Mario Party DS

Mario Party DS is the eleventh installment in the Mario Party series (thirteenth in Japan), the second for the handheld consoles (the other being Mario Party Advance for the Game Boy Advance), and the only one for the Nintendo DS. It was released in Japan on November 8, 2007, in the United States on November 19, 2007, in Europe on November 23, 2007, and in Australia on December 6, 2007. It includes more than seventy new minigames and five new game boards. Its functions include touch control, microphone control and dual-screen challenges. It is possible for up to four players to play in wireless mode.

Story
The story begins with a night in the Mushroom Kingdom, where five shining objects in the sky fall to the land. One falls near Mario, who discusses it with his friends the next day. Kamek interrupts when he drops an invitation down to the gang. Bowser sent it, and it says that he is inviting them to his castle for a big feast, as apology for his evil deeds. Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong get an invitation as well.

The crew sets off for the castle, but they find that, as one may suspect, it was a trick. Bowser and Bowser Jr. trap Mario and friends in a cage, at which point Bowser uses a magic wand called the Minimizer to shrink them all down to the size of chess pieces, and they are literally thrown out. This leaves Bowser to look for the five shining objects, the Sky Crystals, in peace. The gang decides to get back at Bowser and heads back to the castle. To be the one Superstar that defeats Bowser causes the eight friends to pit themselves against each other for the great title. Early in their journey, Wiggler begs the small heroes for help, as a nasty Piranha Plant has infested his garden. The plant was defeated when its own Bomb Seeds were fed to itself by the heroes. A grateful Wiggler rewards them with a Sky Crystal, which landed in his garden. Shortly after, Toadette came to the heroes for help, asking them to defeat a Hammer Bro that was abusing her instruments. The Hammer Bro was defeated in a drum-off, at which point Toadette found a Sky Crystal and gave it to the gang. Having two now, they set off for the jungle, where they find their monkey friend Diddy Kong. The anxious spider monkey shows the heroes that Donkey Kong was turned to stone by Dry Bones. The friends faced off against Dry Bones on his arena, where magic hexes were used to destroy him. Donkey Kong was restored, and quickly remembered the free food promised at Bowser's Castle. He and Diddy rush off, but not before Diddy hands over a Sky Crystal.

At this point, Bowser's Castle is in the sight of the gang. However, they find a Koopa Troopa asking for help, as Kamek has trapped his grandfather, Koopa Krag, in one of his many library books. The heroes fight Kamek after surviving a long hallway, at which point Koopa Krag is saved, and gives them a Sky Crystal. After Kamek's defeat, they finally find Bowser's Castle, where they are stuffed in a pinball machine that Bowser Jr. uses to mess them up. The one who collected the most Stars in the pinball machine broke out and got ready to fight Bowser. Bowser threatened to shrink them once again (probably to the size of a ant), but just then Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong arrived.

DK, frantic for the free food, runs around, bumping into Bowser (due to the fact he didn't see him) and causing him to drop the Minimizer. DK trips on the Minimizer, breaking it and returning the Mario gang to normal size. Bowser reveals one more surprise, however - the Mega Morph Belt. The device transforms Bowser into Blockhead Bowser, and the heroes fight him by punching the weak spot, a golden Bowser Block.

Upon the Koopa King's defeat, Bowser and his son were tied up, and Mario took the final Sky Crystal from him. They formed to make a crystal DS, which was made exclusively for the fun challenge, Triangle Twisters. Bowser admits that he wanted the Sky Crystals just so that he could play the game. After hearing this, Mario decides to untie the two, and they all play Triangle Twisters together, thus ending the story. As for DK and Diddy, they eat the entire feast by themselves, and are quite satisfied.

Characters
This is a table of the major and minor Characters in Mario Party DS, with their status in the game, as well as locations (if applicable).

Team Names
In Tag Team Mode, each combination of playable characters create one unique Team Name. The list of possible results are shown below:

Modes

 * Story Mode (1 Player) - In this solo mode, the story is as mentioned. As players make their way to Bowser’s castle, they must win first place on each game board, then beat the Boss Minigame for each board.
 * Party Mode (1-4 Players) - Compete against players or system-controlled players on a party board in a Battle Royale, Tag Battle or Duel Battle.
 * Minigame Mode (1-4 Players) - Play six games that draw upon the pool of all minigames for challenges that don’t take place on the game boards: Free Play, Step It Up, Battle Cup, Score Scuffle, Boss Bash and Rocket Rascals.
 * Puzzle Mode (1-2 Players) - Play six puzzle-action games, which include five classics from previous Mario Party games. This mode also includes the new touch-controlled Triangle Twisters, which has two play modes. In Frenzy Mode, players clear the field by twisting triangles so they connect with those of the same color. In Focus Mode, they twist them to build complex shapes, like turtles and pinwheels. The music in this mode during a minigame is a fusion of puzzle minigame music from the previous Mario Parties.
 * Multiplayer (2-4 Players) - Using one game card, players can wirelessly share Party Mode and Minigame Mode (2-4 players), plus Puzzle Mode (2 players) and the download-only Extras Mode with nearby friends who have a Nintendo DS.
 * Extras Mode - Includes games that are designed for two-player gaming: cooperative Pen Pals and competitive Desert Duel.
 * Gallery- Includes 150 prizes, which includes figures, music and cut-scenes.

Spaces

 * Blue Space
 * Red Space
 * ? Space
 * Friend Space
 * Duel Space
 * Bowser Space
 * Star Space

Items
Mario Party DS introduces two types of items that are used during board gameplay: Normal items and new items called Hexes. The normal items are those that the players may use on themselves, to gain an advantage; they can only be bought at an Item Shop. Alternatively, Hexes can only be found at Hex Areas and are placed on the board to trip up another player for the gain of the one who set it. The Hex the player obtains when passing a Hex Area is determined at random. Each player may only carry three items/hexes at one time.

Reception
Mario Party DS has recieved mostly positive reveiws.

Trivia

 * This is the first Mario Party since Mario Party 4 to not have any Donkey Kong spaces.
 * The manual has a mistake on Page 26. It states that during a 2 Player game, (the player vs a CPU opponent or another player), only Battle or Boss minigames can be chosen. During a 4 Player match (the player vs 3 CPU opponents or human players), 4 Player, 1 vs 3, 2 vs 2, Duel and Boss minigames can be chosen.
 * The title screen to the game also has a mistake. It is supposed to have a registered trademark, instead of the regular trademark.
 * This is the only Mario Party game in which there are no Bonus Stars given out in the Story Mode.
 * This is the first Mario Party game not to have a host.