Mario Party 6

Mario Party 6 is the sixth title in the popular Mario Party sub-series. The game features an installment of voice controlled mini-games using a packaged microphone (a first in the Mario Party series).

Story
From the Mario Party 6 Instruction booklet: Brighton and Twila-the sun and the moon-watch over Mario Party World from the sky and host the best parties. The two celestial party animals have always been good friends. That is, until the day Brighton asked Twila, “Who's more impressive, you or me?”

Brighton and Twila argued furiously about who was more popular and impressive. The sky thundered with the fury of their cataclysmic squabble!

Mario and his party-hearted friends tried to get them to make up, but nothing they said could settle the spat in the sky. That's when Mario came up with a brilliant plan to harness the power of the Stars to end the feud!

They decided to throw a massive Mario Party to collect Stars and fill the great Star Bank! Determined to end Brighton and Twila's feud, they started partying right away.

...But will the power of the Stars be enough to end the furious feud?

Playable Characters

 * Mario -  Red 
 * Luigi -  Blue 
 * Peach -  Pink 
 * Yoshi -  Green 
 * Wario -  Purple 
 * Daisy -  Yellow 
 * Waluigi - Black
 * Toad -  Light Red 
 * Boo -  Light Blue 
 * Koopa Kid / Mini-Bowser -  Orange 
 * Toadette -  Magenta  (new) (Unlocked after purchasing her for 30 Stars in the Star Bank)

Gameplay
In Mario Party 6 up to four players take turns moving on board game-style stages, often playing multiplayer mini-games to earn coins and stars. While the object of the game is to amass the most coins and stars before completing a set number of turns, the focus is on the competition itself more than the outcome.

Orbs
Orbs are special items players can either collect on the board or buy with coins. They can be used in many ways to give a player an advantage, such as stealing coins from rivals, hampering a rival's progress, or quickly obtaining stars.

Green Orbs
All of these orbs causes effect on the player who used them.

Red Orbs
These Orbs will take effect when either the opponent passes or lands on it. The player who lands on it will still have the effects of a Blue or Red space. The orb will also disappear once it has been activated.

Yellow Orbs
These orbs would have an effect on a player who landed on the space. If the owner landed on the space, he/she would receive 5 coins. On last 5 turn events, he/she may receive 15 coins if the coins x3 roulette was chosen. The orb will also stay on the board as long as no one else replaces the orb.

Blue Orbs
These orbs protect the player from attacks such as Boo and Chain Chomp. They can only be found in specific boards such as Snowflake Lake.

Day & Night
On multiplayer boards the sun will periodically set or rise (every three turns), producing different effects. Changes include spaces moving, different characters appearing, and changes to mini-games. This is reflected in two new characters, Brighton and Twila. This day and night system is reminiscent of Horror Land from Mario Party 2.

Solo Mode
In Mario Party 6, Solo Mode is a game mode hosted by Brighton. It is for one player only, and has the character playing Mini-games against the Koopa Kids.

There are three boards in Solo Mode:


 * Thirsty Gulch, a desert-themed board;
 * Astro Avenue, a space-themed board;
 * Infernal Tower, a Bowser-themed board.

The spaces on Solo Mode are different than in normal modes of play. There are spaces for 4-player, 2-vs-2 (these are played teamed up with a CPU partner of the player choosing), 1-vs-3 (the human is always the 1 player), Battle, and Duel Mini-games. There are also Bowser spaces, which feature (normally 1-vs-3) games played against the Koopa Kids where all the player's coins are lost if they lose; ? mark spaces, which cause an event to happen (for example, in Infernal Tower, the player may have to backtrack down the tower); and the aim of the game, Rare spaces.

Landing on one of these Rare spaces will conclude the game and grant the player one of the Rare Mini-games (Dunk Bros., Lab Brats, and Block Star, not Seer Terror which must be bought from the Star Bank.) However, the player must land on the Rare space to claim the game. If he/she go past the Rare space, then he/she lose everything you have collected and the game ends. Players can avert this by selecting to "Call it Quits" and keep everything they have earned so far, however, this ends the mode.

Only two of the game's Orbs appear in this mode. One is the Sluggish Shroom orb, which slows down the dice block so the player can easily hit the block on the number he/she want. The other is the Cursed Mushroom orb, which makes the dice block only roll one through three. This can be a good thing, as it can prevent the player from going off the board at the end.

At the end of the mode, players receive any Mini-games they played during the mode if they haven't unlocked them already. In addition, they receive Bonuses at the end of the game for meeting certain criteria (such as playing 10 Mini-games during the game, rolling only even Dice Block numbers, or landing on every space on the board), which are paid out in Coins. The Coins are then converted into Stars (1 Star for every 20 Coins), which are sent to the Star Bank.

Boards
There are 6 boards in Party Mode and 3 boards in Solo Mode. Some of the boards in Mario Party 6 have different objectives and goals to earn stars. The boards in Party Mode are:


 * Towering Treetop – Players must move across this large board and try to get to a randomly placed star first. Once the star has been bought for 20 coins, the star moves to another location. Day and night changes the paths along the board, making them longer or shorter. The tree at the top of the board changes at night. In the day, if a player lands on the happening space all players will get some coins, however; at night all players will lose some coins.'''


 * Faire Square – Players have to move around this board to reach the star space. There is only one star space that will never change locations, but players can buy up to five stars at a time if they have enough coins. The price of a star is always 20 coins during the day, but the price at night could be 5, 10, 30, or 40 coins.


 * E. Gadd's Garage – Players must move across this board and try to get to a randomly placed star first. Once the star has been bought for 20 coins, the star moves to another location. There are many gadgets and machines to experiment with in this board.


 * Snowflake Lake – All players start with 5 stars and then they must pay Chain Chomps coins to ride them and steal stars from other players in the process. When a player reaches a Chain Chomp's house, the player can pay it coins (20 coins for one dice block during the day, 10 for one dice block, 20 for two, and 30 for three at night) to ride it. After a player has paid the Chain Chomp, they can roll a dice block (or two or three if they pay for them at night) and move that many spaces from the "house". For every player that the Chain Chomp passes, a star is stolen from the victim and is given to the player riding the Chain Chomp.


 * Castaway Bay – Players must travel across the board to reach the end of the board. At the end of the board is either Donkey Kong or Bowser. If a player reaches the end of the board while Donkey Kong is present, then that player is given the opportunity to buy a star for 20 coins, the player is taken back to the "Start" space, and Donkey Kong switches positions with Bowser. If a player reaches the end of the board while Bowser is present, then the player gets a star taken away from him or her by Bowser. If the player doesn't have a star, then the player loses 20 coins. There are many spaces on the board that can switch Bowser's and DK's positions. This board is similar to Mario's Rainbow Castle from the original Mario Party in the sense of how you gain stars (however this time Toad is replaced by DK).


 * Clockwork Castle (unlockable for 100 stars at the star bank) – Players have to chase Donkey Kong around the board during the day to buy a star. The unique aspect of this board is that after all four players have moved, DK will roll a dice block (Two if he eats a banana) and move that many spaces. If a player catches up to or if DK catches up to a player, then the player is given the opportunity to buy a star for 20 coins. At night, DK is replaced by Bowser. The movement on the board is reversed at night, and Bowser now chases the players (He uses two dice blocks when he breathes out fire). If Bowser catches up to or if a player runs into Bowser, then the player will lose a star. If the player doesn't have a star, then Bowser will steal 20 coins. Warp pipes are placed around the board so that players can move closer to DK or run away from Bowser.


 * Thirsty Gulch


 * Astro Avenue


 * Infernal Tower

Other Features

 * Star Bank: The Star Bank allows players to trade their stars to unlock special in-game bonuses, including unlockable characters, game tips, and Miracle Book pages.
 * Harder Difficulty: 30 Stars
 * Brutal Difficulty: 30 Stars
 * Toadette Character: 30 Stars
 * Clockwork Castle Stage: 100 Stars
 * Credit Roll: 100 Stars
 * Character Taunts: 10 Stars Each
 * Mic Secrets: 10 Stars Each
 * Mini Game Secrets: 10 Stars Each
 * Mushroom Bus: 30 Stars
 * Miracle Book (Includes Page 1): 10 Stars
 * Page 2-6: 10 Stars Each
 * Page 7-13: 20 Stars Each
 * Page 14-20: 30 Stars Each
 * Miracle Book Secret: 10 Stars
 * Miracle Book: The Miracle Book is an in-game pop-up book functioning as a reward for players. Pages in the book are interactive, and after buying all of them the epilogue is available.
 * Microphone: The microphone is used as a controller device to answer quiz questions in Speak Up and give orders to characters.

Trivia

 * Mario Party 6 was the last Mario Party game to feature Koopa Kid as a playable character. In Mario Party 7, he got his own space like Bowser and DK did. Later in Mario Party 8, Koopa Kid mysteriously disappeared from the Mario Party series.
 * For unknown reasons, Waluigi and the Lakitu were removed from the American Boxart of Mario Party 6 (see alternate boxart above). Their render was instead on the back of the box.

4-Player minigames

 * Catch You Letter is a pun on the phrase "Catch you later".
 * Mowtown is a pun on Motown.
 * Blooper Scooper is a pun on pooper scooper.
 * Trap Ease Artist is a pun on trapeze artist.
 * What Goes Up... is a reference to the phrase "What goes up must come down." This is reflected in the game because, during the day, the objective is to reach the highest altitude, and at night, the player must descend the fastest.
 * Circuit Maximus is a pun on a real place, Circus Maximus.

1 vs. 3 minigames

 * Snow Brawl is a pun on snowball.
 * Surge and Destroy is a pun on the phrase "search and destroy".
 * Conveyor Bolt is a pun on conveyor belt.
 * Ray of Fright is a pun on "ray of light".
 * Dust 'til Dawn is a pun on the phrase "From dusk 'til dawn".
 * Ball Dozers is a pun on a bulldozer.

2 vs. 2 minigames

 * Pixel Perfect is a pun on the phrase "picture perfect", a lot like the Mario Party 3 game Picture Imperfect.
 * Burnstile is a pun on turnstile.
 * Cashapult is a pun on catapult.
 * Mole-It! is a pun on mullet.

Battle minigames

 * Stamp By Me is a pun on the song and movie Stand By Me.
 * Strawberry Shortfuse is a pun on Strawberry Shortcake.
 * Control Shtick is a pun on control stick.
 * Insectiride is a pun on insecticide.

Duel minigames

 * O-Zone is a pun on ozone.
 * Trick or Tree is a pun on the phrase "trick-or-treat".
 * Pitifall is a pun on the words "pitiful" and "Pitfall!", the vine-swinging arcade game.
 * Lunartics is a pun on "lunatic".
 * Asteroad Rage is a combination of "asteroid" and "road rage".
 * Boonanza is a pun on the term "bonanza".

DK minigames

 * Pier Factor is a pun on the term fear factor.

Rare Minigames

 * Seer Terror is a pun on the phrase "sheer terror".
 * Lab Brats is a pun on lab rats.

Mic Minigames

 * Talkie Walkie is a pun on walkie talkie.
 * Fruit Talktail is a pun on fruit cocktail.

With Background
Note that the background itself in these batch of pictures mainly corresponds to the "day/night" gameplay, which as stated earlier is the primary feature of this installment.