Mario Party DS

Mario Party DS is the eleventh installment in the Mario Party series (thirteenth in Japan) and was released for Europe on November 23, 2007. It includes more than seventy new minigames and five new game boards. It's functions include touch control, microphone control and dual-screen challenges. It is possible for up to four players to play in wireless mode.

Story
The story begins with a night in the Mushroom Kingdom, where five shining objects in the sky fall to the land. Mario spots one, and discusses it with his friends the next day. Kamek interrupts when he drops an invitation down to the gang. Bowser sent it, and it says that he is inviting them to his castle for a big feast, as apology for his evil deeds. Donkey Kong and Diddy get an invitation as well. The crew sets off for the castle, but they find that, as one may suspect, it was a trick. Bowser and Junior trap Mario and friends in a cage, at which point Bowser uses a magic wand called the Minimizer to shrink them all down, and they are literally thrown out. This leaves Bowser to look for the five shining objects, the Sky Crystals, in peace. The gang decides to get back at Bowser and heads back to the castle. To be the one Superstar that defeats Bowser causes the eight friends to pit themselves against each other for the great title.

Early in their journey, Wiggler begs the small heroes for help, as a nasty Piranha Plant has infested her garden. The plant was defeated when his own Bomb Seeds were fed to him by the heroes. A grateful Wiggler rewards them with a Sky Crystal, which landed in her garden. Shortly after, Toadette came to the heroes for help, asking them to defeat a Hammer Bro that was abusing her instruments. The Hammer Bro was defeated in a drum-off, at which point Toadette found a Sky Crystal and gave it to the gang. Having two now, they set off for the jungle, where they find their monkey friend Diddy Kong. The anxious chimp shows the heroes that Donkey Kong was turned to stone by Dry Bones. The friends faced off against Dry Bones on his arena, where magic hexes were used to destroy him. Donkey Kong was restored, and quickly remembered the free food promised at Bowser's Castle. He and Diddy rush off, but not before Diddy hands over a Sky Crystal.

At this point, Bowser's Castle is in the sight of the gang. However, they find a Koopa Troopa asking for help, as Kamek has trapped his grandfather, Koopa Krag, in one of his many library books. The heroes fight Kamek after surviving a long hallway, at which point Koopa Krag is saved, and gives them a Sky Crystal. After Kamek's defeat, they finally find Bowser's Castle, where they are stuffed in a pinball machine that Bowser Jr. uses to mess them up. The one who collected the most Stars in the pinball machine broke out and got ready to fight Bowser. Bowser threatened to shrink them once again, but just then Donkey Kong and Diddy arrived. DK, frantic for the free food, runs around and smashes the Minimizer. This brings the Mario gang to normal size, but Bowser reveals one more surprise - the Mega Morph Belt. The device transforms Bowser into Blockhead Bowser, and the heroes fight him by punching his golden Bowser Block, the weak spot.

Upon the Koopa King's defeat, Bowser and his son were tied up, and Mario took the final Sky Crystal from him. They formed to make a crystal DS, which was made exclusively for the fun challenge, Triangle Twisters. Bowser admits that he wanted the Sky Crystals just so that he could play the game. After hearing this, Mario decides to untie the two, and they all play Triangle Twisters together, thus ending the story. As for DK and Diddy, they eat the entire feast by themselves, and are quite satisfied.

Characters
There are eight playable characters. The tiny characters will encounter friends and gigantic foes from the Marioverse.

Playable Characters

 * Mario
 * Luigi
 * Peach
 * Daisy
 * Yoshi
 * Toad
 * Wario
 * Waluigi

Team Names
In Tag Team Mode, each combination of characters create one unique Team name. This are the Team Names of each players.


 * Mario's team names
 * With Luigi: Mario Bros.
 * With Peach: Fan Favorites
 * With Daisy: Flower Players
 * With Wario: Foe Bros.
 * With Waluigi: 'Stache Stars
 * With Yoshi: Old Buddies
 * With Toad: Fungus Friends


 * Luigi's team names
 * With Peach: Green Peaches
 * With Daisy: Shy Sidekicks
 * With Wario: 'Stache Clashers
 * With Waluigi: Lean Meanies
 * With Yoshi: Green Machines
 * With Toad: Green Mushrooms


 * Peach' team names
 * With Daisy: Power Princesses
 * With Wario: Rotten Peaches
 * With Waluigi: Black Peaches
 * With Yoshi: Sweetie Pies
 * With Toad: Peachy 'Shrooms


 * Daisy's team names
 * With Wario: Wilted Flowers
 * With Waluigi: Skinny Stars
 * With Yoshi: Cutie Pies
 * With Toad: Button Mushrooms


 * Yoshi's team names
 * With Wario: Unlikely Pals
 * With Waluigi: Purple Dinos
 * With Toad: Star Supporters


 * Toad's team names
 * With Wario: Poison Mushrooms
 * With Waluigi: Bad Mushrooms


 * Wario's team names
 * With Waluigi: Bad Boys

Modes

 * Story Mode (1 Player): In this solo mode, the story is as mentioned. As players make their way to Bowser’s castle, they must win first place on each game board, then beat the Boss Minigame for each board.
 * Party Mode (1-4 Players): Compete against player or system-controlled players on a party board in a Battle Royale, Tag Battle or Duel Battle.
 * Minigame Mode (1-4 Players): Play six games that draw upon the pool of all minigames for challenges that don’t take place on the game boards: Free Play, Step It Up, Battle Cup, Score Scuffle, Boss Bash and Rocket Rascals.
 * Puzzle Mode (1-2 Players): Play six puzzle-action games, which include five classics from previous Mario Party games. This mode also includes the new touch-controlled Triangle Twisters, which has two play modes. In Frenzy Mode, players clear the field by twisting triangles so they connect with those of the same color. In Focus Mode, they twist them to build complex shapes, like turtles and pinwheels.
 * Multiplayer (2-4 Players): Using one game card, players can wirelessly share Party Mode and Minigame Mode (2-4 players), plus Puzzle Mode (2 players) and the download-only Extras Mode with nearby friends who have a Nintendo DS.
 * Extras Mode: Includes games that are designed for two-player gaming: cooperative Pen Pals and competitive Desert Duel.
 * Gallery Mode: Check out 150 prizes, which includes figures, music and cut-scenes.

Spaces

 * Blue Space
 * Red Space
 * ? Space
 * Friend Space
 * Duel Space
 * Bowser Space

Items
Mario Party DS introduces two types of items that are used during gameboard gameplay: Normal items and new items called Hexes. Items are basically selfuse items that the player can use by itself; they can be perchased in Item Shops. Hexes are new items that players use to place them on spaces; they can be obtained by passing a Hex Area.

Normal Items

 * Double Dice Set
 * Triple Dice Set
 * Halfway Dice Block
 * Warp Dice Block
 * Snag Bag
 * Star Pipe
 * Block Sensor
 * Grab Bag

Hexes

 * 10-Coin Hex
 * 20-Coin Hex
 * Coin Swap Hex
 * 1-Star Hex
 * 2-Star Hex
 * Space Swap Hex
 * Star Block
 * Coin Block

Trivia

 * This is the second Mario Party without Koopa Kid at the Bowser spaces; the first was Mario Party 8.
 * This is the first Mario Party without a visual host character but the voice of the host.
 * The characters Hammer Bro, Birdo, Blooper, Dry Bones, Boo and Toadette were playable in the previous game, but not in this one. However, all but the second and third appear as supporting characters.
 * Although Birdo and Blooper do not appear, a pink Yoshi Egg appears in Memory Mash, and Blooper is mentioned in the description of the item Kamek's Inkwell.
 * This is the first Mario Party since Mario Party 4 to not have any Donkey Kong spaces.
 * This marks the first appearances of Diddy Kong and Bowser Jr. in a Mario Party game.