Mario Party 2

Mario Party 2
Get this place jumping!
Genre(s): Party Platform(s): Nintendo 64 Release Date: JP: December 17, 1999 NA: January 24, 2000 AU: October 12, 2000 EU: November 6, 2000 Developer(s): Hudson Soft Publisher(s): Nintendo Country: Japan Series: Mario Party Predecessor: Mario Party Successor: Mario Party 3

Mario Party 2 is a party game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The game was released on December 17, 1999, in Japan, January 24, 2000, in North America, October 13, 2000, in Europe, and November 6, 2000, in Australia.

Why It Gets This Place Jumping

1. Pretty cool and well-detailed cover art. The Japanese cover especially looks good.
2. Good graphics by the standards of the end of the 1990s.
3. The soundtrack is good and it has memorable songs like Bowser Appears, Keepin' on the Path, Going Somewhere, Let The Game Begin, Horror Land, and Couldn't Be Better.
4. The game has 6 boards and each changes the appearance of the characters to suit the theme of the board, This dramatically increases the game's replay value. Although there are fewer boards than its prequel, they're much higher in quality.
   • Pirate Land. The party dresses as pirates and their goal is to walk Cap'n Bowser off the plank. This board takes elements from Yoshi's Tropical Island with the Thwomps. However, unlike Yoshi's Island, the Thwomps only serve as shortcuts and are not required to pass. So the players can avoid playing dozens upon dozens of coins to pass which is what typically happens in the former game. Other events include the Pirate Ship in the north-middle section of the board. The players have to cross two separate bridges, these bridges are spaced, and if a player lands on them, they and all other players that are on the bridge are shot by the cannon and taken back to the start of the map. Not to worry though! Sushi the Shark can take players across the islands for free if they land on his happening space!
   • Western Land. The group becomes cowboys in the Old West and their job is to apprehend the criminal known as Bowser the Brash! This board's main event is the train, named Steamer. Whenever a player lands on a happening space, a dice block appears over Steamer and it randomly decides between a Toad or Goomba head, if it lands on Toad, Steamer moves forward to the nearest station, and if its Goomba, he goes Backwards to the nearest station. Any player in his path gets hit and is sent back to the start of the board. If the players go to the station where Steamer is, they can pay him coins to move to another station, this is a useful way to travel quickly and knock out enemies! Another neat event is Wiggler's milk bar, if a player pays 20 coins, they can do a hootenanny! This forces all players to go to where the buyer is. This can impede your opponent's progress by preventing them from getting a star, going to boo, or going to the shop!
   • Space Land. The gang becomes astronauts and their goal is to defend the station from Black Hole Bowser! This board features two events. First and most important is the Bowser Satellite, which fires a coin-stealing beam in the middle lane of the board! If a player gets hit, they lose all of their coins! The satellite activates once the counter in the middle reaches zero, players can take advantage of the beam and drain their opponent's coin stash in one go! The other events are Whomp and Thwomp speeders and the Snift Patrol. When a player lands on a happening space, the speeders will chase them down and force the player and others behind or in front of them to move back. If a player pays the Snifit Patrol coins, they can chase down the speeders and make the amount of spaces the players move farther. This can both benefit and hinder you depending on your goals.
   • Mystery Land. The team becomes explorers and their goal is to find the treasure guarded by the Riddle Mater Bowser Sphinx! The players have to traverse through 4 different islands, and there are 3 ways to do so. the main way is to land on happening space, which teleports a player to each island in a clockwise fashion. The second way is to use a skeleton key on the gates in the middle, this allows a player to go to whatever island they want. Finally, the player can pay coins to the Bomb-Omb ship to carry them to two different islands. The other event is Shy Guy's Curse House, this house allows the player to curse themselves or another player to only be able to roll 1-3 spaces next turn, rather like the poison mushroom in the later games. Due to the difficulty of traversing the board due to the luck and item-dependent nature, which can lead to players getting trapped on islands, Mystery Land is widely considered the worst board in the game.
   • Horror Land. The Sextet become wizards and they must use their magic to put a stop to Wizard Bowser, who is causing havoc in the forest and is changing everyone into frogs! The players traverse through a haunted graveyard with ghosts, eyeballs, and brick people! The board has many events that make it the most strategic board in MP2 and perhaps one of the most strategic in Mario Party history. This board has a Day and Night cycle, a concept that would form the foundation of Mario Party 6. Day and Night not only changes the environment, creating a beautiful board, but it also changes the events. It takes two turns to switch from day or night. Alternatively, players can land on happening spaces to instantly change the cycle, not only that, but the players can use day and night-dependent events to change it to day and vice versa. This board has the largest amount of boo spaces in the series, 4 normal boos, and Big Boo. 2 normal boos can be accessed day and night each, while Big Boo is only available at night. Mr. I allows players to quickly traverse the board to where they want to go, it is the only event that is not affected by the cycle. Due to these features, Horror Land is regarded by many to be the best Mario Party 2 board, and one of the best in the series.
     • In the daytime, The Whomps are active. They act like they did in DK's Jungle Adventure in the previous game, guarding paths unless a player hands them coins to move. They switch paths if a player goes the opposite way. The Boo's active are the one near the Dance floor and the one behind the bottom gate. At the top-left of the map is a mansion, if a player pays Kamek 10 coins, he will change day to night.
     • In the nighttime, the Whomps are cursed and they can't move at all, forcing players to take a singular route. The Boo's active are the ones on the left side on a singular path, Big Boo is also active on the top right. There's a dance floor event that the player can pay 20 coins for that changes night to day.
   • Bowser Land. Bowser takes over the party, and the team of six goes to his board to settle things once and for all! Unlike the rest of the boards, the party does not dress up in costumes since we can't have the group dress up as Bowser! This board's bank is unique in the fact that it acts completely the opposite of the normal bank does! Instead of taking away coins when you pass it, Baby Bowser gives you coins as a loan, and if you land on the space, you pay the full amount of the loan, but if you have no coins but have a star, they will take your star away! The events from the happening spaces depend on the location, Near the blooper, you get put on a merry-go-round and need to land on another happening space to leave. Landing on a happening space near a green warp pipe will force the player to jump in it and take the player to another section of the board. If they're lucky, they may be taken to Boo. Lastly, Landing on a happening space near the red pipes will teleport the player to another spot as well. The main event is the Bowser Parade which occurs every 5 turns. For every space, the player loses two coins, so it is devastating if the player is right by the event. Luckily, players can change the path of the parade by paying the planning offices 5 coins, thus allowing them to be safe. You can also use the Bowser suit so you can change the path for free, but it is honestly a waste of money.
     • There is also a cutscene where Victor faces Bowser, especially when he is in metal form (which will be reimplemented in Paper Mario: Color Splash and Bowser's Fury, mostly the black colored appearance).
5. There are over 65 minigames in this game, which is a slight improvement on the 50 minigames from the previous installment. Compared to its predecessor, Its minigames are of much higher quality. It also ports over many of Mario Party 1's minigames but is improved.
   • Nintendo learned the lesson of the minigames where you have to roll the analog stick about and since Mario Party 2, the analog stick has been used sparingly and by the time of the GameCube, Nintendo's analog sticks have gotten much more comfortable to use. Nintendo also did not create more mini-games that rely on using the constant rotation of the analog stick to win until Mario Party: Island Tour.
6. It is the first Mario Party to include items, Allowing a much greater amount of strategic play. The items are
   • Mushroom: You can roll the dice twice. Costs 10 coins to buy.
   • Skeleton Key: You can open a door on the board and pass. Costs 10 coins to buy.
   • Plunder Chest: You can randomly remove a randomly chosen opponent from an ítem. Costs 15 coins to buy.
   • Dueling Glove: You can face an opponent in hand-to-hand betting coins, whoever wins takes all the coins. Costs 15 coins to buy.
   • Warp Block: You can change the position between you and a random opponent on the board. Costs 15 coins to buy.
   • Golden Mushroom: You can roll the dice three times. Costs 20 coins to buy.
   • Bowser Suit: You can dress up as Bowser and any opponent you come across gives you twenty coins. You can only get this from item minigames.
   • Boo Bell: You can use this to call Boo to steal coins or a star from an opponent. You can only get this from item minigames.
   • Magic Lamp: You can use this to call the Mushroom Genie to take you straight to the Star. Cost 30 coins to buy.
   • There's also an item called the Bowser Bomb, only obtainable in the item minigames, and at the end of everyone’s turn, Baby Bowser will turn into Adult Bowser, he’ll roll 3 dice blocks and move around the board, and any player he comes across will lose all of their coins to him. You can only get this from item minigames.
7. The cutscenes are very fun to watch and can be pretty cute to some, mainly the cutscenes where Bowser attempts to take over a board until the playable character confronts him and defeats him once and for all and is later declared a Super Star.
8. The game has a pretty decent amount of content for an N64 game released in 1999, with there being a lot more features and a better UI than the previous game, which is very impressive and quite a nice amount of accomplishment to take the new at the time spin-off series in a new turn by expanding the gameplay a bit and fixing some previously apparent flaws.
9. It was responsible for setting the foundation for later installments, as with the new features implemented into this game like items would also see a decent amount of changes in later installments, and some of the newer games would tend to spice things up a bit to make the formula fresh and exciting such as 6 with its day & night cycle, and 9 with its unique car mechanic with at least good board design that fitted well with the new car gimmick (though it might take some fans to get used to it).
10. It is the only game in the series to take advantage of the party concept the series is known for and uses the best of it to make it feel like an actual party game that is well made (mainly with the costumes, items, side games, modes, competitive nature, and the story about trying to fix things of a game of Mario Party (just for fun).
    • However, Mario Party Superstars would later re-enter this concept and also use the best of it just like this game to make a fun experience though much as not as this game did with its good amount of content.
11. The game has great multiplayer for 4 people, which is what the developers of Hudson Soft are known for, their great multiplayer and this game is no expectation as having more players can make things chaotic and can ruin relationships in a somewhat competitive nature, which is no slouch considering that the series is known to have ruin relationships by many people online just from the competitive nature alone.

Bad Qualities

1. The fact that many of the minigames are ports of the first game can be a turn-off. About 1/3rd of the minigames are recycled from Mario Party.
2. You can only carry one item in this game, which either decreases or increases the value of an item. Skeleton Keys are essentially worthless if you don't intend on going through a gate immediately, and the Plunder Chest is overpowered as it can prevent any other player from getting strong items like Magic Lamps, Boo Bells, Gold Mushrooms, or even other Plunder Chests without their items getting stolen. The other players essentially have to team up to counter the player with the plunder chest.
3. You also cannot throw away items that you acquire unless you use them, so if you accidentally get an item you don't want like a Skeleton Key, you will have to go to the area for them to be used to get rid of it.
4. You don't play the minigames with the themed costume models, you revert to the basic models, except for Duel minigames.
5. Laughable voice acting for Toad (lesser extent), Luigi, and Wario like in the first game.

Reception

Mario Party 2 on Metacritic received a positive reception from critics and gamers. It doesn't have an official score from critics yet, but it does have the scores of 2 critics, getting an 82/100 from Official Nintendo Magazine UK, and a 70/100 from SpazioGames, and the game got an 8.7/10 from players.

Trivia

• This is the first Mario game to be officially translated into Spanish and Italian.
• This game originated the "Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing" meme.

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