Card Smarts

Card Smarts is a Free-for-All minigame featured in Mario Party 9. The name is a pun on either part of the title of the book Car Smarts: An Easy-to-Use Guide to Understanding Your Car and Communicating with Your Mechanic or the title of the American game show .

Introduction
The players stand around a table. The camera goes to the captain, who is dealt cards. The screen splits to show all players.

Gameplay
In their hand, each player has one "5" card, two "4" cards, two "3" cards, two "2" cards, and one "1" card. The players have five seconds to select a card. Players move their cursors back and forth until the timer reaches zero, at which they play their selected cards. The player who picks the card with the highest number earns one point. If more than one player picks the same card that is the highest, each player who does this earns one point. However, if everybody chooses a card of the same kind, nobody earns a point. Once a card is used, it is gone for the rest of the minigame. The first player to earn three points from having the highest card wins.

If one card remains, the minigame ends, and the remaining players are ranked by how many points they have earned. If the remaining players' last cards are the same as each other's, nobody earns a point. If all the players do not reach three points by their last cards, they all lose and are ranked fourth place.

Toad, Koopa Troopa, Shy Guy, and Magikoopa stand on stools during this minigame due to their height, just like in Don't Look. Toad and Shy Guy also stand on stools in Pizza Me, Mario and Launch Break.

In-game text

 * Rules – "Choose a card from your hand. Whoever plays the card with the highest number earns one point. Be the first player to earn three points to win!"
 * Controls – "Hold the Wii Remote sideways. Press to select a card and  to confirm. You can change your card as often as you want before the timer runs out."

Names in other languages
Hoher Einsatz