Card Party

Card Party is a side-game from Mario Party 5. It is very similar to the main game, however in the form of a card game. Hosted by Mamar (in charge of Bonus Mode), this board is entirely made up of cards, with character game pieces instead of actual characters. The first thing that players do is choose the size of the board (7x7, 8x8, 9x9, or 10x10). Then, the game pieces is chosen (Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Princess Daisy, or Waluigi). Next, the order of play is chosen by picking cards numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4. The player that picks 1 is first, and so on. When this is done, players choose where to start on the board. Once the game starts, each player rolls the dice (not Dice Block) and moves a certain number of spaces. As they go turning cards over, they can pick which direction they want to go. When a new card is turned over, it reveals a Path Card, Item Card, Event Card, Bowser Card, or Star Card.

Path Cards
These cards simply open a pathway for players to continue traveling. This is where they choose which direction they want to go, depending on which way the path went. It is always best to head toward the Star cards, as the winner is determined by the number of Stars. Sometimes, another die is revealed from under a Path Card, letting the player roll it and adding the number rolled to the current number of spaces left.

Item Cards
These cards give useful items that can be used by pushing at the beginning of the player's turn. The items used are taken from the main game and have similar effects.


 * Cursed Mushroom: The user spins a Cursed Mushroom wheel to determine which opponent takes the curse, bringing their maximum die roll down to three.


 * Mushroom: Players get two dice to roll, possibly doubling their move. (three if the Dice Bonus occurs, possibly tripling the number of spaces rolled)


 * Warp Pipe: Using this card turns one card into a four-way junction and reveals all the Path Cards around it.

Event Cards
These cards bring an unexpected event that can be good or bad.


 * Switch Places: The player trades places with a random opponent.


 * Send Away: The player gets sent to a random space on the board.


 * Boo: This summons Boo to steal a Star Card (regardless of what kind) from another player and gives it to the player.


 * Red Boo: Summons an angry red Boo that steals the player's Star Card (regardless of what kind) and gave it to someone else.


 * Black Hole: Sends a player back to Start.

Bowser Card
When this card is turned over, Bowser or Koopa Kid appear to cause trouble. Bowser may....


 * send all players back to start

Star Cards
These all look the same from the top side, but once they are flipped over, there are three possibilities:


 * Star Card: Worth one Star. Occasionally transforms into a Ztar Card.


 * Double Star: Worth two Stars.


 * Ztar Card: Worth -1 Star (it is possible to have a negative number of Stars). Occasionally transforms into a Star Card.

Last Card Event
If one player is in fourth place when left only one card in game, one of those events can happen. Once the event is done, normal gameplay resumes.


 * Star Chance: The fourth place player rolls two green dice with a Star in one of each of their faces; if the player gets either or both Star faces, the player gets a Star or two.


 * Dice Bonus: Adds one more die to the player in last place. If a Mushroom Card is used, then they will roll three dice.


 * Time Stopper: The player rolls the die and the number on the die becomes the number of turns that the player has to move. Only the last place player moves during that event.


 * Item Bonus: Adds more items to the player's inventory.

End
At the end of the game, the player with the most Stars wins. If there is a tie, players will then have to play a tie-breaker game to determine the winner. Eight cards are placed facing down, and players take turns choosing cards until one player reveals the Star Card. This player is then declared the winner.

Trivia

 * In the character selection screen, the game pieces are labeled, Wario and Waluigi's pieces are swapped.
 * The Warp Pipe card's description states that it can "ensnare everybody", but this is untrue. It has no negative effect on other players.
 * This is one of the only games where the CPUs pick their own characters.