Bowser's Lair Hockey
- “May niceness triumph!”
- —Message on the title screen
Mario Party 7 -- Bowser's Lair Hockey is an online Flash game published by Nintendo to promote the release of Mario Party 7 on the Nintendo GameCube. It could be played at the Nintendo Arcade, a section on nintendo.com that contained promotional web games.[1] The section was removed in newer versions of the website, but is still accessible via Internet archives.
Even though a mugshot of Mario is used as the game's icon on Nintendo Arcade, he makes no appearance in the game.
Gameplay
The game consists of a one minute single-set match of air hockey between Bowser (labelled as "MEAN", controlled by the CPU) and Toad (labelled as "NICE", controlled by the player using the mouse). As in a game of ice hockey, the aim is to score goals by returning the puck in the opponent's net. Each character takes control of a red paddle, which is used to strike the puck and whose movement is restricted to that character's side of the field. To begin the game, the human player has to click on the glowing paddle on Toad's side and hit the puck on the center spot. The harder the puck is hit, the faster it will slide, rebounding off the field's margins. When the puck enters a goal net, it respawns near the center line, on the side of the player who received the goal, allowing them to strike it and continue the game.
The game is won if the player earns a bigger score than the CPU by the end of the match — otherwise, the game is lost. If the human player and the CPU obtain the same score, it is considered a draw. On the end screen, the player can choose to either play the game again or visit the official Mario Party 7 website.
A glitch that occurs commonly during gameplay is when the puck enters a corner on Bowser's side and the CPU attempts to charge into it, blocking the puck in the corner for a short time. However, shortly after this happens, the puck respawns at its initial position.
Gallery
Preparation
Ending in a draw
Lose
Win
