Shy Guy's Perplex Express

"Who's at the wheel?! How long is this train?! Are you ahead...or behind?! Welcome aboard the Perplex Express! Where are we going? Insane! And at the speed of crazy!"

- MC Ballyhoo

Shy Guy's Perplex Express is one of the boards from Mario Party 8. Shy Guy's Perplex Express is set on a moving train, the board consists of the inside and the top of the train's cars (there is also a secret area called the Payday Waystation). The locomotive is driven by a Shy Guy engineer (appropriately) and the train cars themselves are inhabited by Goombas, Koopas, and more Shy Guys (like cooks and the ones who run the Candy Shops). The objective on this board is to get to the front of the train, where the Shy Guy engineer will give Stars away for 20 coins. It's another one-way board, but in a loop, like a race track. So, as such, speed is just as important as getting coins.

Players who land on a DK Space will cause the train to be switched with Donkey Kong's Barrel Train. Like King Boo's Haunted Hideaway, the player who makes it to DK first gets a free Star (in Star Battle Arena, Donkey Kong doubles the player's coin total-where he gives them in 40, 57, or in between 40 and 57 coins). Shy Guy's train comes back after DK's gives a Star away. When players land on a Bowser Space, Bowser will come on his train, the Bad-Breath Express. Again, it works like DK, but with players losing a Star (in Star Battle Arena, Bowser steals half of the player's coins). However, when a player comes without a star, Bowser will give the player 10 coins.

If a player lands on the ? Space in front of Holly Koopa, she will offer to buy one of their Candies for several coins. The ? Space in front of the Shy Guy chef's heat vent will cause the player to be sucked up to the roof of the train (and vice versa for the ? Space in front of the vent on the roof). Another ? Space on the roof will make the Shy Guy conductor come and ask for the player's assistance. He'll inform the player that Holly Koopa's candy was stolen, and say that either Bandit or Mowz did it. The player must then choose a car where they think the perpetrator is. If they're right, Shy Guy will reward them with 20 coins (10 in Duel Mode). Some ? Spaces will cause Kamek to appear and use his magic to move the front car to the back of the train, and move the other cars upward to the front. ? spaces on top of the train may cause the characters on top to be hit back to the start by a bar (causing them to lose 5 coins each), or they may all receive an equal number of coins. The Lucky Space causes the train to stop and let the player off at Payday Waystation that has a lot of coins and a free Star.

In Star Battle Arena, the winning conditions were to get 50 coins and give them to Holly Koopa (not the conductor up in front) to get her Star. Players who got to the conductor would get 10 coins from him, if they didn't already have 50 coins.

Payday Waystation
Payday Waystation is a short station encountered while riding Shy Guy's Perplex Express. It appears as a subsection of the board and can be reached only if the player lands on the board's Lucky Space. Upon doing so, the train will quickly stop at Payday Waystation, and the lucky player will exit the train.

The station is only five Blue Spaces long, and each Blue Space has three coins and the player can get a total of 15 coins (3 for all 5 Blue Spaces; as it is 5 Blue Spaces long). At the end of the station is a Shy Guy conductor, who will reward the player with a free Star for meeting him. Immediately afterward, a handcar operated by a few Shy Guys will arrive at the station. The player will jump on and be brought back to the train's caboose.

Spaces (Party Tent)
The following table shows how many spaces there are on the board, and how many there are of a certain type.

Spaces (Star Battle Arena)
The following table shows how many spaces there are on the board, and how many there are of a certain type.

Controversy
In the United Kingdom, various copies of Mario Party 8 were recalled due to this board featuring a scene where Kamek would alter the order of the cars, crying "Magikoopa magic! Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!", "spastic" being a highly offensive word in the U.K. Later copies changed the lines, so that "spastic" is replaced with "erratic".