Hexoskeleton

Hexoskeleton is a Boss minigame against Dry Bones in Mario Party DS. Its name is a pun on "exoskeleton" (the armor-like external skeleton of insects, crustaceans and a few other kinds of animals) and "hex", a type of magic.

Gameplay
The player must defeat Dry Bones by performing Ground Pounds onto the Magic Switch located on the edges of a huge platform in the shape of an octagon.

The map of the battle area indicates which tiles to hit and in what order by the flashing fire symbols. The player and the boss Dry Bones have a Health Meter. The player gets 5 lives and Dry Bones has 3. By doing Ground Pounds onto these tiles, Dry Bones's health points will be reduced. However, Dry Bones will attack by dropping berries to reduce player's health points, disabling some tiles, jumping around trying to squish the player and throwing bones. The player can use the littered berries to stun Dry Bones for a while.

When Dry Bones has one heart remaining, he will throw more bones, and he will start to ground-pound to create a force that can hurt the player. After that, Dry Bones starts chasing the player with normal ground-pounds. The big ground pound may leave a durian, and if the player guides Dry Bones to it and Dry Bones ground-pounds it, Dry Bones will be stunned for a slightly longer time than a normal berry would stun it. However, after recovering from a stun, Dry Bones will start to ground-pound the arena again.

After three hits, Dry Bones is frozen in his "taken damage" state while smoking from the magic blast, and then falls apart. The player wins and clears the board challenge on DK's Stone Statue.

Controls

 * – Move
 * – Jump
 * – Punch
 * → – Hit Ground
 * – Move camera
 * – Focus on foe

In-game text

 * Rules – "Search for the fire icons that appear above the magic switches, then ground-pound them all to release a fiery blast at Dry Bones!"
 * Tips – "Dry Bones will soon go nuts, throwing bones and berries. If you punch a berry, it'll fly at him and he'll be stunned. Use the time to hit a switch!"