Criticism of postmodernism is intellectually diverse, reflecting various critical attitudes toward postmodernity as it takes form in philosophy, art, literature and games. Postmodernism itself is generally defined by an attitude of skepticism, irony, or rejection toward what it describes as the grand narratives and ideologies associated with modernism, especially those associated with Enlightenment rationality - though postmodernists in the arts may have their own specific criteria and definitions of postmodernism that depend upon the medium.
Common targets of postmodern criticism include universalist ideas of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reason, science, language, economics and social progress; critics of postmodernism are often reactionary, defending such concepts against the counter-cultural critique of postmodern artwork.
It is frequently alleged that postmodern scholars are hostile to objective truth; they promote obscurantism, and encourage relativism in culture, morality and knowledge to an extent that is epistemically and ethically crippling: criticism of more artistic post-modern movements such as post-modern art, literature or video games may include objections to a departure from beauty, lack of coherence or comprehensibility, deviation from clear structure and the consistent use of dark and negative themes.
Post-postmodernism, cosmodernism, digimodernism, automodernism, altermodernism, and metamodernism rank among the more popular prospective terms for the movement against against postmodernism, though the lack of a unifying term demonstrates the difficult, uncertain nature of post-postmodern critical analysis.
In my review of Mario Party the other day, I suggested that the game was one of Nintendo's most postmodern works - what does that really mean? First, let's consider some possible features of postmodern gaming, both in terms of video games and board games:
• The game's designer and design become less relevant than the players' interpretation of the signified or signifier. We might see this more or less explicitly within a game like the award-winning card game Dixit: using a deck illustrated with dreamlike images, players select cards that match a title suggested by the "storyteller", and attempt to guess which card the "storyteller" selected. While the game has a scoring system, it's intentionally ambiguous, and open to the interpretation of the players and gamemaster; it's a game that can be played with a diverse group of players with little to no difficulty presented by challenge of skill - like Mario Party, Dixit frequently wrests interpretive authority from the games' designers and publishers and places it in the hands of arbitrary metrics that don't necessarily exist in a rulebook.
• A postmodern game's structure loses its center and gives way to free play. Generally speaking, this has never been a strong-suit of the video game medium - at least on the surface. This application is seen most clearly in the rise of pen-and-paper RPGs, almost all of which make a distinction directly in the beginning of their rule books: "This isn't a game like those other games with winners and losers; it's a game just for playing." In fact, RPGs thrive precisely on the différance present within the interpretive play among the players — and break down when munchkins or rules lawyers try to reinforce the structure. In short - the when the rules are made up and scores don't matter, players are forced to find other ways to enjoy themselves. The same is true of Mario Party.
• The game's structure is deconstructed by examining and reinforcing that which runs counter to the game's purported structure on the back of the box. This can be seen in games like Fluxx and Killer Bunnies. Here, the idea that planning and strategy will pay off, rewarding a player with victory is shown to be false because the idea hinges on the victor's proper management of chance, but chance is by definition that which is beyond management. So let's plan and strategize for an hour and then let chance tell us the winner she picks blindly in the end. Sound familiar?
• The game makes room for subaltern voices and questions the privileged nature of traditional binaries. Once Deep Blue won, there was no longer any substantive difference between a grandmaster and a geek with a GameFAQ. But can you ever truly defeat a machine that's controlling the dice and your opponents? Can you ever truly defeat someone who can win by doing nothing?
• The game breaks down barriers between itself and the things beyond it - for nothing is truly outside the game. This adage brings to mind old-school LARPing of the kind depicted in the movie Gotcha!, but could also include metaludic games like Quelf, where the game becomes about how a person plays the game or even does things away from the game while the game is ongoing.
Though the benchmarks and criteria for postmodernism are (perhaps intentionally) vague, I think it’s fair to say the original Mario Party exceeds in all the categories I’ve chosen to define above. It’s a game that interrogates the concept of the game - both board and video - by removing the mask of objective order, revealing that all accomplishments happen by divine will of the Nintendo 64.
Mario Party 2, however, fails to improve on the ideas of its predecessor in any meaningful way (apart from putting Donkey Kong in a wizard outfit). It’s a reactionary work of digimodernistic post-post modernism that seeks to correct the “mistakes” of Mario Party’s avant-garde by reintroducing the illusion of rules, structure, and “objective truth”: an essential RETVRN to the logic and empiricism that Gamers love so much. A tale as old as the medium itself, where art is the first thing to leave the party when your product needs to fit neatly on the subjective scales at IGN.
Horror Land, Mario Party 2’s “hardest” board, is a perfect case study of how the sequel’s introduction of mathematical “fairness” robs the game of an identity it was previously proud of. The first lap of the board is a 30-square circle with Toad, the star-giver, standing at the precise midsection. Players are given the option of diverging onto a different path, but there is no statistical incentive for doing so - players start with half the coins needed to buy a star, and it’s possible to accrue the remaining funds in a single turn. Apart from a Bank square (oh no! I lost FIVE coins!!) and Single-Player Minigame square, there are no other “inputs” to the system outside of the once-a-turn minigame: the game is all but ordering you to conform to a closed loop in order to take your first step towards an antipyrrhic victory that will be decided solely by the one who can inflate a Bowser Blimp the fastest. There are no alternatives; Wario’s subaltern voice is silenced; Yoshi’s questions about the privileged nature of traditional binaries are unanswered; Luigi’s interrogation of the apparent power structures falls on deaf ears. It’s time for Bumper Balloon Cars, and everyone’s getting some coins.
Contrast this with Mario’s Rainbow Castle, purportedly Mario Party 1’s easiest board - players can steal each others stars and coins at-will; there’s a button that foists Bowser’s roulette wheel upon foes; you can be sent back to the start for having the mere audacity to roll a 3 at the wrong time; Koopa Troopa is running a wealth-redistribution system at each corner of the board. And that’s all before we even get into the minigames, where stepping on a goomba in a party hat can instantly reduce your balance to absolute zero. It’s a revelry in capitalist chaos wearing the flesh of the Mario Brothers and it’s absolutely beautiful. Even Luigi’s “ohhHHHh nnOooOoo!” sounds more chunky and brittle, the bauds compressed under the sheer weight of environmental disorder. He’s saying something. Mario Party 2 isn’t.
Common targets of postmodern criticism include universalist ideas of objective reality, morality, truth, human nature, reason, science, language, economics and social progress; critics of postmodernism are often reactionary, defending such concepts against the counter-cultural critique of postmodern artwork.
It is frequently alleged that postmodern scholars are hostile to objective truth; they promote obscurantism, and encourage relativism in culture, morality and knowledge to an extent that is epistemically and ethically crippling: criticism of more artistic post-modern movements such as post-modern art, literature or video games may include objections to a departure from beauty, lack of coherence or comprehensibility, deviation from clear structure and the consistent use of dark and negative themes.
Post-postmodernism, cosmodernism, digimodernism, automodernism, altermodernism, and metamodernism rank among the more popular prospective terms for the movement against against postmodernism, though the lack of a unifying term demonstrates the difficult, uncertain nature of post-postmodern critical analysis.
In my review of Mario Party the other day, I suggested that the game was one of Nintendo's most postmodern works - what does that really mean? First, let's consider some possible features of postmodern gaming, both in terms of video games and board games:
• The game's designer and design become less relevant than the players' interpretation of the signified or signifier. We might see this more or less explicitly within a game like the award-winning card game Dixit: using a deck illustrated with dreamlike images, players select cards that match a title suggested by the "storyteller", and attempt to guess which card the "storyteller" selected. While the game has a scoring system, it's intentionally ambiguous, and open to the interpretation of the players and gamemaster; it's a game that can be played with a diverse group of players with little to no difficulty presented by challenge of skill - like Mario Party, Dixit frequently wrests interpretive authority from the games' designers and publishers and places it in the hands of arbitrary metrics that don't necessarily exist in a rulebook.
• A postmodern game's structure loses its center and gives way to free play. Generally speaking, this has never been a strong-suit of the video game medium - at least on the surface. This application is seen most clearly in the rise of pen-and-paper RPGs, almost all of which make a distinction directly in the beginning of their rule books: "This isn't a game like those other games with winners and losers; it's a game just for playing." In fact, RPGs thrive precisely on the différance present within the interpretive play among the players — and break down when munchkins or rules lawyers try to reinforce the structure. In short - the when the rules are made up and scores don't matter, players are forced to find other ways to enjoy themselves. The same is true of Mario Party.
• The game's structure is deconstructed by examining and reinforcing that which runs counter to the game's purported structure on the back of the box. This can be seen in games like Fluxx and Killer Bunnies. Here, the idea that planning and strategy will pay off, rewarding a player with victory is shown to be false because the idea hinges on the victor's proper management of chance, but chance is by definition that which is beyond management. So let's plan and strategize for an hour and then let chance tell us the winner she picks blindly in the end. Sound familiar?
• The game makes room for subaltern voices and questions the privileged nature of traditional binaries. Once Deep Blue won, there was no longer any substantive difference between a grandmaster and a geek with a GameFAQ. But can you ever truly defeat a machine that's controlling the dice and your opponents? Can you ever truly defeat someone who can win by doing nothing?
• The game breaks down barriers between itself and the things beyond it - for nothing is truly outside the game. This adage brings to mind old-school LARPing of the kind depicted in the movie Gotcha!, but could also include metaludic games like Quelf, where the game becomes about how a person plays the game or even does things away from the game while the game is ongoing.
Though the benchmarks and criteria for postmodernism are (perhaps intentionally) vague, I think it’s fair to say the original Mario Party exceeds in all the categories I’ve chosen to define above. It’s a game that interrogates the concept of the game - both board and video - by removing the mask of objective order, revealing that all accomplishments happen by divine will of the Nintendo 64.
Mario Party 2, however, fails to improve on the ideas of its predecessor in any meaningful way (apart from putting Donkey Kong in a wizard outfit). It’s a reactionary work of digimodernistic post-post modernism that seeks to correct the “mistakes” of Mario Party’s avant-garde by reintroducing the illusion of rules, structure, and “objective truth”: an essential RETVRN to the logic and empiricism that Gamers love so much. A tale as old as the medium itself, where art is the first thing to leave the party when your product needs to fit neatly on the subjective scales at IGN.
Horror Land, Mario Party 2’s “hardest” board, is a perfect case study of how the sequel’s introduction of mathematical “fairness” robs the game of an identity it was previously proud of. The first lap of the board is a 30-square circle with Toad, the star-giver, standing at the precise midsection. Players are given the option of diverging onto a different path, but there is no statistical incentive for doing so - players start with half the coins needed to buy a star, and it’s possible to accrue the remaining funds in a single turn. Apart from a Bank square (oh no! I lost FIVE coins!!) and Single-Player Minigame square, there are no other “inputs” to the system outside of the once-a-turn minigame: the game is all but ordering you to conform to a closed loop in order to take your first step towards an antipyrrhic victory that will be decided solely by the one who can inflate a Bowser Blimp the fastest. There are no alternatives; Wario’s subaltern voice is silenced; Yoshi’s questions about the privileged nature of traditional binaries are unanswered; Luigi’s interrogation of the apparent power structures falls on deaf ears. It’s time for Bumper Balloon Cars, and everyone’s getting some coins.
Contrast this with Mario’s Rainbow Castle, purportedly Mario Party 1’s easiest board - players can steal each others stars and coins at-will; there’s a button that foists Bowser’s roulette wheel upon foes; you can be sent back to the start for having the mere audacity to roll a 3 at the wrong time; Koopa Troopa is running a wealth-redistribution system at each corner of the board. And that’s all before we even get into the minigames, where stepping on a goomba in a party hat can instantly reduce your balance to absolute zero. It’s a revelry in capitalist chaos wearing the flesh of the Mario Brothers and it’s absolutely beautiful. Even Luigi’s “ohhHHHh nnOooOoo!” sounds more chunky and brittle, the bauds compressed under the sheer weight of environmental disorder. He’s saying something. Mario Party 2 isn’t.
make no mistake when i say I Am A Mario Party Expert And Yes I Have A Mental Illness. this is the closest the series ever got to having a perfect party game before feeling the need to bog down every sequel with sometimes good and sometimes incomprehensible changes.
if i knew how to program and could change a few things about this game (item mini-games, no repeating mini-games, quality of life changes, etc.) that i have been thinking about for twenty years of my life (oh god why am i like this), i would have the Definitive Mario Party that would still be played at EVO to this day
if i knew how to program and could change a few things about this game (item mini-games, no repeating mini-games, quality of life changes, etc.) that i have been thinking about for twenty years of my life (oh god why am i like this), i would have the Definitive Mario Party that would still be played at EVO to this day
I recommend you check out my review of Mario Party 1 before reading this review
Mario Party 1 laid a strong foundation but had some crippling shortcomings. Thankfully, its immediate follow up would solve many of these with one key addition; Items. The biggest overall problem with MP1 was the lack of player agency on the board game front. Most turns consisted of you rolling the RNG dice and watching your character move X amount of spaces. Maybe a funny event would play out but you'd rarely have a say in any of it. The introduction of items in MP2 means there's an entirely new step to take at the start of most turns. Even if a player decides not to use their item on a given turn, that's still a decision they had to make. While small, the list of items covers some varied ground and most will have their uses at some point or another in any given match. You have movement-based items like the Mushrooms that double or triple your rolls, a Warp Block that makes you switch places with a random player, and a Magic Lamp that teleports you to the Star Space. Just in this selection alone you have a fair bit to consider, since your aqquirement of items is largely your call. You get to choose what item you want to purchase at the Shop and what item to nab in an Item Minigame.
This system is held back by only allowing players to hold one item at a time but this arguably aids the pacing. Giving players too many options can lead to long periods of waiting for a decision to be made but MP2 keeps it straightforward enough that you're unlikely to be waiting on anybody for too long. There is some unfortunate imbalance, such as the Magic Lamp being so universally useful, and the Plunder Chest (which lets a player take a random player's item) discouraging other players from nabbing items, but these blemishes aren't likely encourage negative player strategies. Thanks to the one item limit and item shops being fairly far apart from one another, players can't reliably hoard useful items.
Perhaps in response to how much more varied each match plays out thanks to these items, the boards themselves have largely become more homogenized. There's strong exceptions, with Horror Land and Bowser Land making key adjustments that shake things up just enough without harming the base board mechanics, but most boards are contempt with playing it safe. This thankfully means there's no bad outliers but with only 6 boards compared to the 8 in MP1, there's less to see on this front. Minigames have also become homogenized, as players cannot lose coins in standard minigames though some minigames still let players earn extra coins with skillful play. To make up for the standard minigames lacking in that 'fuck you' spirit of the original MP, the sequel introduces Battle and Duel minigames so players can still (usually involuntarely) lose coins in some select skirmishes. Some of the rougher, less friendly edges of MP1 have been smoothed over but the game isn't afraid to remind you that this is still Mario Party, where luck is just as important to a player's chances as skill and strategy are. If anything, Duel minigames and some items in particular encourage smart players to single out dangerous opponents in a way the original MP rarely allowed, outside of Boo.
Most good Mario Party entries are a mixture of playing it safe with established elements while including new mechanics that compliment the existing ones, instead of overriding them. Mario Party 2 does exactly that, which is a large part of why it's so beloved. When you think of classic Mario Party, this is likely one of the first titles that'll pop into your mind. That doesn't mean this is the definitive Mario Party title, though. That'll come later...
Mario Party 1 laid a strong foundation but had some crippling shortcomings. Thankfully, its immediate follow up would solve many of these with one key addition; Items. The biggest overall problem with MP1 was the lack of player agency on the board game front. Most turns consisted of you rolling the RNG dice and watching your character move X amount of spaces. Maybe a funny event would play out but you'd rarely have a say in any of it. The introduction of items in MP2 means there's an entirely new step to take at the start of most turns. Even if a player decides not to use their item on a given turn, that's still a decision they had to make. While small, the list of items covers some varied ground and most will have their uses at some point or another in any given match. You have movement-based items like the Mushrooms that double or triple your rolls, a Warp Block that makes you switch places with a random player, and a Magic Lamp that teleports you to the Star Space. Just in this selection alone you have a fair bit to consider, since your aqquirement of items is largely your call. You get to choose what item you want to purchase at the Shop and what item to nab in an Item Minigame.
This system is held back by only allowing players to hold one item at a time but this arguably aids the pacing. Giving players too many options can lead to long periods of waiting for a decision to be made but MP2 keeps it straightforward enough that you're unlikely to be waiting on anybody for too long. There is some unfortunate imbalance, such as the Magic Lamp being so universally useful, and the Plunder Chest (which lets a player take a random player's item) discouraging other players from nabbing items, but these blemishes aren't likely encourage negative player strategies. Thanks to the one item limit and item shops being fairly far apart from one another, players can't reliably hoard useful items.
Perhaps in response to how much more varied each match plays out thanks to these items, the boards themselves have largely become more homogenized. There's strong exceptions, with Horror Land and Bowser Land making key adjustments that shake things up just enough without harming the base board mechanics, but most boards are contempt with playing it safe. This thankfully means there's no bad outliers but with only 6 boards compared to the 8 in MP1, there's less to see on this front. Minigames have also become homogenized, as players cannot lose coins in standard minigames though some minigames still let players earn extra coins with skillful play. To make up for the standard minigames lacking in that 'fuck you' spirit of the original MP, the sequel introduces Battle and Duel minigames so players can still (usually involuntarely) lose coins in some select skirmishes. Some of the rougher, less friendly edges of MP1 have been smoothed over but the game isn't afraid to remind you that this is still Mario Party, where luck is just as important to a player's chances as skill and strategy are. If anything, Duel minigames and some items in particular encourage smart players to single out dangerous opponents in a way the original MP rarely allowed, outside of Boo.
Most good Mario Party entries are a mixture of playing it safe with established elements while including new mechanics that compliment the existing ones, instead of overriding them. Mario Party 2 does exactly that, which is a large part of why it's so beloved. When you think of classic Mario Party, this is likely one of the first titles that'll pop into your mind. That doesn't mean this is the definitive Mario Party title, though. That'll come later...
If you are still friends with me after playing all six boards of Mario Party 2 with me, then not only is your patience incredible, this is a friendship that absolutely will last.
Mario Party 2 lacks the wild swings of titles like Mario Party 3 or Mario Party 6, where a bounty of items raining down from a random space or a Reverse Shroom in the right place can shift the trajectory of a game in one turn. It's the best slow-burn Mario Party, where you'll need to decide your game plan for the next five turns and perform well in mini-games in order to actually achieve it. Options are limited, but that creates a rather consistent game state within the first five turns compared to other titles, letting you properly set up. After this point, it becomes a weapon of debilitating psychological warfare, as you try to convince everyone else of who's going for Happening Star, who's leading in mini-games, what the best decision to steal at a Boo would be. Board design is probably the best equipped for its item layout of the series, with the very limited options all being well considered and making item play not an instant swing, but a stepping stone to get there. Plus Bower Land, Horror Land, and Western Land probably have the best, most competitive Boo placement in the entire series.
Mario Party is as fun as you want it to be. If it's just a time waster to you, then yeah, it's fairly mid. But if you are willing to make deals, throw games, stab people in the back knowing that they will never trust you again but you NEED this win right now, desperately try to dig yourself out of a 1v3 where everyone wants you to lose a mini-game and you skill your way to the top because you're just that good at Hot Bob-omb? There's few experiences like it. Mario Party 2 hits the perfect sweet spot for me between being charming and accessible in how quickly understandable its mini-games are and how oppressive you can be with board knowledge and proper play (plus it has 1v3's that aren't total gimmes sometimes, and that's hard for this series!). And it's got the funny costumes that everyone will assume is the entire reason you like the game, because they're blinded by the allure of the Reverse and Sluggish Shrooms! But you know the truth. The funny costumes are the way. Bowser giving you money from his secret bank account if you're poor is the way. Getting in horrible debt to the Baby Bowser Bankers to the point where they'll steal a star from you if you try to repay your loan with zero coins is the way.
Congratulations, DK. You are the true super star!!!
Mario Party 2 lacks the wild swings of titles like Mario Party 3 or Mario Party 6, where a bounty of items raining down from a random space or a Reverse Shroom in the right place can shift the trajectory of a game in one turn. It's the best slow-burn Mario Party, where you'll need to decide your game plan for the next five turns and perform well in mini-games in order to actually achieve it. Options are limited, but that creates a rather consistent game state within the first five turns compared to other titles, letting you properly set up. After this point, it becomes a weapon of debilitating psychological warfare, as you try to convince everyone else of who's going for Happening Star, who's leading in mini-games, what the best decision to steal at a Boo would be. Board design is probably the best equipped for its item layout of the series, with the very limited options all being well considered and making item play not an instant swing, but a stepping stone to get there. Plus Bower Land, Horror Land, and Western Land probably have the best, most competitive Boo placement in the entire series.
Mario Party is as fun as you want it to be. If it's just a time waster to you, then yeah, it's fairly mid. But if you are willing to make deals, throw games, stab people in the back knowing that they will never trust you again but you NEED this win right now, desperately try to dig yourself out of a 1v3 where everyone wants you to lose a mini-game and you skill your way to the top because you're just that good at Hot Bob-omb? There's few experiences like it. Mario Party 2 hits the perfect sweet spot for me between being charming and accessible in how quickly understandable its mini-games are and how oppressive you can be with board knowledge and proper play (plus it has 1v3's that aren't total gimmes sometimes, and that's hard for this series!). And it's got the funny costumes that everyone will assume is the entire reason you like the game, because they're blinded by the allure of the Reverse and Sluggish Shrooms! But you know the truth. The funny costumes are the way. Bowser giving you money from his secret bank account if you're poor is the way. Getting in horrible debt to the Baby Bowser Bankers to the point where they'll steal a star from you if you try to repay your loan with zero coins is the way.
Congratulations, DK. You are the true super star!!!
Every time I play a Mario Party title, I miraculously get fucked over in some of the most spectacular ways. Generally much past the point of recovery. Today, that almost happened again; in two turns I already landed a red space and a Bowser space back to back. I didn't have any expectations for it to get any better than that.
I played this game earlier today and won my first Mario Party session in over five years.
God.
I played this game earlier today and won my first Mario Party session in over five years.
God.
Mario Party 2 proves that people will say a game's amazing if it has one cosmetic feature instead of actually focusing on the core gameplay.
Esse foi meu Mario party favorito na minha infância, porém jogando ele atualmente deu pra perceber os defeitos dele e que acabam com toda a diversão.
O pior defeito dele é que removeram os prêmios para todos os jogadores que completassem os desafios dos mini games, apenas o primeiro colocado ganha moeda. Isso aliado a adição de itens que são adquiridos com moedas e ao fato o jogador que ganhar mais mini games receber uma estrela bônus no final desequilibrou completamente o jogo, torna até injusto, pois ele não tem muita estratégia nos tabuleiros e as partidas são decididas basicamente por quem vence mais mini games.
O que eu gostei: tabuleiros temáticos, músicas memoráveis, algumas são minhas preferidas de todos os tempos em vídeo games. A ambientação é perfeita e a jogabilidade evoluiu muito em relação ao primeiro jogo.
O pior defeito dele é que removeram os prêmios para todos os jogadores que completassem os desafios dos mini games, apenas o primeiro colocado ganha moeda. Isso aliado a adição de itens que são adquiridos com moedas e ao fato o jogador que ganhar mais mini games receber uma estrela bônus no final desequilibrou completamente o jogo, torna até injusto, pois ele não tem muita estratégia nos tabuleiros e as partidas são decididas basicamente por quem vence mais mini games.
O que eu gostei: tabuleiros temáticos, músicas memoráveis, algumas são minhas preferidas de todos os tempos em vídeo games. A ambientação é perfeita e a jogabilidade evoluiu muito em relação ao primeiro jogo.
Another really fun one! My favorite board was Mystery Land.
Nothing gets me more excited than seeing Donkey Kong in weird outfits.
This one is the best one because Yoshi wears funny outfits.
Much improved over the first game. No analog rotating but button mashing is still here.
Items are now included adding a degree of strategy to the game. You now must ask yourself: Is it better to buy an item and hope you win the next mini-game or slowly head to the star and hope the other characters don't make it to the star first.
The boards are now designed for a theme park and the cast now dress up to match that world.
Hidden blocks are all round the maps they contain either coins or stars which could change the entire game.
Boo returns and he can either steal coins for 5 coins, but the player he is stealing from can button mash to prevent him from stealing many coins, or he can steal a star for 50 coins.
This is better than Party 1 so start with this one. Only play Party 1 if you enjoy pain or you want to see where it all began.
Items are now included adding a degree of strategy to the game. You now must ask yourself: Is it better to buy an item and hope you win the next mini-game or slowly head to the star and hope the other characters don't make it to the star first.
The boards are now designed for a theme park and the cast now dress up to match that world.
Hidden blocks are all round the maps they contain either coins or stars which could change the entire game.
Boo returns and he can either steal coins for 5 coins, but the player he is stealing from can button mash to prevent him from stealing many coins, or he can steal a star for 50 coins.
This is better than Party 1 so start with this one. Only play Party 1 if you enjoy pain or you want to see where it all began.
Nunca joguei um mario party multiplayer 😔
Jogo bom ❤️
Jogo bom ❤️
the only time i had fun with this game was playing it at a friends house where we spammed the character noise button and would turn off the console if one of us got too far ahead
A Hollywood Video rental classic. I liked being cowboy Mario
god I wish current Mario Party was half as fun as the first few, from the clunky character models to the charming boards with matching costumes for the players. The minigames are ROUGH in the funniest way possible and so are mechanics such as landing on the CHANCE TIME space and swapping all your hard-earned stars with another player on round 47 after 5 hours of playing.
This game will always be in my heart.
This game will always be in my heart.
I've found it a lot harder to maintain friendships in my 30s than it was in my 20s. People start settling down, raising kids, they find themselves in jobs that are increasingly demanding of their time... Meanwhile, I'm over here playing Mario Party 2 for the Nintendo 64. Clearly there's some incompatibility there. Oh well, if it's not meant to be, it's not meant to be...
However, there was a really nice moment before the pandemic where my friends had about as much free time as I did, and I was able to get quite a few of them together for regular Mario Party parties. It should go without saying that Mario Party games are best enjoyed with a living, breathing group of people who may or may not be held against their will. We'd usually play with different house rules, like not stealing coins from someone unless they had more than everyone else, or (when playing with just two people) picking one of the AI characters as a "partner," so if they won it would count as a personal victory, because the possibility of the computer shafting both of us was very real. Make no mistake, Mario Party 2 is miserable under any condition, but the difference between playing it with friends and playing alone is like being forced to listen to Cher blasted over loudspeakers or having your fingernails ripped off one-by-one.
There are some improvements to gameplay. The AI seems far less willing to steal stars when passing a boo space, there's far fewer "event time" spaces, and the number of minigames that require you to roll the analog stick has been reduced to zero. However, Mario Party 2 does balance these fixes by introducing its own unique bullshit, like DMX Goomba, who will steal coins from every player and combine them into a pool that can be won by playing a minigame, or by trading analog stick rotating for mashing the A button, which is its own kind of hell. While "chance time" spaces have been reduced, there's now more spaces that will send you back to the starting position on the board, and new boards which use warping gimmicks requiring you to get a lucky roll in order to even move to the area where the star is located (and those also have spaces that just send you all the way back so, cool.)
The AI still cheats, and pretty blatantly so. It's great watching them roll the precise number they need to move onto warp spaces or to jump ahead of you when you've fallen just a space or two shy of a star. Oh they just happened to get a 10, the exact number they needed to pass me for the star? Oh wow how lucky of them! Meanwhile, I'm over here using bags of garbage for a bed, rolling 1's and 3's, pushing my shopping cart full of skeleton keys around fuckin destitute because DMX Goomba keeps hustling me for scraps. Playing this game feels like living in Modern Times, getting swallowed by that machine and churned through its gears and sprockets, spat out the other end a changed man.
At least they gave everyone cute little outfits, so I guess it's better than Mario Party 1.
However, there was a really nice moment before the pandemic where my friends had about as much free time as I did, and I was able to get quite a few of them together for regular Mario Party parties. It should go without saying that Mario Party games are best enjoyed with a living, breathing group of people who may or may not be held against their will. We'd usually play with different house rules, like not stealing coins from someone unless they had more than everyone else, or (when playing with just two people) picking one of the AI characters as a "partner," so if they won it would count as a personal victory, because the possibility of the computer shafting both of us was very real. Make no mistake, Mario Party 2 is miserable under any condition, but the difference between playing it with friends and playing alone is like being forced to listen to Cher blasted over loudspeakers or having your fingernails ripped off one-by-one.
There are some improvements to gameplay. The AI seems far less willing to steal stars when passing a boo space, there's far fewer "event time" spaces, and the number of minigames that require you to roll the analog stick has been reduced to zero. However, Mario Party 2 does balance these fixes by introducing its own unique bullshit, like DMX Goomba, who will steal coins from every player and combine them into a pool that can be won by playing a minigame, or by trading analog stick rotating for mashing the A button, which is its own kind of hell. While "chance time" spaces have been reduced, there's now more spaces that will send you back to the starting position on the board, and new boards which use warping gimmicks requiring you to get a lucky roll in order to even move to the area where the star is located (and those also have spaces that just send you all the way back so, cool.)
The AI still cheats, and pretty blatantly so. It's great watching them roll the precise number they need to move onto warp spaces or to jump ahead of you when you've fallen just a space or two shy of a star. Oh they just happened to get a 10, the exact number they needed to pass me for the star? Oh wow how lucky of them! Meanwhile, I'm over here using bags of garbage for a bed, rolling 1's and 3's, pushing my shopping cart full of skeleton keys around fuckin destitute because DMX Goomba keeps hustling me for scraps. Playing this game feels like living in Modern Times, getting swallowed by that machine and churned through its gears and sprockets, spat out the other end a changed man.
At least they gave everyone cute little outfits, so I guess it's better than Mario Party 1.
Gets put on a huge pedestal, but doesn't quite hold up. Wish they kept doing the costumes though.
Like its predecessor, it's a great game to play with friends. This one features item additions, and I would say it has the best maps of the first 3 games. Again, here, besides your treacherous friend, your biggest enemy is the bot that will mess you up at the worst moment. Nonetheless, it's a great game just like the first one
Igual seu predecessor, é um ótimo jogo pra jogar com os amigos. Esse possui adesão de itens, e diria eu que ele tem os melhores mapas dos 3 primeiros jogos. Novamente aqui além do amigo traíra seu maior inimigo é o bot que vai te ferrar no pior momento. Mesmo assim um ótimo jogo como o primeiro.
Igual seu predecessor, é um ótimo jogo pra jogar com os amigos. Esse possui adesão de itens, e diria eu que ele tem os melhores mapas dos 3 primeiros jogos. Novamente aqui além do amigo traíra seu maior inimigo é o bot que vai te ferrar no pior momento. Mesmo assim um ótimo jogo como o primeiro.
Se voce arranjar um amigo pra jogar isso aqui, você vai ter infinitas horas de diversão garantidas, pq esse jogo é sensacional e muito engraçado, e isso vale pro 1 2 e o 3, especialmente o 3 que com os itens abre muitas possibilidades.
I've never been into the Mario Party series, but I've played so many rounds of Super Mario Party in college with my friends who had it. I always thought it was a fun enough time, but nothing I would be very ecstatic about to play.
Then I played a single round of Mario Party 2 and I immediately understood. I have vague memories of playing a round or 2 of this when I was like 6, but nothing concrete. But when I played it the other day, I was laughing the entire time. I kept saying to myself "Wow, this is so much fun" even when complete bullshit was happening. In my many rounds of Super Mario Party, nothing even came close to the fun I had in a single round of this game, and now I'm hyped to play even more.
Then I played a single round of Mario Party 2 and I immediately understood. I have vague memories of playing a round or 2 of this when I was like 6, but nothing concrete. But when I played it the other day, I was laughing the entire time. I kept saying to myself "Wow, this is so much fun" even when complete bullshit was happening. In my many rounds of Super Mario Party, nothing even came close to the fun I had in a single round of this game, and now I'm hyped to play even more.
I wish more games put different genre costumes on characters for every level. Mario Party 2 ran so Kingdom Hearts could walk.
5.0 is too low of a score for the feeling of fucking over your best friends so I guess this will have to do.
One of Mario Party’s few high points
A glow up compared to the first game. Much better rules, infinitely better selection of minigames (including bringing back the best from the first game with improvements).
The boards are good too, though I thought the boards were the best part of the first game, so I won't say these ones are "better". I did love that each character got their own outfit for the boards.
Not without its minor flaws. Only 1 item at a time kinda sucks, especially when you can't swap it for another (which means skeleton keys a pain in the ass). It'd also benefit from having added a couple more characters. But w/e.
It's a fun Mario Party experience, but I can't say that it's the best as some people do.
The boards are good too, though I thought the boards were the best part of the first game, so I won't say these ones are "better". I did love that each character got their own outfit for the boards.
Not without its minor flaws. Only 1 item at a time kinda sucks, especially when you can't swap it for another (which means skeleton keys a pain in the ass). It'd also benefit from having added a couple more characters. But w/e.
It's a fun Mario Party experience, but I can't say that it's the best as some people do.
it still sucks but luigi gets a cowboy hat so it’s a definite improvement
Mario Party peaked with this one
Man, why did they never bring back the costumes in later entries?
i hate pirate land
Pretty good, but there's a big problem with luck based minigames. The "hub" is also kinda lame compared to the first game.
Call me crazy but I didn’t care for this one compared to MP 1 & 3. Was able to play this one shortly after it came out and wasn’t impressed then, a few years later the family owned the game and still didn’t like it. I’ll play it, but not my jam.