Retro Lookback: Mario Party 2

Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms and Release Dates (US): Nintendo 64 (January 24, 2000), Wii Virtual Console (December 20, 2010)
Genre: Party

Mario Party 2 is the follow up the successful Mario Party, and it continues the Partying and the Fighting that ensures when playing Mario Party.

The story is that Mario and Co lived peacefully in Mario Land until Wario decided that it should be called Wario Land, a fight breaks out and they bicker while Bowser plots to take over the kingdom. Mario and Co then decide that whoever stops Bowser shall have the land named after him/her, so they go off on the various boards to party and stop Bowser and be the Superstar.

The gameplay remains largely the same from the first game. 4 Players play a set number of turns on a board, while collecting Stars and Coins to win the board in the end, and playing Mini-Games between turns. There are different features from the first game. The boards are themed, like a Space Land or a Pirate Land, and the characters dress up in different costumes to suit the board. New spaces have been added. The Bank Space makes you pay a minimum of 5 coins when you pass it, and when a player lands on the space, he/she gets all the coins in the Bank and the Balance is reset to 0. The rules are Reversed in Bowser Land, however, where you get 5 Coins when you pass the bank and the player that lands on it has to pay off the whole balance. The Item space allows you to play a Board Specific Mini-Game for an Item, but only if you don't already have an item. Battle Spaces trigger a Battle Game, where each player has to pay up the cost and fight to win their money back, with 1st and 2nd receiving a 70/30 Split of the total pot. If there is an odd coin left, it gets randomly tossed to a player. The Mushroom Space and the 1 Player Game spaces have been removed. Different board features and mechanics are in this installment as well. As mentioned before, you can hold 1 item to use before you roll for the turn, these can benefit you or hinder another player. You can buy an item by passing an Item Shop or win an Item from an Item Space. Boo works slightly differently, instead of stealing coins for Free, you have to fork over 5 coins, but you can steal up to large amounts of coins instead if the 1-20 coins of the 1st game. You can still steal a star from another player for 50 coins. Baby Bowser also is on the board and takes the spot of where the Star (Toad) was previously when it is bought. Baby Bowser will take 5 coins from you when you pass him, although he occasionally gives you 5 coins. If a player has a Bowser Bomb at the end of the turn before the Mini-Game, Baby Bowser turn into Bowser and rolls 3 dice, whoever Bowser catches up to has to fork over all their coins. Koopa has been removed from this game, so you don't get a coin bonus for lapping the board. Hidden Blocks occur, and contain either 20 coins or a Star instead of the roulette of Koopa/Boo/Bowser from the first game. Each board has their own gimmicks and features that makes them stand kit form the others. Mystery Land, for example, uses a Day/Night cycle which would later be a main feature of Mario Party 6. At the end of the board, you can get 3 Bonus stars for Most Coins held at once, Most Coins won in Mini-Games, and Landing on the most Green Happening Spaces, like the first game. Instead of the winner being announced right there, a cut-scene in which the winner defeats Bowser plays out. Unlike the first game, every player's coins and stars go into the bank, even CPU players. Stars are converted into 50 Coins each. Coins in the bank are used to buy Mini-Games from Woody in Mini-Game Land.

The Mini-Games are the main attraction probably. There are about 70 Mini-Games, both new and remixes from the 1st game. You play a different Mini-Game Badass on what spaces the players have landed on. A 4 Player Game occurs when all 4 Players are either Red or Blue, these are usually Free-For-Alls with 1 winner. A 1 vs 3 game is when all but one player is the same color, it is a team game of the solo player vs the team of 3, with the solo player given a slighter advantage due to the ways the teams are layer out. A 2 vs 2 game is when the players are evenly split between Red and Blue, the teams of 2 battle each other with one team winning. A Battle Game is when a Battle Space is landed on, which was explained earlier. Players bet the amount of coins determined and fight for the pot, with a 70/30 split going to 1st and 2nd and an odd coin going to a random player if applicable. An Item Game is when a player lands on an Item Space, if you have no item, you get to play for an Item. Duel Games are introduced in this game. In the last 5 turns, whenever 2 players occupy the same space, they play a board specific battle game to determine the winner. The challenging player (the one who landed on the space) bets any amount of coins up to the maximum of the lower coin total, the winner gets all the coins. You can also initiate a Duel Game by using the Dueling Glove item. The Mini-Games where you has to spin the control stick around as fast as you can has been removed from this game due to lawsuits from the first game.

There is also the Mini-Game land, where you can play the Mini-Games without playing the board. You can free play any of the games you bought from Woody in the Park. You can go to the stadium to play a best of series of mini-games to win. You can also play a figure-8 board similar to the Pot-o-Skills in the first game, and you earn coins by lapping the board here unlike the standard game. Lastly, there is the Mini-Game Coaster. This works like the Mini-Game Island from the first game. You can select Easy, Normal, and Hard each having 3, 6, and 9 Worlds to complete respectively. You start with 3 Lives and earn coins by successfully beating Mini-Games. You get a 1up for every 100 coins. You can also get a Win Streak Bonus, where your coin winnings are multiplied by the current win streak. Like the first game, you can also select a partner to compete with you in the 2 vs 2 games and when you are on the 3 side in 1 vs 3 games. You can save at the start of each world and continue from there when you run out of lives. The objective is to get to the end of the Coaster before you run out of lives.

Since this is Mario Party, this game is best enjoyed with 4 People, but the CPU can still be fun to play against (especially when they cheat and rig every Chance Time to work against you). This game has tons of replay value in a group setting.

Bottom Line: Mario Party 2 improves from the first game and adds good new features. This is an experience best enjoyed with friends, but can still be fun solo. This is worth a Play or Buy.

Author's Note: That statement about the Cheating CPU comes from experience... Don't ask... Also, the Runaway Guys have done Let's Plays of Mario Party 2 on YouTube. Go watch them, they are very funny.