History VideoGame / MarioParty

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->''"''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Smash Bros.]]'' is how you build friendships. ''Mario Party'' is how you destroy them. Ironic, isn't it?"''
-->-- [[http://web.archive.org/web/20120223064758/http://www.screwattack.com/news/sakurai-turns-back-towards-smash-bros Random commenter on]] [[Website/ScrewAttack an unrelated page]], whose comparison sums up the series.

* "VideoGame/SuperMarioRollingMysteryParty" (Arcade, 2004, Japan Only): The first of several arcade installments for the series, developed by Capcom and released exclusively in Japan. This installment shares many similarities to ''5''. Up to 6 players can participate in the game.

* "VideoGame/SuperMarioRollingMysteryParty2" (Arcade, 2005, Japan Only): The second arcade installment. Like its predecessor, this game also shares similarities with ''5'', but with a key difference being support of up to 6 players.

* "[[VideoGame/MarioPartySpinningCarnival Mario Party: Spinning Carnival]]" (Arcade, 2009, Japan Only): The third arcade installment. This one takes influence from ''8'', with slightly redesigned minigames.
* "VideoGame/MarioPartyMysteriousRollingCatcher" (Arcade, 2009, Japan Only): The fourth arcade installment, also taking heavy influence from ''8''.

* "VideoGame/MarioPartyMysteriousChallengeWorld" (Arcade, 2016, Japan Only): The fifth arcade installment, being largely based on ''9'' in terms of visuals and gameplay.

** With easy computer difficulty, some mini-games [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing can be won with no controller input]]. Demonstrating this are a series of Website/YouTube videos where "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6PxRwgjzZw Luigi wins by doing absolutely nothing]]", which became a minor meme involving other games.

* BalloonOfDoom: In ''4'', one of Bowser's minigames aptly called "Balloon of Doom" has him force the players to take turns pumping a balloon that has his insignia on it by [[GroundPound Ground Pounding]] a pump. Whoever is unlucky to pop the balloon loses the minigame and suffers one of Bowser's punishments afterwards (whether by stealing their coins, stars, or items) while the other players get off Scott-free.

* ''Mario Party-e'' (Platform/GameBoyAdvance e-Reader, 2003): A physical card game in which the goal is to collect the Superstar's Hat, Clothes, and Shoes and then play the Superstar card to win. Other types of cards can be used to benefit the player or hinder opponents. Some cards include minigames played with the e-Reader, which can either allow the player to use the card for free (rather than needing Coin cards), provide a roulette result, or enable a duel between two players. Card art for the game is based on ''Mario Party 4''.

* "Super Mario Rolling Mystery Party" (Arcade, 2004, Japan Only): The first of several arcade installments for the series, developed by Capcom and released exclusively in Japan. This installment shares many similarities to ''5''. Up to 6 players can participate in the game.

* "Super Mario Rolling Mystery Party 2" (Arcade, 2005, Japan Only): The second arcade installment. Like its predecessor, this game also shares similarities with ''5'', but with a key difference being support of up to 6 players.

* "Mario Party: Spinning Carnival" (Arcade, 2009, Japan Only): The third arcade installment. This one takes influence from ''8'', with slightly redesigned minigames.
* "Mario Party Mysterious Rolling Catcher" (Arcade, 2009, Japan Only): The fourth arcade installment, also taking heavy influence from ''8''.

* "Mario Party Mysterious Challenge World" (Arcade, 2016, Japan Only): The fifth arcade installment, being largely based on ''9'' in terms of visuals and gameplay.

[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mariopartysuperstars.png]]
[[caption-width-right:349:Just another day living ten coins at a time.]]

* NintendoHard: In ''2'', Minigame Coaster on Hard. It forces you to perform and win every minigame in a predetermined order [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on Hard mode]]. You have a very limited amount of lives, much like the earlier platformer games, lose one every time you failed a minigame, and you only earn [=1UPs=] from invoking LawOfOneHundred with the coins you win from cleared minigames. If you lose all your lives in any world, you must start all over from your last savepoint (which is at the start of each world), and the last couple of worlds both have six stages in them. The final few stages have mostly button-mashing minigames, and [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the computer is usually very good at these types of games]]. The absolute final stage only has one repeat of a Mini-game played higher up in the coaster, but the "Toad" in front of it asks you a trick question about whether or not you want to start the entire coaster over. The actual minigame is a second round of "Shell-Shocked", but it counts as a one-vs-three match because you're up against three Koopa Kid tanks who will [[GangUpOnTheHuman try to gang up on you]].

''Mario Party'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s [[VideoGameLongRunners long-running]] series of multiplayer games for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, [[UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube GameCube]], UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]], [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]], UsefulNotes/WiiU, and [[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Switch]]. It started off developed by Creator/HudsonSoft and [=CAP=]roduction, though Hudson's acquisition by Creator/{{Konami}} led to ''9'' and later games being developed by Creator/NDCube[[note]]which also contains many ex-Hudson Soft developers, including the series ''directors'' and ''planners'' of the series ever since ''VideoGame/MarioParty1'', [[https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Kenji_Kikuchi Kenji Kikuchi]] and [[https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Shuichiro_Nishiya Shuichiro Nishiya]][[/note]], developers of ''VideoGame/WiiParty''. The series also created arcade adaptations, which are developed by Creator/{{Capcom}}.

The series combines a digital {{board game|s}} with various competitive mini-games. Besides Mario, Luigi, and their friends, some of the enemies from ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' are playable characters in the ''Mario Party'' series. About a dozen ''Mario Party'' games have been released so far: eleven on home consoles, one on the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, one for the e-Reader (actually a non-collectible card game with included minigames), one on the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, two in arcades, and three on the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS. 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 (usually, but not always) moved to a random location on the board.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty1'' (UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, 1998[[note]]1999 outside Japan[[/note]]): The first game in the series has boards corresponding to the six main characters and Bowser (plus one bonus board), but no unifying theme otherwise. Toad serves as the host.
* ''VideoGame/MarioParty2'' (Nintendo 64, 1999[[note]]2000 outside Japan[[/note]]; UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole, 2010): The theme is "costumes" and "theme parks", as every level sees you dress up in a new outfit and take part in a sort of play. Toad once again serves as the host.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty4'' (UsefulNotes/GameCube, 2002): This game's theme is "parties and celebrations", and has unique "hosts" for each board, like a Toad or a Goomba. It also introduces the option to play party boards in a 2vs2 fashion.
* ''Mario Party-e'' (UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance e-Reader, 2003): A physical card game in which the goal is to collect the Superstar's Hat, Clothes, and Shoes and then play the Superstar card to win. Other types of cards can be used to benefit the player or hinder opponents. Some cards include minigames played with the e-Reader, which can either allow the player to use the card for free (rather than needing Coin cards), provide a roulette result, or enable a duel between two players. Card art for the game is based on ''Mario Party 4''.

* ''VideoGame/MarioPartyAdvance'' (UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, 2005): This game focuses more on single-player, though there are multiplayer modes as well. Its story mode features one big main board that the player can explore to complete quests. The game also features small interactive toys called "Gaddgets", similar to the souvenirs from the ''VideoGame/WarioWare'' series. Tumble returns as the host for this game.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty8'' (UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, 2007): This game has a "carnival" theme, and is the first to incorporate motion controls into its gameplay. The game is hosted by MC Ballyhoo, a big-mouthed circus ringleader with a talking hat.
* ''VideoGame/MarioPartyDS'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoDS, 2007): This game's theme is "IncredibleShrinkingMan", incorporating boards and minigames being made out of normal objects. Like ''Mario Party 4'', each board has its own host. There's also a narrator for general purposes who never appears in person.

* ''VideoGame/MarioPartyIslandTour'' (UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS, 2013): ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, this game takes place on the floating islands known as the Party Islands, with various play modes. Instead of trying to collect Stars, the boards are focused on racing to the end of a one-way track. Blue Toad and Yellow Toad once again host.
* ''VideoGame/MarioParty10'' (UsefulNotes/WiiU, 2015): The first game with Bowser as a playable character in his own AsymmetricMultiplayer mode where the other players have to survive against him, and the second to have more than 4 players playing at once. Once again, various Toads serve as the hosts (except for Bowser Party, where they share the role of host with Bowser Jr.).

* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioParty'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, 2018): A complete reboot of the series. [[RevisitingTheRoots Returns to the board game mechanic]] prior to ''Mario Party 9'' mixing with a few elements from later games (such as the "ally" recruiting mechanic from ''Mario Party: Star Rush''). It also features a CoOpMultiplayer mode in which you can recruit up to 3 of your friends for a river expedition under a time limit which can be extended by popping balloons for playing specialized minigames, and another which takes emphasis on "dual screen" gameplay across two Nintendo Switch systems: River Survival and Toad's Rec Room, respectively. Toad and Toadette return as hosts, while Kamek also serves as a host when characters land on a bad luck space.

** Many games across the series that would be completely cheesed by pausing (typically counting and memorization games) will have certain elements disappear while the minigame is paused, only reappearing when the game is resumed. The ''Mario Party 8'' Challenge minigame "Fruit Picker" even accounts for the UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}'s Home Menu button being used.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Koopa Kid appeared in the first seven main installments of Mario Party and Mario Party Advance, but never appeared in any other game after that, even outside of the Mario Party series. Bowser Jr. would take his role starting in Mario Party DS-onwards. Bowser Jr. even takes over Koopa Kid’s role in retro minigames from the Top 100 and Superstars Mario Party installments. It is unknown why Koopa Kid (and his colored variants) has not appeared or been referenced since Mario Party 7.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Koopa Kid appeared in the first seven main installments of Mario Party and Mario Party Advance, but never appeared in any other game after that, even outside of the Mario Party series. Bowser Jr. would take his role starting in Mario Party DS-onwards. Bowser Jr. even takes over Koopa Kid’s role in retro minigames from the Top 100 and Superstars Mario Party installments. It is unknown what happened to Koopa Kid (and their colored variants), as they have not appeared or have been referenced since Mario Party 7.

* {{Feelies}}: Rather than having a board game played in the game itself, ''Advance'' includes a physical board and pieces that you cut out and play a board game with, using the GBA only to play minigames, find Stars, and serve as a die.

->''"[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Smash Bros.]] is how you build friendships. Mario Party is how you destroy them. Ironic, isn't it?"''

* OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope: In ''Superstars'', games that require spinning the control stick come with a warning that tells you not to use your palm to spin it, which was a common practice with the original Nintendo 64 version. Doing so could lead to getting blisters or lacerations, so this notice was likely put in place to prevent any legal action from players who hurt themselves. When playing the original three games on the "Nintendo 64 - Nintendo Switch Online" app; the game puts up a pop-up that tells the player not use their palms as well.

* OurLawyersAdvisedThisTrope: In ''Superstars'', games that require spinning the control stick come with a warning that tells you not to use your palm to spin it, which was a common practice with the original Nintendo 64 version. Doing so could lead to getting blisters or lacerations, so this notice was likely put in place to prevent any legal action from players who hurt themselves.

** In the event that players are tied for first place in Stars ''and'' Coins at the end of a board, the games will have different metrics to determine the victor, such as number of minigames won. If the winning players tie ''all'' of those extra metrics -- something almost impossible to do unless it's on purpose -- the game settles it with a final dice roll where it ''cannot'' roll the same number.

** The game has a backup plan in case there is a tie at the end of the game. The game has the tied players roll a final die to determine the winner.

'''''[[TropeCodifier The]]''''' PartyGame.

''Mario Party'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s [[VideoGameLongRunners long-running]] series of multiplayer games for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}, UsefulNotes/GameCube, UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]], [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]], UsefulNotes/WiiU, and [[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Switch]]. It started off developed by Creator/HudsonSoft and [=CAP=]roduction, though Hudson's acquisition by Creator/{{Konami}} led to ''9'' and later games being developed by Creator/NDCube[[note]]which also contains many ex-Hudson Soft developers, including the series ''directors'' and ''planners'' of the series ever since ''VideoGame/MarioParty1'', [[https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Kenji_Kikuchi Kenji Kikuchi]] and [[https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Shuichiro_Nishiya Shuichiro Nishiya]][[/note]], developers of ''VideoGame/WiiParty''. The series also created arcade adaptations, which are developed by Creator/{{Capcom}}.

''Mario Party'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s [[VideoGameLongRunners long-running]] series of multiplayer games for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}, UsefulNotes/GameCube, UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]], [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]], UsefulNotes/WiiU, and [[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Switch]]. It started off developed by Creator/HudsonSoft and [=CAP=]roduction, though Hudson's acquisition by Creator/{{Konami}} led to ''9'' and later games being developed by Creator/NDCube[[note]]which also contains some ex-Hudson Soft developers[[/note]], developers of ''VideoGame/WiiParty''. The series also created arcade adaptations, which are developed by Creator/{{Capcom}}.

** Pirate Land from ''2'', which takes place on a trio of islands connected by bridges. Landing on the Happening Spaces causes pirate ships to fire at the bridges, sending anyone on them back to the start. The characters dress up in pirate garb for this board, and the the duel minigame is a fencing match.

** ''Mario Party 5'' introduces the Miracle Capsule, which gives all the Stars of the player in first place to the player in last place. However, the huge catch is that this action (which is the the most powerful single action in the series' history) requires one player to have three Miracle Capsules in their inventory to activate and the odds of getting even just one Miracle Capsule are very low. To give you an idea of how bad the odds are, most 50-Turn games will only see two Miracle Capsules appear at most.

* BadIsGoodAndGoodIsBad: The Goomba running the lottery on Peach's Birthday Cake operates on this mindset, with the player drawing a seed with Toad's face on it being considered to have lost and the unlucky player drawing a seed with Bowser's face on it being considered to have won.[[note]]Though depending on how many coins you have, this can legitimately be a good thing - going past Bowser is a considerably shorter distance to the star than the regular route past the starting point, and if you have enough to absorb his penalty and still buy a star, it actually ''is'' a good thing. Superstars makes this route even better, by having the chance for Bowser to give you a Cursed Dice Block (for 11-20 coins), meaning you can purposely low-roll to give enough time to get more coins to afford the star, while avoiding any Piranha Plants on the main cake.[[/note]]

Most of the games (with the exception of ''1'', ''2'', ''6'', ''10'', ''Star Rush'', ''Super'', and ''Superstars'') include some form of Single-Player campaign, which typically involves playing against computers on the game boards, but the mechanics may be slightly different.[[note]]''1'', ''2'', and ''Super'' do have Minigame Island, Minigame Coaster, and Challenge Road, respectively, but those just involve playing all of the minigames.[[/note]]

* ''Super Mario Party'' (UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, 2018): A complete reboot of the series. [[RevisitingTheRoots Returns to the board game mechanic]] prior to ''Mario Party 9'' mixing with a few elements from later games (such as the "ally" recruiting mechanic from ''Mario Party: Star Rush''). It also features a CoOpMultiplayer mode in which you can recruit up to 3 of your friends for a river expedition under a time limit which can be extended by popping balloons for playing specialized minigames, and another which takes emphasis on "dual screen" gameplay across two Nintendo Switch systems: River Survival and Toad's Rec Room, respectively. Toad and Toadette return as hosts, while Kamek also serves as a host when characters land on a bad luck space.

''Mario Party'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s [[VideoGameLongRunners long-running]] series of multiplayer games for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}, UsefulNotes/GameCube, UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]], [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]], UsefulNotes/WiiU, and [[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Switch]]. It started off developed by Creator/HudsonSoft and [=CAP=]roduction, though Hudson's acquisition by Creator/{{Konami}} led to ''9'' and later games being developed by Creator/NDcube[[note]]which also contains some ex-Hudson Soft developers[[/note]], developers of ''VideoGame/WiiParty''. The series also created arcade adaptations, which are developed by Creator/{{Capcom}}.

''Mario Party'' is Creator/{{Nintendo}}'s [[VideoGameLongRunners long-running]] series of multiplayer games for the UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 64}}, UsefulNotes/GameCube, UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance, UsefulNotes/{{Wii}}, [[UsefulNotes/NintendoDS DS]], [[UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS 3DS]], UsefulNotes/WiiU, and [[UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch Switch]]. It started off developed by Creator/HudsonSoft and [=CAP=]roduction, though Hudson's acquisition by Creator/{{Konami}} led to ''9'' and later games being developed by [=NDcube=][[note]]which also contains some ex-Hudson Soft developers[[/note]], developers of ''VideoGame/WiiParty''. The series also created arcade adaptations, which are developed by Creator/{{Capcom}}.

** The Japan-exclusive arcade installments are largely this as well, as aside from being developed by Creator/{{Capcom}} rather than Hudson Soft or ND Cube, they also support up to 6 players in minigames and are essentially condensed versions of various home console installments.

* ''Mario Party Superstars'' (Nintendo Switch, 2021): Another MegamixGame. Like ''The Top 100'', it includes 100 minigames from across the series, but it also includes a selection of boards from the Nintendo 64 games. Toad and Toadette return as hosts once more.

* ''Mario Party: The Top 100'' (Nintendo [=3DS=], 2017): A MegamixGame compiling the 100 best minigames from the 10 home console ''Mario Party'' games. Toad and Toadette host, but non-Toad hosts and other characters from the previous console games make cameos in the Chronicle section.