilots (Teams race all the way to the finish line avoiding Bullet Bills and other enemies. The team who crosses the finish line wins.)
- Speed Hockey (Similar to Hockey game. Now the shells moving either direction to one of the two teams as players. Whoever scores three times wins.)
- Toad Bandstand (Similar to Mario Bandstand from Mario Party ver. 1, now Toad conducting.)
- Torpedo Targets (Blast a Bullet Bill into one of the bullseyes to score. Team with the most Bullseyes when time was up wins.)
Battle
- Bowser's Big Blast (Look out, if any player makes a mistake by hitting their plunger, the Bowser Machine will count "3, 2, 1," and it explodes the player. Completely random. Continues until there is only one player left)
- Bumper Balloon Cars (With a balloon on the back, and spikes on the front, players drive their bumper cars trying to pop each other's balloon)
- Crazy Cutters (from Mario Party ver. 1)
- Day at the Races (Bet on which character will win a race.)
- Face Lift (Similar to Mario Party ver. 1, but they change the character's faces. I.E. Mario, Luigi)
- Grab Bag (similar to Mario Party Ver. 1 instead of coins, now with mushrooms.)
- Hot Bob-omb (similar to Mario Party Ver. 1, normally, a player loses, now being the last leader wins the game.)
- Rakin' 'Em In (Mushrooms spin around on a central platform, using a rake machine, one must try to rake in the most mushrooms)
Item mini games
- Bowser Slots (Bowser Land) (Much similar to Slot Machine from Mario Party ver. 1 and casino games. You need to match up three of a kind of an Item to win that Item. Use A to jump, and to stop the slot machine from spinning.)
- Coffin Congestion (Horror Land) (This Item Mini-Game is a mix up game where all of the Items are placed inside of some coffins, and they all change places a few times ran. Once they are done changing places, you need to pick a coffin with a Item in it without Baby Bowser.)
- Give Me a Brake! (Western Land) (A toughy. You must hit A to stop the train cars, and then they’ll slide to a stop. You have hardly any way of knowing which one you’ll get. My old way of figuring it out was the third or fourth one after the one you chose, but maybe that’s the Dorrie Dip game from Mario Party 3. Anyway, here’s another one where you won’t get the item you want, but you do have a 5/6 chance of getting an item. Not bad chances.)
- Hammer Slammer (Space Land) (For this game, you must hit the A button repeatedly, then hit B to let the hammer go. It’s very hard to choose which item you want, and you don’t want to go too low or too high. One thing you can do is get the highest item. Simply hit the A button repeatedly until the hammer is standing straight up, then hit B. At that point, it will make you get the highest item on the metal bar thing. If you want a different item, you’ll need to either try to calculate its distance, or just hope for a miracle.)
- Mallet-Go-Round (Mystery Land) (In this game, the instant you hit A, you will swing your mallet, hitting the nearest block, with no time lag between your button, your swing, and the block. However, since the blocks move very fast, it’s still very hard to get the one you want. I can usually get the first item after Baby Bowser the easiest (usually a Mushroom). All items take two hits; Baby Bowser needs only one to ruin your day.)
- Roll Out the Barrels (Pirate Land) (In this game, you must follow the barrel with the item you want with your eyes the whole time it does a bunch of stuff, then run over and hit the B button when you’re next to it. It’s really not that hard. You even have 5/6 of a chance of getting an item anyway.)
Duel
- Mushroom Brew (Horror Land - Players must follow a recipe with each ingredient representing a button, the best brew wins)
- Psychic Safari (Mystery Land - Players tap the A button and B button repeatidly. The more buttons pressed, the stronger your mushroom stone.)
- Quick Draw Corks (Western Land - A simple reaction game, whoever presses the button first wins)
- Rock, Paper, Mario (Similar to Rock, Paper, Scissors)(Bowser Land)
- Sabre Slashes (Pirate Land)
- Time Bomb (Space Land)
1-Player
- Driver's Ed
New Features in Mario Party 2
All of the playable characters from the original game are still available, but this time, they are all dressed in costumes unique to the board players are playing on (except for Bowser Land, on which they wear their usual attire). Board characters include Toad, Baby Bowser, and Boo, with the notable absence of Bowser and Koopa Troopa (although both have roles in the game). Another new feature of the game is the introduction of buildings on the boards: the Item Shop and the Koopa Bank.
MP2 also features several new spaces, with the Mini Game Space and Mushroom Space absent: the Battle Space, the Item Space, and the Bank Space. The Item Space activates minigames specific to the board that allow one to collect an item, which is now used to further players' board strategy (as opposed to items being used to toggle universal settings in Mario Party). The Battle Space triggered the newly introduced Battle minigame, which pits players against each other for a giant pot of coins. The Bank Space gives players who land on it all deposits made in the Koopa Bank by others, who must deposit five coins if they pass the space. On Bowser's board, this reversed: players passing the bank get 5 coins, and the player landing on the bank must pay back the interest.
The game also features seven brand new boards (including Mini- Game Coaster) with the return of Mini-Game Stadium. 43 new mini-games were introduced in MP2, while old MP1 minigames were updated and some were retitled. Three new types of minigame were also introduced: the Battle minigame, the Item minigame, and the Duel minigame.
Trivia
Mini-game name puns
- Toad in the Box is a pun on Jack-in-the-box.
- Archer-ival is a pun on the term arch-rival.
- Shock Drop or Roll is a pun on the phrase stop, drop, and roll.
- Magnet Carta is a pun on the Magna Carta.
- Hot Bob-omb is a pun on hot potato.
- Give Me a Brake! is a pun on the phrase give me a break.
- Bumper Balls is from bumper cars.
- Rock, Paper, Mario is from Rock, Paper, Scissors.
Other games use alliteration or rhymes, or are exact quotes of familiar phrases.