Mario Party

Mario Party
Developer	Hudson Soft
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo 64
Release Date	JP December 18, 1998 US February 8, 1999 EU March 9, 1999
Genre	Party
Gallery	GH Gallery
Rating	ESRB: E

Mario Party is a party game released for the Nintendo 64 in 1998, featuring characters from the Super Mario series. It is the first game in the Mario Party series.

Gameplay

Mario Party is based on a traditional board game. Players hit dice blocks to decide the amount of spaces they'll move on the board, with different types of spaces having different effects. Players try to gain the most stars, usually by buying them from [[Toad[[. Whoever has the most stars at the end of the game is the winner. A secondary objective is to collect coins. Coins are necessary to buy items as well as stars. Certain spots will give the player coins, but the main source of coins is the minigames at the end of each round.

At the end of each round, all the player compete in a minigame. The minigames are divided into different types based on how the characters are divided. Two-on-two minigames divide players into two competing team, while three-on-one minigames pit all of the other players against a single player. Then there are several different types of four-player minigames: there are cooperative games, where all the players win or lose together; competitive free-for-alls, where players compete for a limited number of coins; and non-competitive free-for-alls, where one player's gain isn't another's loss. There are also one-player minigames, which are triggered by certain spots on the board.

The standard mode of play is Adventure Mode, where up to four players compete to win. Coins and stars won are transferred to a fund used to unlock things. In Minigame Island, a single player tries to get as far as they can before losing all their lives. A hundred coins earns them a life while losing a minigame takes one away. The Minigame House lets players play any minigame they want.

Spaces

• Blue Space - Player gets 3 coins or 6 if it's the last five turns.
• Red Space - Player loses 3 coins or 6 if it's the last five turns.
• ? Space - A special event based on the board will occur.
• ! Space - The player enters the Chance Time challenge. Three dice blocks are hit. Depending on the results, one player must give away or swap some of their coins or stars with another player.
• Bowser Space - The layer will either play a mini-game or give Bowser some coins.
• Star Space - The player plays a one player mini-game for coins.
• Mushroom Space - The player receives a random mushroom. The player will either be able to hit the dice box again or lose their next turn.

Minigames

List of Mario Party minigames

Legacy

Mario Party was the beginning of a long-lasting Mario series, with more sequels than any other Mario subseries, or even the main Mario games.

After the release of Mario Party, controversy arose because minigames requiring the player to twirl the analog stick caused blisters due to players using their palms rather than their thumbs, which resulted in legal action from the New York attorney general's office. Nintendo agreed to a settlement in which they provided gloves to injured players. Because of this, the analog stick twirling was phased out of later Mario Party games, and is likely because of this controversy that Mario Party was skipped over for a Virtual Console rerelease in favor of its sequel.

Six minigames from this game were later included in Mario Party: The Top 100.

Sequels

Mario Party was followed by Mario Party 2 for the Nintendo 64.