Mario Party

""Smash Bros. is how you build friendships. Mario Party is how you destroy them. Ironic, isn't it?""

- Random commenter on an unrelated page, whose comparison sums up the series.



This long-running series of multiplayer games for Nintendo 64, Game Cube, Game Boy Advance, Wii, and DS, developed by Hudson Soft but published by Nintendo (though since Hudson's acquisition by Konami, the 9th game is developed by Nd Cube, developers of Wii Party) combines a board-game motif with various competitive mini-games. Besides Mario, Luigi and their friends, some of the enemies from Super Mario Bros.. are playable characters in the Mario Party series. About a dozen Mario Party games have been released so far: nine on home consoles, one on the Game Boy Advance, one for the e-Reader (actually a non-collectible card game with included minigames), one on the Nintendo DS, and two in arcades.

The basic format of the game has mostly remained the same. Four players (Computers filling in if there aren't enough human players) take turns rolling dice to move across one of several themed boards, with the ultimate goal of obtaining Stars, which are classically obtained by a player who reaches a Star Space and buys a star for 20 Coins, after which the Star Space is moved to a random location on the board.

After all players have had their turn, a mini-game begins. The players are placed on Blue or Red teams based on what spaces they had landed on (Green players are randomly marked Blue or Red) and a roulette begins to pick a game. The winner(s) of these games are typically awarded with 10 coins (in the first Mario Party the loser(s) may lose coins), although there are special games where the goal is to collect coins, in which case everyone gets to take however many coins they collected in the game with them.

Mario Party 9 changed the board game concept to have one ship that all the players take turns captaining. Mini-games only start when a mini-game space is landed on (and sometimes at random on blue spaces). Coins are gone, and stars are replaced with mini-stars, which are collected several at a time both on the board and in mini-games.

All of the games (With the exception of 1, 2, and 6) include some form of Single-Player campaign, which typically involves playing against computers on the game boards, but the mechanics may be slightly different.

Games in this series

 * Mario Party (1998).
 * Mario Party 2 (1999).
 * Mario Party 3 (2000).
 * Mario Party 4 (2002).
 * Mario Party 5 (2003).
 * Mario Party 6 (2004).
 * Mario Party Advance (2005).
 * Mario Party 7 (2005).
 * Mario Party 8 (2007).
 * Mario Party DS (2007).
 * Mario Party 9 (2012).

"Koopa: This Star was broken up by Bowser, and he even wrote graffiti all over it! This cannot be permitted!"
 * Abandon Ship: In Mario Party 2, this is played straight in a mini-game of the same name.
 * The All-Seeing AI:
 * Torpedo Targets in Mario Party 2 has you looking for targets and shooting them. The computer always knows where they are, even though there is no map or radar.
 * The same goes for Ground Pound in the original Mario Party, but thankfully the AI is kind enough to always get one wrong for every one that it gets right.
 * Always Night: Boo's Haunted Bash, King Boo's Haunted Hideaway, and Boo's Horror Castle.
 * Always Over the Shoulder: The tank games.
 * Amusement Park: Toad's Midway Madness in 4.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From the first installment:


 * Art Evolution: The first three games had simple, flat boards with simple 3D-ish models. The fourth game had a 3D background, but all the paths took place on the same metal walkway. The latest games now have the paths incorporated into the boards themselves.
 * 4 was also the first game in the franchise to show Peach and Daisy with their current designs.
 * Art Shift: The 3rd game uses more flat, 2D imagery, since it takes place inside a toy box.
 * Artificial Stupidity: On Easy mode, the game practically wins itself.
 * Hell, there's a video where Luigi wins six minigames in Mario Party 2 by doing absolutely nothing. A youtube search for "wins by doing absolutely nothing" will result in plenty of videos with the same premise.
 * In the minigame Ground Pound in the first game, the computer always ground pounds an incorrect pole after each one they get correct, no matter what difficulty they are set on.
 * Mario Party's AI has even evolved into an online spectator sport known as "Mario Retardy", where viewers watch a match between 4 bottom-level AIs as they hopelessly stumble around in minigames, unintentionally screw themselves out of stars and suddenly propel themselves into 1st place against all odds during Chance Time
 * Ascended Extra: Over the course of the games, Koopa, Boo, Toad, and now Shy Guy and Kamek have all gone from helpers to hosting the game to being playable characters.
 * Aside Glance:
 * In Mario Party 1, when getting a completely pointless black star that costs 40 coins from Bowser in Mario's Rainbow Castle, getting a free coin from Bowser's machine in Luigi's Engine Room (at the cost of 20 coins), having a Goomba plant a Piranha Plant trap for you on Peach's Birthday Cake, or getting some free coins from Bowser if you run into him without any coins or stars, the character turns around and, despite the graphics in those days, you can clearly see his/her expression of What.
 * Also happens in 3's Story Mode, if you're not playing as Luigi. After each Battle Royale board, the Millenium Star is about to give youa Star Stamp when a character will interrupt and say they deserve the stamp more than you because they suit that stamp's quality better (for eample, Mario wants the Courage stamp). If you're playing as that character, Luigi will appear instead, claiming he deserves the stamp. Then your character turns and gives the camera a look.
 * A Worldwide Punomenon: The names of most minigames.
 * Band Land: Toadette's Music Room in DS.
 * Bat Family Crossover: Donkey Kong's board in 9 is clearly supposed to be based upon Donkey Kong Country Returns.
 * Batman Gambit: The Player. To get anywhere you'll have to plan ahead. Not accounting for the Random Number God can be a massive Spanner in the Works. Sometimes throwing a mini game later on can be the best course of action to stop first place getting another star or what have you.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Brighton and Twilla from Mario Party 6 seem to have a G-rated relationship.
 * Betting Minigame: The Battle mini-games. All the players has to forcibly bet a set number of money (if they have less, they lose it all) and have to play a minigame. The first place winner gets 70% of the jackpot, the second gets 30%, and a random player gets any coins that were lost in rounding.
 * Mario Party 3 featured Game Guy minigames, where you are forced to wager everything you have and you either win a multiple of what you wagered or lose it all.
 * Big Boo's Haunt:
 * Horror Land from 2.
 * Boo's Haunted Bash from 4.
 * King Boo's Haunted Hideaway from 8.
 * Boo's Horror Castle from 9.
 * Big OMG: Luigi and Wario in the first game say "Oh my God!" when something really bad happens to them in the Japanese version. This was Bowdlerised to "Owowowow!" for Luigi, while Wario gets "Doh I missed!" (sounds a bit like "So ein Mist!", German for "What a mess!") in the English version.
 * Bonus Space: Some of the Happening Spaces might be this, but the Donkey Kong spaces are more likely to have a nice payoff. Then there's the Lucky Spaces in Mario Party 8.
 * Boss Battle: Aside from Mario Party 1, 2, 6, and Advance, there is at least one boss in each game, usually as the final minigame of the game:
 * Mario Party 3: "Stardust Battle".
 * Mario Party 4: "The Final Battle!"
 * Mario Party 5: "Frightmare".
 * Mario Party 7: "Bowser's Lovely Lift!"
 * Mario Party 8: "Superstar Showdown".
 * Mario Party DS: "Feed and Seed", "Hammer Chime", "Hexoskeleton", "Book Bash", and "Bowser's Block Party".
 * Mario Party 9: "Sock It To Lakitu", "Wiggler Bounce", "Whomp Stomp", "Bombard Big Bob-omb", "Deck Dry Bones", "King Boo's Puzzle Attack", "Cheep Cheep Shot", "Blooper Barrage", "Spike Strike", "Chain Chomp Romp", "Bowser Jr. Beatdown", "Bowser's Block Battle", "Diddy's Banana Blast", and "DK's Banana Bonus".
 * Bragging Rights Reward: In-universe, this is the plot of the first game. With all the characters competing to simply prove who is the best among them.
 * Bubbly Clouds:
 * Mario's Rainbow Castle from the original.
 * Rainbow Dream from 5.
 * Bullying a Dragon: An AI-controlled Donkey Kong in 2 will repeatedly go for the Bowser Bomb in item games, because he apparently believes he can take on Bowser himself. But unless he has the most stars at the end of the game, he cannot. Expect to lose coins.
 * Button Mashing: Most games require pressing the button as much as possible. Some other games in the original Mario Party required spinning the control stick. It also damaged the controller, and from reports in Nintendo Power, some gamers' hands (usually the palms, as some took to spinning the stick with the palm of their hand).
 * By Wall That Is Holey: A minigame in Mario Party 4 requires you to do this with a giant book by running to the holes in the pages when they turn.
 * Casino Park:
 * Mario Party 7's Neon Heights board is a combination of this and Broadway.
 * There's also Goomba's Greedy Gala from 4.
 * Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Koopa Kid hasn't made an appearance in either of the two recent games: Mario Party 8 and Mario Party DS. Toadette didn't make her appearance in Mario Party 9.
 * Climax Boss: and  in the Story Mode of Mario Party 3.
 * Comeback Mechanic: Bowser will normally take Coins or Stars from players. If a player reaches Bowser with no Coins or Stars, however, Bowser will give the player 40 Coins.
 * In the ninth game when a player in last place lands on a Bowser Space and gets "Lose half your mini-stars!" on the roulette, he'll DOUBLE your mini-stars (yes, DOUBLE the mini-stars) because he feels bad that you are in last.
 * When a player not in last place lands in a Bowser Space they may have to give there own mini-stars to last place.
 * There are many events that benefits the person in last in the ninth game.
 * Most Mario Party titles also present an event when there are 5 turns remaining where the player in last is invited to spin a roulette wheel (actually a spinning item box), of which most of the results are in that player's favor.
 * Commuting on a Bus: Donkey Kong, who was a fully playable character in the first four games. Koopa Kid hasn't fared much better as a playable character himself, having only been playable for in 5 and 6 before falling on the wayside.
 * The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: It depends. In certain minigames, they have extreme skill that no human could possibly surpass. A good example is in Mario's Puzzle Party in the third game.
 * In the earlier games, whether or not you'll win a race to the finish such as Skateboard Scamper or Abandon Ship depends entirely on whether the computer wants you to. It always comes down to the very last button press, and 9 times out of 10, the computer player will dance in victory and you'll be screaming that you had it. Thankfully, in later installments, tie victories are possible and you'll get the money as long as you survive at all.
 * Basically any mini-game where you have to pick a random "something" (card, button press, rope, etc.) It's supposed to be completely fair since the winning "something" is random but the CPUs (of any difficulty) are psychic and will know exactly that to pick. To make matters worse, in Mario Party games with single player modes where you have to win the mini-game to keep it (Mario Party 6 for example) you can lose a lot of mini-games at no fault of your own.
 * Conservation of Ninjitsu: If there's only one computer player, even on Easy, it will suddenly become much more competent at mini-games.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: For the losers in the first installment.
 * Demoted to Extra: Starting in Mario Party 5, Donkey Kong went from being a playable character to a cameo that appears if you land on his spot.
 * Koopa Kid went from being playable in the fifth and sixth games to being an extra in the seventh, and then disappearing entirely.
 * Dry Bones dropped off the playable roster after 8, but appeared in Mario Party DS and Mario Party 9 as a miniboss.
 * Blooper was The Unexpected in 8, but then only got a mention in DS before eventually, like Dry Bones, being a boss in 9.
 * Hammer Bro. became playable in 8, but then became the Battle Game referee in 9.
 * Boo got it worst of all. After becoming an Ascended Extra to playable character, he was knocked down to Board Hazard in 9, not even getting to be a boss or host. King Boo got to be a boss, though.
 * Did Not Do the Bloody Research: In Mario Party 8, the line "Magikoopa magic! Turn the train spastic!" in the Shy Guy's Perplex Express board game initially caused the game to be recalled in the UK, where "spastic" is seen as an insulting term for the disabled. It was changed to "erratic" in later releases.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: A mini-game in Mario Party 8 has you shake the Wii remote up and down to build up pressure in a soda can to make a geyser taller than everyone else's. Anyone who played this mini-game for the first time probably made the obvious dirty jokes after seeing how the game was played.
 * That's not everything. It's probably unintentional, but in Mario Party 3, if you land on a Bowser Space, the screen will cut to Bowser doing his trademark merry dance. Most of the time. Some other times, you'll catch him lying on his side, his head on one hand, his other hand on his hip, with one leg stretched and the other raised. Think about that. It's a familiar position, and it's somehow both extremely uncomfortable and hilarious beyond description.
 * Doomy Dooms of Doom: Bowser's minigames in Mario Party 4 are called Darts of Doom, Fruits of Doom, and Balloon of Doom.
 * Early Installment Weirdness: This series definitely took a while to find its feet. Go back to the N64 games (especially the first one) and marvel at how much has changed.
 * Some of the weirdness in the first game: Rotate-the-control-stick minigames (which were entirely eliminated after due to complaints that people hurt themselves, plus all the broken analog sticks). The first game was also the only one where you could lose coins in the end-of-turn minigames. Your coin total never went below 0, however.
 * Egopolis: In 2 the Mario characters create a new world that is initially named Mario Land, but each one wants to name the world after themselves, so they have a contest to determine who gets to name it.
 * Enemy Mine: The 1v3 and 2v2 games, in which you team up with other players and everyone on the winning team gets coins. There are rare situations late in the game where throwing such a minigame is the best option.
 * Enemy Switch-Out: Certain items and events allow you to switch spaces with other players. Some do so with one specific character (such as the Warp Pipe), while others will shuffle everybody around (such as a number of Bowser events).
 * Eternal Engine:
 * Luigi's Engine Room from the original.
 * E. Gadd's Garage from 6.
 * Bob-omb Factory from 9.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: Bowser will (usually) take mercy on you and give you some coins if you happen to land on his space without a single coin or star. However, he implies he does this with the motive of taking them away later.
 * Evil Counterpart:
 * Toad and Bowser in the first game. Mario's and Yoshi's stages revolve around making sure you hit the right one.
 * Starting in Mario Party 5, Donkey Kong became the Good Counterpart to Bowser. This is especially evident in 6, where DK's out at day and Bowser's out at night (literally in the case of the final board), and 8, where the two alternate spaces depending on which one everyone most recently met.
 * and will be a "board piece" example of this in Mario Party 9's Story Mode. They serve as the 3rd or 4th or both CPUs and if they win the board, you lose.
 * Excuse Plot: In all of the games, the "plot" will always be "We have a problem in X place with Y thing, help us collect stars to solve it!". The plot is hardly developed, but then again, no one plays these games for the plot.
 * Forgot I Could Fly: Some characters such as Paratroopa, Boo and Blooper are continually hounded by platforming sections and conveyor belts despite being able to leave the ground at will, and some of them don't normally touch the ground at all.
 * Gang Plank Galleon:
 * Pirate Land from 2.
 * Pirate Dream from 5.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Mario Party 4 has a swimming minigame where you're able to see the white fluff under Peach and Daisy's royal dresses.
 * Mario Party 9 at some extent shows you there no fluff in Peach and Daisy's gowns.
 * Go-Karting with Bowser:
 * Wario is playable; Bowser himself shows up only as a board effect to mess with the players.
 * Also, other enemy characters that have been playable include Waluigi, Koopa Kid, Boo, Dry Bones, Hammer Bro, and Blooper.
 * Mario Party 9 adds, causing trouble for you in 9's Story Mode.
 * Bowser was playable in Mario Party 4's Beach Volley Folly mode.
 * The boards usually contain enemies that Mario kills on a regular basis living relatively normal lives (in 7, Koopas and Goombas populate a peaceful town, Shy Guys run a train, etc.)
 * Golden Snitch: Although the first game's Mini-Game star was probably going to go to someone already in the lead, the randomization of the types of Bonus Stars in the later games makes it more likely that the person in last could win all three of them and take the lead. Especially in Mario Party 8, if the person had been falling behind because they were spending all their coins on Thrice Candy (Roll 3 Dice). Three of the possible Bonus Stars that can be awarded are for spending the most on candy (and Thrice is pretty expensive), using the most candy, and moving the most spaces...
 * Chance Time can change the fate of the game in a hurry. Try switching stars with the player in first place if you're behind.
 * Green Hill Zone:
 * Windmillville from 7.
 * Wiggler's Garden from DS.
 * Toad Road in 9.
 * Hailfire Peaks: Waluigi's Island from 3 combines Palmtree Panic with Down in the Dumps.
 * Handcar Pursuit: A recurring team mini-game is a race between two handcars, where you have to coordinate with your partner to speed up, slow down, and bank around sharp corners.
 * Harder Than Hard: Very Hard or Super Hard, depending on the game, and usually needs to be unlocked. The AI is clearly better at some minigames than others.
 * Brutal Difficulty in later games.
 * Historical In-Joke: The Bowser Revolution, which evens out everyone's coins (ie money), parallel to many Communist (etc) revolutions. Of course, which players are happy about it depends solely on how many coins they have relative to the others. Some people call it BOWSER COMMUNISM!!!
 * Honest John's Dealership: Bowser has actual appearances on the board in the first game -- anyone who passes by him automatically gets to buy one of his cheap-as-free and totally-not-bogus items, which inevitably blows up in the character's face the moment they 'accept' it. After wasting your time, he then takes most of your coins as payment and then does a merry dance to mock your pain. Bastard.
 * Hostile Level Takeover: Waluigi's Island from 3 is implied to have belonged to Luigi. The board is even similar to Luigi's Engine Room from the original.
 * House Rules: If you want to make this game even more chaotic than it already is, try the Wario Party option and turn the minigame tutorials off.
 * The same group also has a capsule-related House Rule for Mario Party 5, where every capsule has to be used or tossed as soon as it's acquired, in order to eventually wind up with a board where every single space has some manner of effect.
 * I Have Many Names: Prior to Mario Party 4, Koopa Kid went by the name of Baby Bowser, and he's called Mini-Bowser in PAL territories.
 * Incredible Shrinking Man: The plot of Mario Party DS.
 * In-Universe Game Clock:
 * In Mario Party 6, it will change between day and night every three turns. When the time of day changes, prices at stores will change, routes will change, some board events will be different, and certain minigames will play differently.
 * Horror Land from 2 also changed the time of day once every two turns.
 * Jungle Japes:
 * All of the DK boards.
 * Shy Guy's Jungle Jam from 4.
 * Lethal Lava Land:
 * Appears in most games, where it is usually a Bowser-themed board, which means it's also likely to be a harder board than the others in some way.
 * The only game where the lava board is not a Bowser board is Magma Mine from 9.
 * The Solo board Infernal Tower from 6.
 * Level Ate:
 * Peach's Birthday Cake from the original game.
 * Sweet Dream from 5.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: As the series went on, it started with just six major Mario characters, to having 14, including a few various recurring enemies as characters.
 * Locomotive Level: Shy Guy's Perplex Express from 8.
 * Luck-Based Mission: The entire game to much of an extent, but Game Guy's mini games in Mario Party 3, various luck based mini-games in every single entry in the series, and a good deal of the board events certainly fall under this.
 * MacGuffin: The Stars, which is basically the main point in the series.
 * Macro Zone: The entirety of DS, since everyone is an Incredible Shrinking Man.
 * Minigame Game: The very point, and the Trope Codifier.
 * Mission Pack Sequel: While it holds true for the other games, 9 averts this by having different mechanics.
 * Musical Nod:
 * The music for Peach's Birthday Cake contains part of the original Super Mario Bros. theme.
 * The staff roll music from the first game also references the Super Mario Bros. theme.
 * "The Room Underground" from the first game is a remix of the underground theme from Super Mario Bros.
 * "Dodging Danger," also from the first game, is a remix of World 8 from Super Mario Bros 3.
 * Creepy Cavern from 3 contains part of the Super Mario Bros. underground theme.
 * The main menu music from 7 is a remix of Castaway Bay from 6.
 * The BG music to the minigame "Pedal Power" from the first game is very similar to the map screen music from SMB3's World 6.
 * Mythology Gag: The hosts of Mario Party 5 are the Star Spirits from Paper Mario.
 * Nintendo Hard: In Mario Party 2, Minigame Ride on Hard. It forces you to perform and win every minigame in a predetermined order on Hard mode. If you lose three times on any stage, you are sent to the beginning of the stage, forcing you to replay the ones you lost and losing any winnings from your previous games. The final few stages have mostly button mashing minigames, and the computer is usually very good on these types of games.
 * Obstacle Ski Course: Several mini-games take place on these (including one where you have to try to outrun a Human Snowball).
 * Obvious Rule Patch:
 * For a while, the bonus star awards were given to people who A) collected the most coins in mini games played, B) most coins held at any point in the game, and C) landed on the most ? spaces. A skilled player could always get the bonus star mentioned in example A, which would usually lead to them getting a star from example B. Additional bonus categories were added, such as "most spaces traveled" or "spent the most coins on items", in addition to "most coins held at any point in the game" being removed. This was made so that there would be more diversity in playing styles and give other people a chance in winning bonus stars.
 * Chance Time was also removed after some point so that players would have a more fair chance of winning or catching up instead of just winning at the very last possible moment because of a luck based event.
 * Palmtree Panic:
 * Yoshi's Tropical Island from the original.
 * Pirate Land from 2.
 * Koopa's Seaside Soiree from 4.
 * Castaway Bay from 6.
 * Goomba's Booty Boardwalk from 8.
 * Blooper Beach from 9.
 * Pinball Zone: Bowser's Pinball Machine from DS.
 * Puzzle Boss: The bosses of Mario Party DS.
 * Also some of the bosses from 9, King Boo being the most obvious example.
 * Quip to Black: "Seer Terror", an unlockable Mario Party 6 minigame, consists almost entirely of Bowser making bad things happen to you and making witty remarks in the guise of fortunes. "You'll feel crushed by stress!" he'll say after you're crushed by a Thwomp.
 * Riddling Sphinx: In the Mystery Land board of Mario Party 2, Bowser is cast as the Bowser Sphinx (though he merely wears an Egyptian headdress and isn't winged or lionlike at all) who challenges all comers to identify a silhouette. The Superstar of the board identifies it easily.
 * Rule of Fun: The mini games don't give much explanation to their existence other than to let you have fun.
 * Sequential Boss: The battle with Bowser at the end of Story mode often is this.
 * Shifting Sand Land:
 * Spiny Desert from 3.
 * The solo board Thirsty Gulch from 6.
 * Pyramid Park from 7.
 * Shout-Out: In Mario Party 6, the sun and moon are fighting.
 * Skeleton Key: Found in Mario Party 2 and 3.
 * Slippy-Slidey Ice World:
 * Chilly Waters from 3.
 * Snowflake Lake from 6.
 * The Smurfette Principle: In Mario Party 1 and 2, Peach is the only female playable character. Averted with the rest of the series when they added Daisy as a playable character in 3.
 * Space Zone:
 * Eternal Star from the original.
 * Space Land from 2.
 * Future Dream from 5.
 * The Solo board Astro Avenue from 6.
 * Bowser's Warped Orbit from 8.
 * Bowser Station from 9.
 * Spiritual Successor: Wii Party.
 * It should also be noted that this series itself is somewhat of a Spiritual Successor to the little-known Japanese game Getter Love!!. Both are board games in video game format, have mini-games, have items with which you can get ahead or slow down your opponents, and were developed by Hudson Soft (though Nintendo still publishes Mario Party).
 * Tactical Suicide Boss: Piranha Plant in DS, where you catch the projectiles he spits at you and throw them back at him. Why is this tactical suicide? On the board itself, he simply breathes fire at you, which cannot be turned against him.
 * Token Evil Teammate: Koopa Kid was this in Mario Parties 5 and 6.
 * and will be this for Mario Party 9. They will be present in Story Mode as the fourth CPU character, and if they win a board then you lose.
 * Toy Time: Toy Dream from 5.
 * Trailers Always Lie: The promotional items for Mario Party 5 made it seem that Mario and Bowser were running for Mushroom President. The game is really about Bowser invading the Dream Depot.
 * Turns Red: Every single boss in Mario Party 9 decides to shake up the game when they reach half health. Additionally, Wiggler literally turns red.
 * Underground Level: Creepy Cavern from 3.
 * Under the Sea:
 * Deep Bloober Sea from 3.
 * Undersea Dream from 5.
 * The Unexpected: The biggest example has to be Blooper (of all characters) joining the party in 8.
 * Unexplained Recovery: Whenever someone is defeated in a minigame by something lethal (heck, one minigame in Mario Party 6 has the loser sucked into a black hole), they emerge completely unharmed on the beginning of the next turn (although their finances and self esteem suffer).
 * Variable Player Goals: 1 vs. 3 minigames would always end in a massacre against the solo player if most of them didn't require a different objective between the 1 and the 3.
 * Versus Character Splash: Before the boss battles in 9.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: Some of the minigames are incredibly cruel and violent to the losers, who will end up electrocuted, spirited away, chased and then trampled over by a bunch of Thwomps, frozen, mauled, burnt, drowned and even swallowed by a black hole. Likewise, the fourth-place player that didn't get enough stars or coins in the first game also meets a similar fate.
 * Violation of Common Sense: Invoked in Mario Party 9 during the "Reverse Mini-Game" in a Bowser Event. You play a standard mini-game, but the objective is to lose as quickly as possible instead of trying to play the normal way. The first person to lose the game will win. Don't let this hurt your head too much.
 * Wasted Song: The track "Not Gonna Lose" in Mario Party 2 was only used in the 2 vs 2 mini-game "Balloon Burst", the battle mini-game "Bumper Balloon Cars", and the bonus one-player mini-game "Driver's Ed". The problem with the former two was that those mini-games were almost always over in less than 15 seconds, while the problem with the latter is that not many people know that the mini-game even exists . Therefore, the latter half of the song was never heard by many players.
 * Whammy: The Bowser Spaces typically play this role.
 * Wutai: Pagoda Peak from 7.