In the Nick of Time

In the Nick of Time is a 4-Player minigame that is found in Mario Party 8. Its name comes from the expression "in the nick of time", meaning accomplishing something with only seconds to spare. It is similar to a minigame found in Mario Party 5 called Clock Stoppers.

Introduction
There is a door at the beginning; it opens as the camera goes into the door. The player sees the first player looking at the various clocks that are hanging in the room as the clocks are ticking. Suddenly, a loud clock is ticking as it surprises the player. The player quickly goes near to the big clock as the second hand and minute hand is moving at the same way. The both hands continue move at the random speed as the camera will move close to the clock. Then the other players' boxes on the screen appear from the left-down corner as the both hands stop towards 12 midnight/noon. Then the minigame starts.

Gameplay
The shaded hands appear at all the players' clocks as the players attempt to move both of the clock hands to center it onto the shaded hand area to get a point. Additionally, at the middle of the screen; the hands on the clock look the same as the other players' clocks. This is just to show where to center the hands to. The player moves the hands by only moving the second hand. Additionally, the faster the hand moves; the more likely the player tries to get a point but have to slow down to get the point. The players’ have to turn what side to turn the hands as they have to pick the closest side as possible. If a player successfully gets a point in the game, all the players' hands that are moving freezes for a moment as the shaded hands on the players' clocks change randomly as the process repeats again. The first player who gets the three points first wins. The game also ends after five rounds, and the player that has the most points will win. If no one gets three points after five rounds, the game ends in a tie.

Ending
At the end of the minigame, when the player gets the first three points; the other players' hands on the clocks start to shake and then sprung out. Then the camera goes to the player's box who wins as the camera slowly moves back to see the character. Additionally, the clocks are ticking in the background. The character wins as the character attempts to do a winning pose, then every clock on the walls starts to shake as the player in the room starts to be scared. In Party Mode, if the results screen remains, the minigame shows the door closing. If the time is up on all five rounds and players didn't get any points, all four clock hands shake and spring out as "Tie" appears on the screen.

In-game text

 * Rules – "Turn the clock's hands to match the image. Whoever gets three matches first wins."
 * Hint – "Slow down your rotation when you get close to the correct time so you don't pass it up!"

Trivia

 * The clocks in this minigame look slightly similar to the entrance of the Tick Tock Clock level in Super Mario 64.