Reviews from

in the past


Mario Party if it was slightly more refined and had a few extra decent games on top of the shit ones from before. Sorry but your cute costume gimmick doesn't reward you the honor of one of the best in the series.

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.

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...

Nostalgic experience in which you pretend that you aren't about to cry when you're not the winner


This game, while extremely simple at its core, is just downright fun to play. Of course, being an N64 game means that it is lighter on content, but the quality of the content still shines through.

This is a board game, where each player needs to get the most stars by the end of the final round, and after every round, you are given a minigame to play. My biggest complaint comes from the balance of these minigames. Most of them feel like it is heavily weighted toward certain players (mainly in 1 vs. 3 games or 2 vs. 2 games), and some games are just straight-up luck-based.

Also, this is a multiplayer game so some of the enjoyment is lost for anyone who plays by themselves. Despite that, this is still a great, casual multiplayer experience that I can recommend to anyone. There are so many in this franchise, but this one is still very worth your time.

My favorite Mario Party; Most memorable boards, music, minigames, and even sound effects.

The absolute peak of party games, still breaking it out 20 years later. Best way to push lifelong friendships to the brink, nothing beats a final turn chance time to flip the table and reward mediocrity.

Cruelty. Sheer cruelty. PERFECT for a drinking game.

The elation of obliterating your so-called 'friends' is matched only by the crushing, hopeless anger of watching them win.

Definitely a decent Mario Party game, especially for N64 standards.

I'm spoiled with things like CPUs skipping their item minigames now and all that, so it's kind of dreadful to play this game nowadays, but for back then it was great.
The minigames are pretty good, it introduced classic features and the soundtrack isn't bad.

Mario Party 2 is a good game. But after some times has gone by, oh boy did I notice a lot of flaws with the game.

I will go ahead and say that the minigames are super nostalgic and can be really fun, the boards are also really cool, although there was only really one board I didn't enjoy that much, I particularly love that they give the characters matching outfits to fit with the theme of the board in question. However one of the things that bogs the game down a lot is the friggin' enemy AI. Regardless of difficulty there's going to be a lot of times where the AI are dumb as rocks and yet other times where it's impossible to beat them. Mecha Marathon being a prime example seeing as how it feels like they have super-human strength and you can't even get close to beating the AI. Of course some of the minigames are also not that great either, but not every minigame can be good. But I'd still say it's worth playing this game. Miles better than Mario Party 1 that's for sure.

TIME FOR A HOOTENANNY!!! This game is epic. My favvy maps are western world and the pirate one of course

Favvy mini games: platform peril, bumper balls, hexagon heat, toad in the box, cake factory, day at the races, face lift, crazy cutters, bowsers big blast, look away… yea.. good games 😻

A Hollywood Video rental classic. I liked being cowboy Mario

this is the best mario party that i've ever played (i didnt have a game cube :( )
the costumes matching de scenarios really enchanted me, and the minigames are incredible

the best mario party on the n64 for at least a year

This is the best one. Are you kidding me? Watermelon genie? Let's go. Boo bell? Yes please. I don't even remember the maps because the items are my fav part of the game.

joguei tanto esse jogo que quebrei 2 controles de 64 e quase assassinei minha irma a sangue frio com socos

this and 3 are hands down the funnest casual multiplayer experiences you can have when ur friends all get together.

An improvement in every way, from music to graphics to level concepts it's really good a decent amount of the times. Some of the mini-games weren't as strong but it's a fun time I think.

7.2/10

Board rankings:
1. Horror Land- 9.0/10
2. Bowser Land- 8.3/10
3. Mystery Land- 8.2/10
4. Western Land- 7.4/10
5. Space Land- 7.2/10
6. Pirate Land- 6.8/10

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.

I really like western land, i think that's all i wanted to say. Jokes aside, its one of my favorite MPs!

All of this stuff is really hit and miss, but again it really doesn't matter in the multiplayer prime time.


The single greatest Mario Party. No notes

Pirate Land is the best board. Fight me

*actually on switch vc

this is effectively a better mario party 1. i love the gameplay so much i find myself replaying boards time and time again. really looking forward to playing mario party 3 when it comes out on switch virtual console.