Mario Party 5

Mario Party 5 is the fifth installment in the Mario Party series. The most notable change in this game is that the shopping system was replaced with the new Orb system.

In Story Mode, a playable character has to face Bowser and the Koopa Kids (known as Mini Bowser in PAL regions) throughout every stage. Eventually, the character will face Bowser one-on-one.

The game is notable for featuring places and characters that appeared in or resembled places and characters from Paper Mario. The most prominent of this is the Star Spirits.

Story
From the Mario Party 5 Instruction booklet: In the night sky, past the moon and beyond the stars, there's a dream world known as Dream Depot, where everyone's dreams come together. This is the real land of dreams... In this land, there are Star Guards who protect the dreams of everyone. One dreamy night, the Star Guards thought of something. "Many dreams arrive here at Dream Depot every day," they said, "so... why don't we offer those with the power of dreaming a chance to visit?" Eventually, they decided to invite Mario and his closest friends because, when it comes to dreamers, nobody dreams bigger than they do! The Star Guards prepared for their guests' arrival by creating many fun-filled games for them to play. And that is how this adventure for Mario and his friends both old and new began!

In Story Mode, Bowser and Koopa Kid are planning to ruin everyone's dreams, and the player must stop Bowser from taking over said dreams. If the player clears the five boards, they must face the Koopa Kids in Bowser Nightmare, and if they beat that board, they fight Bowser in Frightmare.

Playable Characters
Returning Playable Characters:
 * Mario – Red
 * Luigi – Blue
 * Peach – Pink
 * Yoshi – Green
 * Wario – Purple
 * Daisy – Yellow
 * Waluigi – Black

New Playable Characters:
 * Boo – Light Blue
 * Koopa Kid / Mini-Bowser – Orange
 * Toad – White

New Features
This new installment to the Mario Party series comes with new mini-games, characters, and maps. Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid are now playable characters, as is Donkey Kong in Super Duel Mode once the player unlocks him. In Party Mode, he now shows up on Donkey Kong spaces and either gives the players coins, stars, or starts a Donkey Kong mini-game which involve collecting bananas for a predetermined amount of coins.

The game was also significant for being the second in the series to introduce 3D game boards. Previous titles, all except for Mario Party 4, utilized pre-rendered backgrounds, which were static and limited in their presentation. As a result, all subsequent Mario Party titles, with the exception of "Mario Party Advance" on the Game Boy Advance, have employed 3D backgrounds allowing for much more dynamic fields of play.

Mario Party 5 has a few new features. First off, in Story Mode, all the Koopa Kids move at the same time, quickening game play. The point of single player mode is to deplete all of the Koopa Kids' coins by beating them in mini-games.

It also features two whole new modes: Bonus Mode, and Super Duel Mode. In Bonus Mode, players could choose one of three bonus games: Beach Volleyball, Ice Hockey, and Card Party.

Super Duel Mode
In Super Duel Mode, one buys vehicle parts using points received by playing mini-games and build a battle vehicle to use in different tournaments or against friends. To unlock all the different parts, one must play all the tournaments and beat certain opponents. There are a total of 44 different parts you can use to customize your vehicle. The last two: Bob-omb Wall and Bowser Punch are unlock after all other parts are purchased. There are five symbols that indicate different aspects of the vehicle's ability:
 * Red Heart: Health
 * Green Steering Wheel: Handling
 * White Boxing Glove: Power
 * Blue Vehicle Icon: Top Speed
 * Yellow Vehicle Icon: Acceleration

After the player has made their vehicle, there are various options they have in order to construct it better:

Vehicle Parts
The following is a list of all the parts the player can use:

Body Types
Free Body Types
 * Mushroom Body: This body type is standard and has a low defense.

Body Types Costing Five Coins
 * Heart Body: This body type is sturdy and adorable.
 * Choo-Choo Body: This body type is fast and strong.
 * Star Body: This body type is fast, but not very durable.

Body Types Costing Seven Coins
 * Spiny Body: This body type is strong, but slow; it has improved offensive abilities.
 * Egg Body: This body type is made of Yoshi eggs, and is able to increase defensive and offensive abilities.

Body Types Costing Ten Coins
 * Boo Body: This body type is very fast, but weak; it is visible only on radar most of the time.
 * Lakitu Cloud Body: This body type is made of clouds, so it's fast and light, but also rather fragile.

Body Types Costing Fifteen Coins
 * DK Body: This body type has a higher offensive and defensive rating because it is made of barrels.
 * E. Gadd Body: This body type was designed by Professor E. Gadd; it's very advanced.

Body Types Costing Twenty Coins
 * Skolar Body: This body type has superior defense against vehicle and bomb attacks; all its other abilities are average.

Engines
Free Engines
 * Mushroom Engine: This engine is good for learning.

Engines Costing Five Coins
 * Goomba Engine: This engine offers above-average acceleration and speed.
 * Star Engine: This engine is fast, but hard to handle.
 * Wiggler Engine: This engine is slow, but easy to control.

Engines Costing Seven Coins
 * Choo-Choo Engine: This engine is extremely fast, but extremely hard to control.
 * Ztar Engine: This engine doesn't have a high top speed, but it has great acceleration and is easy to control.

Engines Costing Ten Coins
 * Goomba-Trio Engine: This engine is terrible to control, but it has good acceleration and power.
 * Super Wiggler Engine: This engine is great to handle, but doesn't have great speed.

Engines Costing Fifteen Coins
 * E. Gadd Engine: This engine has excellent speed and control, as it was designed by Professor E. Gadd.
 * DK Engine: This engine is shaped like a banana. Its abilities change from battle to battle.

Engines Costing Twenty Coins
 * Skolar Engine: This is a great engine that has good control and speed.

Tires
Free Tires
 * Mushroom Tires: These are basic tires.

Tires Costing Five Coins
 * Star Tires: These tires are fast, but tough to handle.
 * Goomba Tires: These tires are fairly fast and have good acceleration, but their other abilities are average.
 * Wiggler Tires: These tires are slow, but they handle very well.

Tires Costing Seven Coins
 * Choo-Choo Tires: These are exceptionally fast tires, but are difficult to control.
 * Spiny Tires: These tires have great control and acceleration, but low top speed.

Tires Costing Ten Coins
 * Lakitu Cloud: These tires are hovering clouds, so ground conditions don't affect them.
 * Super Wiggler Tires: These tires are very slow, but have great traction.

Tires Costing Fifteen Coins
 * E. Gadd Jet: Another advanced creation from Professor E. Gadd; it has exceptional control.
 * DK Tires: These tires are made of barrels; their control can be unpredictable.

Tires Costing Twenty Coins
 * Skolar Tires: These tires have great control over any kind of ground condition.

Weapons
Free Weapons
 * Mushroom Gun: This gun is small and works well for practice.

Weapons Costing Five Coins
 * Bob-omb Cannon: These Bob-ombs do major damage, but the fire is briefly delayed.
 * Seed Machine Gun: This gun shoots seeds rapidly, but they don't inflict much damage.

Weapons Costing Seven Coins
 * Pokey Tower Gun: This gun shoots two bullets that have average power and move diagonally.
 * Piranha Plant: This weapon performs above average and is great for long range combat.
 * Bullet Bill Gun: These Bullet Bills seek out opponents and do average damage.

Weapons Costing Ten Coins
 * Mr. I Laser: This weapon is a fast laser with good range, but only average firepower.
 * Bowser Breath: This weapon does a great deal of damage, but only at close range targets.

Weapons Costing Fifteen Coins
 * E. Gadd Cannon: This is yet another top of the line design from Professor E. Gadd, which fires opponent-seeking missiles.
 * DK Gun: This weapon is very powerful, but very heavy.

Weapons Costing Twenty Coins
 * Skolar Gun: This is a solid weapon.

Weapons Costing Thirty Coins
 * Bob-omb Wall: This weapon releases a wall of crushing Bob-ombs and raises your machine's speed.
 * Bowser Punch: This weapon gives very powerful punches at close range.

Super Duel Battles
The player can choose the battle from the garage menu, but only Battle Competition on easy and normal are available at the start. In order to unlock the rest, the player must complete each game as it opens on the normal or hard level. If the player loses any game, he/she has to start the tournament over.

Battle Competition
The goal of this 90 second game is to eliminate the opponent. If nobody wins, the battle starts over. The player must fire his/her weapon at the other player and keep moving to avoid opposing attacks.

Flag Competition
In this game, the object is to collect three flags before the opposing player does. This is also a 90 second game; the game restarts if nobody collects three flags. Although hitting the opposing player will slow him/her down, attacking the opposing member is not the goal of the game.

Robot-Rabbit Competition
This time the goal is to wipe out three Robot-Rabbits before the opposing player does. Again, the player can shoot and slow down the opposing member. The Robot-Rabbits are very fast and can tunnel underground.

Boards

 * Toy Dream
 * Rainbow Dream
 * Pirate Dream
 * Undersea Dream
 * Future Dream
 * Sweet Dream
 * Bowser Nightmare (unlockable)

Capsules
Below is a list of the 28 capsules in Mario Party 5.
 * Bubble Capsule
 * Cursed Mushroom Capsule
 * Klepto Capsule
 * Mushroom Capsule
 * Super Mushroom Capsule
 * Warp Pipe Capsule
 * Wiggler Capsule
 * Bob-omb Capsule
 * Bullet Bill Capsule
 * Coin Block Capsule
 * Goomba Capsule
 * Hammer Bro. Capsule
 * Koopa Bank Capsule
 * Paratroopa Capsule
 * Piranha Plant Capsule
 * Spiny Capsule
 * Kamek Capsule
 * Lakitu Capsule
 * Magikoopa Capsule
 * Mr. Blizzard Capsule
 * Ukiki Capsule
 * Bone Capsule
 * Chain Chomp Capsule
 * Chance Capsule
 * Duel Capsule
 * Miracle Capsule
 * Tweester Capsule
 * Bowser Capsule

Music
The music in Mario Party 5 was composed by Aya Tanaka. It is somewhat significantly different from the other Mario Party games--including its sequels--in that the music sounds sophisticated and (despite being synthesized as in all Mario Party games) has the illusion of being played by a professional symphony orchestra. This may be caused by the use of sounds that sound like true instruments, especially the harpsichord. This apparently didn't catch on, however, as Aya Tanaka has not composed any other Mario Party game, and Mario Party 6 and Mario Party 7 returned to the style of Mario Party 4.

Trivia

 * The capsule depicting a Toady is incorrectly labeled as "Magikoopa Capsule". Later Mario Party games correctly labeled it as "Toady Orb". This may have inspired the Mario Party Advance Broom Zoom caption to state that Toadies possess brooms, while they, in actuality, do not (although Magikoopas do).
 * Since Boo is now a playable character, Chain Chomp replaces him on stealing coins and stars.
 * Mazed & Confused is a pun on "Dazed and Confused", a song by Led Zeppelin.
 * Areas and characters that either appeared in or resembled those from the Paper Mario series include:
 * The Star Spirits (Eldstar, Mamar, Skolar, Muskular, Misstar, Klevar, and Kalmar)
 * Pirate Dream which resembled or may have been a dream about the Pirate's Grotto, although the game it appeared in was released one year later.
 * Toy Dream which resembled or may have been a dream about the Shy Guy's Toy Box.
 * Klepto (a Klepto named Buzzar appeared in Paper Mario)
 * The Tweesters in the game had the same design as those in Paper Mario
 * This is the first Mario Party game which does not include Donkey Kong as a playable character (if one doesn't count Super Duel Mode).