Bingo!



Bingo! is an event that can occur in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Though it only happens on occasion, the event occurs strictly while the player is in battle. The results of the event rely on luck and skill, and the results of the event can vary greatly. Depending on the luck and skill of the player, he or she can receive good effects, bad effects, or absolutely none at all.

Each time a player successfully executes an Action Command of an attack, a card will appear in the upper right corner of the battle screen. This card will show one of five icons upon it: Mushroom, Flower, Star, Shine Sprite, or Poison Mushroom. The next time an Action Command is done successfully, another card will appear. If the two symbols on the two cards do not match, they will simply disappear and the player will start anew with their next successful Action Command. However, if the two symbols do match, they will stay where they are. Once the player executes a third Action Command successfully, the two symbols will appear in the middle of the screen along with a third symbol. This setup is reminiscent of a slot machine. The first two icons on are still, while the third icon remains spinning at a very fast speed. The player must stop the icon with the A button. If the player can skillfully match the third icon up with the first two, a certain event will occur depending on which 3 icons were lined up.

If the player knows what to look for in the icons, it is fairly easy to stop it on the picture wanted. The eyes of the Flower are far apart, but the eyes of the Shine Sprite are much closer together. Additionally, the colours can be watched to aid timing; for example, the Flower has white petals, and the Poison Shroom is much darker than the other pictures, making it easy to avoid.

Effects

 * If the three images are all Mushrooms, then the player's Health Points will be fully restored.
 * If the three images are all Flowers, then the player's Flower Points will be fully restored.
 * If the three images are all Stars, then the player's Star Power will be fully restored.
 * If the three images are all Shine Sprites, all of the player's HP, FP, and Star Power will be fully restored.
 * If the three images are all Poison Mushrooms, the player's HP, FP and Star Power will decrease by half of their current amount. Every Audience member leaves. Obviously, if the icon being matched is a Poison Mushroom, it is wise to deliberately fail the Bingo event.

Additionally, in all cases except the Poison Mushroom, the Audience will be filled; for the first three types, half the capacity of the Audience will be filled, and in the case of the Shine Sprite "Bingo!", the whole Audience will fill up. For the rest of the current turn and the following three turns, Action Commands and Stylish Moves (but not Appealing) will give much more Star Power than usual - double for regular matches and triple for a Shine Sprite one.

In the fight with the Shadow Queen, she absorbs the souls of every member in the Audience. However, after this and a rather lengthy cutscene, a scripted event will occur in which the player's next three attacks with successful Action Commands automatically end in successfully completing a Shine Sprite Bingo, thus getting the Audience back. For this reason, it is recommended to use expensive moves in the first couple of turns; especially moves using a lot of Star Power, as they do not give the player a card. Finishing off with a move consuming a lot of FP is sensible, as the player's HP, FP and Star Power will be automatically refilled.