Test for the Best

Test for the Best is the only secret minigame mode in Mario Party 8. This mode is similar to Mini-Game Decathlon from Mario Party 5, Decathlon Park from Mario Party 6, Decathlon Castle from Mario Party 7, and Score Scuffle from Mario Party DS, though this mode is for one player only. The player character appears in a hot-air balloon, MC Ballyhoo and Big Top alongside them. MC Ballyhoo tells the player character that the goal is to earn points based on their performance in 10 minigames (and be graded with an F, D, C, B, A, or A+, the last one automatically netting the player 1,000 points); every point they earn sends them a foot into the air, and so the real objective is to fly as high as possible.

It is possible to access this mode without having unlocked all 10 minigames listed below, as long as this minigame mode is bought from the Fun Bazaar first. Any minigames played here that have not yet been unlocked will be unlocked after this mode is completed.

This mode stores the best five total scores in this mode, as well as points earned, the grade received, and the title earned for each minigame within each ranking.

Minigames
The 10 minigames that are played are the same ones every time. However, they are played in a random order.


 * Alpine Assault
 * Ion the Prize
 * Kartastrophe
 * Pumper Cars
 * Rotation Station
 * Saucer Swarm
 * Settle It in Court
 * Snipe for the Picking
 * Surf's Way Up
 * Swing Kings

The games are measured in either time or points.

Scoring
Unlike the Decathlon games in previous Mario Party games where the score was the sole purpose of determining the winner, this mode also uses a grading system as it is a single-player mode, though up to 1,000 points can be earned in one minigame.

Minigame grades
The number of points the player earns after converting the result from the minigame will determine the grade for that minigame:

Each minigame also earns the player a "rank" for that minigame, which is determined by the grade earned and the name of the minigame.

The A+ and F grades are S and E, respectively, in the Japanese version.

Targets
The required results (in score or time) for each eligible grade are shown below. If the player does not meet the requirement for a D grade or higher (and, as a result, earns fewer than 600 points from the result of the minigame), it will be an F.

PAL version
There are also factors that determine the exact number of points the player will score in this mode. Depending on the player's performance in the minigames, it is possible to get the same grade but a different number of points in multiple minigames.

Points earned are calculated based on piecewise functions. Points rise linearly until the D grade requirement is reached, in which the points earned change in a piecewise fashion but are still linear. All decimals are truncated (e.g., scoring 53 in the NTSC version of Ion the Prize gives 916 points).

Overall targets
At the end of all minigames, the player is graded based on their total score, and given an overall rank appropriate to the player's total score. There are 20 possible overall ranks in this mode. Aside from earning 10 Carnival Cards for playing the minigames, the total score also determines the number of bonus Carnival Cards the player will also receive:

Signs
Every thousand-point mark is indicated by a sign. The creatures holding the signs are listed below.