The game involves three players lying around as stuffed dolls while another player, being hoisted by a crane, tries to pick them up and drop them in a pipe. Characters can try to wiggle free if grabbed by repeatedly tapping . The player attached to the crane can hold on to the character they have grabbed by repeatedly tapping ; this is not necessary for grabbed objects, as they cannot be dropped once picked up.
In the original Mario Party, the player on the crane has to pick one of the other characters only. The player can also choose to pick up a Treasure Chest worth ten Coins, a Coin Bag worth five Coins, or a single Coin. If the player on the crane successfully drops a character into the pipe, they will take one-third of that player's Coins, but if the character is dropped to the ground before reaching the pipe, the game ends and the solo player gets nothing. This version is set inside a building similar to a claw machine.
In Mario Party 2, the rules of the game underwent a change, as the player on the crane must capture all three opponents. To make this task easier, time bonuses (stopwatches with "+15," "+20," or "+30" imprinted) were introduced. When the player drops one of them into the pipe, more time will be added to the game timer according to what the watch shows. This version is set inside a machine in the style of a lunar landscape, and the crane resembles a UFO.
In the Mini-Game Coaster, the human player always plays against the team of three.
In Mario Party, the controls for the solo player on the Game Rules screen say the A Button is to "(Repeatedly) Grab," but in Mario Party 2, the controls for the solo player say the A Button is to "(Repeatedly) Hold On."
