Mario Party (series)

The Mario Party series is a series of s featuring the characters of the Super Mario franchise, in which four human- or computer-controlled characters compete in a board game interspersed with s. The series is known for its party game elements, including the often unpredictable multiplayer modes that allow play with up to four (and, in one case, eight) human players. The series was created under Nintendo's supervision by Hudson Soft and CAProduction, and was inaugurated on the Nintendo 64, where its first game launched in Japan on December 18, 1998, and in the West in early 1999.

Hudson developed all main installments until several of its key designers left the company, leading to its eventual disestablishment. After eight entries on home consoles and two on handhelds, the ex-Hudson staffers then joined NDcube, where they developed , then restarted production of the Mario Party series, with the new development studio's first installment appearing on the Wii in 2012.

The Mario Party series currently holds the record for the longest-running minigame series in video game history. According to Nintendo's official reports, by December 2014, the various games in the series had sold a cumulative total of 39.6 million copies worldwide.

Gameplay
The Mario Party series takes the form of a traditional board game that players can play by directing characters on various themed game boards. Playable character rosters generally consist of major Super Mario characters, including the main protagonist, Mario; his brother, Luigi; his love interest, Princess Peach; his sidekick Yoshi; his antagonists and rivals Wario, Donkey Kong, Waluigi, and Boo; and his friends Toad, Princess Daisy, Toadette, Birdo, and Rosalina, among others. Each game features its own variations on the cast and storyline, with Bowser, the archnemesis of Mario and most of his friends, serving as the main antagonist in most Mario Party titles. There are several modes available for play in each game, each of which provides its own rules and challenges.

Party Mode
Every game in the "main" branch of the Mario Party 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 (hits) a Dice Block and moves ahead the number of spaces shown (ranging from 1 to 10) to make progress on the board, which usually has branching paths. There are many different types of spaces players can land on, each producing a different effect. On most boards, players earn Stars by reaching a Star Space in a random location on the board and purchasing the Star for the specific number of coins stated (usually 20). Every time the Star is purchased, the Star Space moves to one of several predetermined alternate locations, almost always occupying a Blue Space. In early games, players could also pay a visit to or use items with Boo and have him steal coins or Stars from their opponents for 5 or 50 coins, respectively. In addition to buying the Stars, coins are also necessary to purchase power-up items and to determine the game winner in the event of a tie. Players gain coins by landing on Blue Spaces or performing well in the minigame played at the end of each turn, and they lose them by landing on Red Spaces or by losing certain minigames.

At the end of each round of play (i.e., after each of the four players has taken their turn), a random minigame commences. The minigames are generally short (about a minute in length) and fairly simple. In most situations, winners of a minigame receive 10 coins for their victory; sometimes, losers have to pay winners a sum of coins. Each Mario Party game features any number of minigames (ranging from 50 to 90), divided into several different categories. 4-Player minigames include cooperative games, in which all four players collectively win or lose; competitive free-for-alls, in which players must compete against each other in order to win a limited number of coins; and 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. Other minigame categories include 2-vs.-2 games, which place players on teams so that they have to cooperate with others to win (though they still compete against each other in the main game); 1-vs.-3 games, where a lone player is placed against a team of three, and either the team or the lone player must survive for a certain amount of time while the opposition tries to take them out; and single-player games, which occur when a player lands on a special space and give them the opportunity to earn or lose coins depending on their performance. Playing in these minigame categories often depends on the color of the space players have landed on. For example, if two players land on a Blue Space and two players land on a Red Space, a 2-vs.-2 minigame is initiated. If a player lands on a green space, the game randomly decides whether the character color is blue or red.

Three new types of minigames were introduced in Mario Party 2. Battle minigames are like the 4-Player minigames, but instead of winners earning 10 coins each, each player contributes a randomly selected number of coins. The winner of the minigame receives approximately 70% of the pot, the second-place finisher receives the other 30%, and a random player occasionally gets coins left over from rounding. Item minigames allow a single player to take a chance to collect an item, which can be used to further their board strategy. Duel minigames pit two players against each other, with the player that initiates the duel wagering coins or even a Star against their opponent; the winner receives all coins or Stars wagered. Starting with Mario Party 7, the player no longer chooses the wager in a duel. Rather, the duel takes place, and the prize to the winner, if any, is randomly determined.

Bowser has taken on varied roles in the gameplay of the Mario Party series. In almost all entries, he can be summoned via a special space of his own, where he tries to steal from the player. Starting in Mario Party 4, he hosts his own minigames, where in addition to rewarding the winning player, he tries to burn the losing players with his fire breath, forcing them to give up coins, items, or even Stars. Bowser's minigames originally appeared only in multiplayer format, but starting in Mario Party 7, single-player games of that category began to be featured. His son, Bowser Jr., got his own minigames starting in Mario Party 9, where he challenges two players to compete in a minigame with him. If Bowser Jr. is successfully defeated, the players each receive five Mini Stars; if not, then he takes five from each player. In Mario Party 10, Bowser became a playable character in a mode all his own, where he, controlled by a fifth player, would challenge the other four players as they progressed through the game by trying to catch them and take away their hit points.

At the end of the game, Bonus Stars are given to the players. In the first six games, there are three Bonus Stars given out. The Coin Star award is given to the player who collected the most coins overall during the game, the Minigame Star award is awarded to the player who collected the most coins in minigames, and the Happening Star award is given to the player who landed on the most Event Spaces. In Mario Party 7, Mario Party 8, and Mario Party DS, the roster of potential Bonus Stars was expanded to six; still, only three would be chosen, and it was random as to which ones got picked. 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 player 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 or more players have the same number of both Stars and coins, a Dice Block is rolled to determine the winner.

Starting in Mario Party 9, the format of the series was overhauled. Instead of trying to collect coins to buy Stars, players receive Mini Stars if they pass by them. While doing that, players must also try to avoid Mini Ztars, which deduct their current number of Mini Stars. Furthermore, Mario Party 9 and Mario Party 10 had all four players moving around together in one vehicle, instead of each player having to wait their turn in a single spot on the board. The number of potential Bonus Stars was reduced to five, and in Mario Party 10, the number of Stars that would be chosen was also reduced to two. At the end of each stage, the number of Mini Stars the player collects is converted into Party Points, which can be used to buy new stages, difficulties, and bonus content.

Most of the handheld installments in the Mario Party series feature drastically different rules than their console counterparts, with the exception of Mario Party DS. Mario Party Advance is a more single-player oriented game in which players go through Shroom City and solve various quests with characters, each having their own story arc. Mario Party: Island Tour has characters racing their opponents to the finish line with each board having unique rules and requirements, and Mario Party: Star Rush has characters exploring a nonlinear, grid-based layout while playing as a generic Toad, collecting characters of the Super Mario franchise as they appear on the board and defeating bosses in their special minigames. Mario Party: The Top 100 focuses entirely on minigames, where the board gameplay is secondary, vice versa to other Mario Party games' focuses on board gameplay.

Minigame mode
In addition to Party Mode, every Mario Party has a minigame mode in which minigames are played without the board game. Minigame modes vary from game to game, but later games have many different variations. In one such example from Mario Party 5, each player tries to fill a board with as many spaces as possible in their color by winning minigames. In Mario Party 6 and onward, there is one game in the minigame mode intended for single-player mode.

Arcade
In addition to its home console and handheld installments, the Mario Party brand has also been licensed into seven Japan-only arcade games. Six were developed by Capcom:
 * Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party ("Super Mario Rolling Party of Mystery"), released in 2004
 * Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party 2 ("Super Mario Rolling Party of Mystery 2"), released in 2005
 * Mario Party Fushigi no Korokoro Catcher ("Mario Party Mysterious Rolling Catcher"), released in 2009
 * Mario Party Kurukuru Carnival ("Mario Party Spinning Carnival"), released in 2012
 * Mario Party Fushigi no Korokoro Catcher 2 ("Mario Party Mysterious Rolling Catcher 2"), released in 2013
 * Mario Party Challenge World, released in 2016

One was developed by :
 * Dokidoki Mario Chance!, released in 2003

These games generally feature minigames from the main entries in the Mario Party series, and can be played by up to six players instead of the normal four, except for the one-player game Dokidoki Mario Chance!

Playable characters
The Mario Party series features a total of 32 playable characters among its various installments. Below is a list of these characters and the games in which they are playable.

Lists of minigames
A major hallmark of the Mario Party series that has contributed greatly to its popularity is its tremendous supply of minigames. In total, 1,262 minigames have been designed for the various games in the series, including returning minigames. Very rarely do the English minigame names correspond to the Japanese originals; Nintendo of America's localization team changed most minigame names to use word rhyme, alliteration, puns on English-language phrases, and references to United States and international popular culture. This practice was also done by Nintendo of Europe for Mario Party: Island Tour and, to a lesser extent, Mario Party 10, when it produced its own localizations independent of Nintendo of America's.

Reception
Critical reception to the Mario Party series has been mixed to positive, much of the praise for its games going towards the multiplayer modes. On, individual installments in the series have aggregate review scores ranging from 54 to 80 out of 100. While the Nintendo 64 installments garnered generally positive reviews, reception to the following games was more mixed, with reviewers lambasting the lack of changes done to the formula and dull single-player gameplay. Mario Party 9's overhaul of the mechanics received praise from critics, and Mario Party Superstars is the most critically acclaimed installment since the original, although reception to the NDcube installments released between those two has been far more negative with the exception of Super Mario Party. The gaming magazine  in particular was infamous for its consistently vitriolic review of the series, as the quote above shows, leading Nintendo of America to send a sarcastic certificate to the magazine's office over its reviews of Mario Party and Mario Party 2.

Controversy
In Mario Party, certain minigames required players to rotate the controller's joystick, including one at the Mini-Game House in which the player is challenged to wind up a mechanical Fly Guy toy. Some players used the palms of their hands, rather than their thumbs, to rotate the joystick. As a result, they often endured blisters. In an act of contrition, Nintendo gave away free gaming gloves to the victims of these blisters. Some wore away the joystick because it was not very durable. So negative was the response to these minigames that Nintendo decided to largely retire joystick rotation from the series' sequels. The only exception to this rule is Vicious Vending from Mario Party 5, where the joystick must be rotated only once to turn a lever; additionally, in Mario Party 4, the joystick must be rotated once in the Lottery Shop. The Nintendo 64 - Nintendo Switch Online version of Mario Party includes a notice advising of Nintendo's recommendation to rotate the joystick with one's thumb, and the Mario Party Superstars version of Tug o' War contains a warning against rotating with one's palm. 360-degree control rotation in minigames returned in Mario Party: Island Tour, where the series was introduced to the Nintendo 3DS, which has a circle pad that players can spin safely.

In July 2007, Mario Party 8 was recalled from United Kingdom game stores shortly after its release date. Though Nintendo cited it as the result of a mere assembly error, this allegedly came about because on the board Shy Guy's Perplex Express, when Kamek utters a magic spell to alter the order of cars on the board, he uses the word "spastic," a term used to refer to an intellectually disabled person. Complaints were raised from consumers because the aforementioned term is considered highly offensive in the United Kingdom. As such, the game was temporarily banned from the UK while the offending word was replaced at code level and the software was reproduced. Mario Party 8 was rereleased in August 2007 with "erratic" used instead.

Trivia

 * Luigi mentions the Mario Party series in his diary in Paper Mario.
 * The Mario Party games are mentioned in one of the Coin Block/Brick Block cards in Nintendo Monopoly. Here, the player gets $50 from every player for organizing a Mario Party in the 2006 version and $10 in the 2010 version.