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.
JetSetSet
4 months ago