It's a fine introduction to the Mario Party series. In fact, I am surprised at how many things it got right considering this was the first entry. I am not surprised at all the things it got wrong. One word to describe this game is: Punishing. And not just mentally, but physically too.
the middle of my palm would like a word with this game
bullshit but fun bullshit
fuck you: the game
doh i missed
Nothing is more frightening than a 50-turn game of Mario Party on Eternal Star with three so-called "hard" AI opponents. I hope you enjoy them constantly stealing your stars then throwing them away by intentionally visiting Bowser, because whoever built their AI was a god damn psychopath.
Mario Party is one of the few CIB Nintendo 64 games I own, and I got it at a pretty reasonable price. Still, I paid real money for it, more than any reasonable person should for Mario Party, and as always, if I bought it I gotta... I gotta finish it... I picked up a cheap bottle of whiskey (because there's no way I'm playing this game sober) and spent the last week getting hammered and tearing the flesh off my palm.
Right off the bat, Mario Party's greatest sin is its difficulty balancing, or lack thereof. It's similar in some ways to Mario Kart's rubber-banding, and I think borne from a similar design philosophy that if the player is winning for too long they'll get bored and turn the game off. I think most developers would look at that problem and probably think of some way to make winning just as engaging as clambering your way back to the top, but not Nintendo. Why craft a carefully balanced experience when you can just have the AI crack the player in the kneecaps with a pipe and rob them blind? In a way, Mario Party is reflective of Nintendo as a company. Oh, you're having fun? You're enjoying your video game? Not so fast, buddy!
The infuriating part is I can see how you could tweak the game as-is to make it feel less unfair. Just get rid of Chance Time spaces or have only one of them to reduce the frequency they're landed on and make it so you can't interact with Boo unless you land on the space directly in front of him. I don't even mind the bonus stars for minigame performance since those still seem to reward you for playing well, it's the ease of stealing stars and the computer's blatant cheating that make the game agonizing.
Well, that and the minigames. There's 50 total in the first Mario Party, which seems like a lot, 50 is a big number, but good luck not rerolling the same ones over and over again. Even at the bare minimum of 20 turns I have to play Shy Guys Says like, three times. Also, 50 minigames and not a single one of them is good. Incredible odds. Even setting aside how many require you to roll the analog stick around, none of them are particularly interesting or fun to play. Oh, it's the ice slide from Mario 64, but it feels worse. Oh, one player gets coins showered on them and occasionally one might roll off for you to catch, like a dog begging for scraps at the table. I'm ashamed to say the minigames were the main draw for me as a kid, but I think that was true of everyone else I knew. Nobody showed up to a Mario Party for the board game aspect, and if they did then I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that kid like, tortures animals or something.
I'm surprised how many people are rating this game so highly, a lot of them saying things like "man, the first Mario Party is so brutal, it just goes in on you with nothing but contempt!" Hey, fair enough, but I've never been viciously kicked in the balls and said "I value and respect your savagery. More please!" Instead, I just puke and lay down for a while. Just like when I play Mario Party.
Mario Party is one of the few CIB Nintendo 64 games I own, and I got it at a pretty reasonable price. Still, I paid real money for it, more than any reasonable person should for Mario Party, and as always, if I bought it I gotta... I gotta finish it... I picked up a cheap bottle of whiskey (because there's no way I'm playing this game sober) and spent the last week getting hammered and tearing the flesh off my palm.
Right off the bat, Mario Party's greatest sin is its difficulty balancing, or lack thereof. It's similar in some ways to Mario Kart's rubber-banding, and I think borne from a similar design philosophy that if the player is winning for too long they'll get bored and turn the game off. I think most developers would look at that problem and probably think of some way to make winning just as engaging as clambering your way back to the top, but not Nintendo. Why craft a carefully balanced experience when you can just have the AI crack the player in the kneecaps with a pipe and rob them blind? In a way, Mario Party is reflective of Nintendo as a company. Oh, you're having fun? You're enjoying your video game? Not so fast, buddy!
The infuriating part is I can see how you could tweak the game as-is to make it feel less unfair. Just get rid of Chance Time spaces or have only one of them to reduce the frequency they're landed on and make it so you can't interact with Boo unless you land on the space directly in front of him. I don't even mind the bonus stars for minigame performance since those still seem to reward you for playing well, it's the ease of stealing stars and the computer's blatant cheating that make the game agonizing.
Well, that and the minigames. There's 50 total in the first Mario Party, which seems like a lot, 50 is a big number, but good luck not rerolling the same ones over and over again. Even at the bare minimum of 20 turns I have to play Shy Guys Says like, three times. Also, 50 minigames and not a single one of them is good. Incredible odds. Even setting aside how many require you to roll the analog stick around, none of them are particularly interesting or fun to play. Oh, it's the ice slide from Mario 64, but it feels worse. Oh, one player gets coins showered on them and occasionally one might roll off for you to catch, like a dog begging for scraps at the table. I'm ashamed to say the minigames were the main draw for me as a kid, but I think that was true of everyone else I knew. Nobody showed up to a Mario Party for the board game aspect, and if they did then I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that kid like, tortures animals or something.
I'm surprised how many people are rating this game so highly, a lot of them saying things like "man, the first Mario Party is so brutal, it just goes in on you with nothing but contempt!" Hey, fair enough, but I've never been viciously kicked in the balls and said "I value and respect your savagery. More please!" Instead, I just puke and lay down for a while. Just like when I play Mario Party.
Doh
The nice thing about Nintendo Switch Online for old people like me is that you get a little involuntary nostalgia hit every couple of months. I wouldn’t download and emulate Mario Party of my own volition, but something about it being readily available on my Switch just makes the access to those old memories so much more enticing - even when said memories now launch with an updated warning about how they can cause permanent damage to the palm of your hand.
Funny story about this game - my younger brother and I had it in our heads that it was possible to be skilled at it. Our misguided belief that the winner of a game of Mario Party was in some way deserving of recognition and admiration eventually came to a head when our neighbour - who didn’t own or play video games of any kind whatsoever at any time - played a round with us one rainy afternoon. He came out comfortably 3 stars ahead at the end of 50 turns, brutally shredding our fragile preteenage egos to tatters. This trauma sent my brother crazy, and he had to be locked in the bathroom for an hour because he was quite simply going completely apeshit-crackers at the notion that someone who didn’t even hold the N64 controller correctly could beat him at a game he’d played for a hundred hours. Very funny to recall his little cheeky face lying on a floor sodden with Chance Time-induced tears. Great game.
You can jape endlessly about the unfairness of the original Mario Partys, but there’s nothing you can really say that’s more amusing than participating in it. Taking huge inspiration from the capitalist chaos of Monopoly, this is definitely one of Nintendo’s most postmodern games, directly stating on many occasions that the rules are made up and the coins don’t matter. It revels in unfairness and mean-spiritedness (literally, with the inclusion of a robber Boo) in a way I imagine Shigeru Miyamoto would frown very hard at, and I presume the meaning of Bowser hollering “That’s often the way things go in life!” while tap-dancing on the spot as Mario wails about being mis-sold a suspicious “super duper star” for the tidy sum of 200 coins just completely passed me by as a kid. Just like the game of Life, the lesson to be learned here is that no matter how carefully plot your course and how hard you twirl your joystick, all the money in your bank can be swept away in an instant because some stupid prick stepped on a big red button with your face on it.
Funny story about this game - my younger brother and I had it in our heads that it was possible to be skilled at it. Our misguided belief that the winner of a game of Mario Party was in some way deserving of recognition and admiration eventually came to a head when our neighbour - who didn’t own or play video games of any kind whatsoever at any time - played a round with us one rainy afternoon. He came out comfortably 3 stars ahead at the end of 50 turns, brutally shredding our fragile preteenage egos to tatters. This trauma sent my brother crazy, and he had to be locked in the bathroom for an hour because he was quite simply going completely apeshit-crackers at the notion that someone who didn’t even hold the N64 controller correctly could beat him at a game he’d played for a hundred hours. Very funny to recall his little cheeky face lying on a floor sodden with Chance Time-induced tears. Great game.
You can jape endlessly about the unfairness of the original Mario Partys, but there’s nothing you can really say that’s more amusing than participating in it. Taking huge inspiration from the capitalist chaos of Monopoly, this is definitely one of Nintendo’s most postmodern games, directly stating on many occasions that the rules are made up and the coins don’t matter. It revels in unfairness and mean-spiritedness (literally, with the inclusion of a robber Boo) in a way I imagine Shigeru Miyamoto would frown very hard at, and I presume the meaning of Bowser hollering “That’s often the way things go in life!” while tap-dancing on the spot as Mario wails about being mis-sold a suspicious “super duper star” for the tidy sum of 200 coins just completely passed me by as a kid. Just like the game of Life, the lesson to be learned here is that no matter how carefully plot your course and how hard you twirl your joystick, all the money in your bank can be swept away in an instant because some stupid prick stepped on a big red button with your face on it.
"Mirá que este juego es medio destructor de controles", me dijeron cuando lo fuí a alquilar la primera vez y me sugirieron mejor probar Mario Party 2.
Años más tarde lo jugué en mi 64. Este juego es la definición de "terminar peleado con tus amigos", en especial los minijuegos especiales donde "eres" Bowser, eso incitan a la violencia física.
Más de una vez terminé a las trompadas con mis primas xD
De todas formas tiene minijuegos muy divertidos y el increíble factor random hace de él muy entretenido para jugarlo con amigos.
Años más tarde lo jugué en mi 64. Este juego es la definición de "terminar peleado con tus amigos", en especial los minijuegos especiales donde "eres" Bowser, eso incitan a la violencia física.
Más de una vez terminé a las trompadas con mis primas xD
De todas formas tiene minijuegos muy divertidos y el increíble factor random hace de él muy entretenido para jugarlo con amigos.
this was miserable
Minigame Island is really fun (this was all i played) !!
This is the second Mario Party I've played so I expect the score to lower once I get to the rest :p
This is the second Mario Party I've played so I expect the score to lower once I get to the rest :p
I can still feel the blisters on my palm
Instead of torture, governments should make prisoners play this game
how the fuck were people hurting themselves with this
if mario party was like th le parties i’ve gone to i wouldn’t have played any of the other ones
A good start for the series, and I wish they had revisited some of the elements that got "cleaned up" later, like different stage mechanics and unique minigame formats.
its really funny though
It has its charm, and while it's the first game in the series and its not perfect, it still brings a smile to my face even if it has major flaws.
Offering some of the N64's best couch co-op gameplay, the original Mario Party has spawned numerous sequels, but still remains as one of the best in the entire series. Some of the most memorable and fun mini-games to play, coupled with iconic boards and plenty of game modes.
I really don’t think anything in this game is worth coming back for unfortunately, except maybe like 2 stages and Wario’s original voice lines
fun, but mario party 2 is easily so much better
It's very basic compared to the rest of the series. The lack of items especially makes it feel very basic. That being said it makes up for its flaws with charm. There was a lot of effort put into unique animations for each character.
outside of the notorious health concerns. It reeks of first game with it being very a lot of unbalanced minigames, SOME weird boards, and janky controls. Not all of the boards are bad. Yoshi’s and Peach’s got refined later on but the base still remains here with them still at least being decent. This is the game you’d NEED to play with friends, because outside of needing every Star and coin from non-CPU, everything else will mess you up. Its not a terrible game, but its the one that has aged the worse.
It was their first attemp... And I hate it... Granted the game is a blast with friends, but MP2 Onwards tone down how brutally unfun some events and mini games are(Shout outs to the rotating and losing coins mini games... The worst in the franchise)
This game has aged very poorly sadly. I have no nostalgia for it, but the minigames are probably the worst in the franchise, the boards are poorly designed and that's pretty much all there is to Mario party. The gameplay is still fun with friends and you can have a great time still. But I don't see any reason to ever come back to this unless you are nostalgia blind.
This is bullying the video game ( A good shout out to Bash and Cash Probably ruined a couple friendships just with that minigame alone). It is a Beautiful dumpster fire
Game is fun with friends but this game absolutely sucks otherwise, the boards are not fun and the game just has too much random bullcrap to make it fun. Thankfully this game got sequels that are much better and way more fun.
the best one
This is the most unfair game I've played, it's so punishing.
It can be pretty funny if you don't take it seriously and play it with friends/boyfriend tho.
It can be pretty funny if you don't take it seriously and play it with friends/boyfriend tho.
your friends are your enemies