History VideoGame / MarioParty

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty5'' ([=GameCube=], 2003): The theme this time is "dreams", and each level takes place in a themed dream, like a pirate cove or a toy-themed area. The game is hosted by the Star Spirits from ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'', marking one of the few times a character from that series has appeared in a non-''VideoGame/PaperMario'' game.

*** Likewise, 2 minigames that take place in a casino-like setting ("Shuffleboard Showdown" and "Chips and Dips") are removed from the Korean version of ''Mario Party DS''.

* EveryPizzaIsPepperoni:
** "Eatsa Pizza" from the third game (later returning in ''The Top 100'' and ''Superstars'') has players eat as much of a giant pizza as possible in thirty seconds. While there's also mushrooms and green peppers, special mention is warranted for the pepperoni and crust taking longer to chew through.
** "Pizza Me, Mario" from ''9'' has each player throw a designated topping on each slice of a pizza. For player one, this means pepperoni.

* ''Mario Party 6'' ([=GameCube=], 2004): This game's theme is "day and night" and features boards that alternate between day and night, dynamically changing the way you move about them. The game is hosted by Brighton and Twila, the embodiment of the sun and moon, respectively.

** Because of the aforementioned banning of gambling in South Korea, the Korean version of ''Mario Party DS'' swapped out the Star roulette machine for a [=Whac-a-Mole=] game.

* CartoonMeat: ''DS'' has the minigame "Dizzy Rotisserie," where a team of three tries to stay on top of a cylindrical cut, while the solo player tries to spin them off.

-->-- [[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.

** In Shy Guy's Perplex Express in ''8'', Kamek will say "Magikoopa magic! Turn the train spastic! Make this ticket tragic!" Copies of the game had to be recalled in the UK so that Nintendo could print a second run where Kamek says "erratic" instead of "spastic".

** The Miracle Capsule in ''5'' lets the last place player steal ''all'' of the first place player's Stars. The problem is that the drop rate for Miracle Capsules are extremely low, to the point that most 50 turn games would see one or two Miracle Capsules dropped at most. A player also needs to acquire three of them in their inventory in order to activate, which is easier said than done due to the probability of other players or game events making you drop your inventory.

* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Any mini-game in ''The Top 100'' and/or ''Superstars'' that has changed controls and/or objectives:

** Because the game changes the minigame rules to award coins by placement instead of winner-take-all, some minigames go on longer than they previously would. In "Dizzy Dancing", for instance, when one player catches the note, the game continues, with the player catching the most notes being the winner.
** "Kareening Koopas" and "Crate and Peril" have you tilt the screen.

** "Cage-in Cookin'" and "Dizzy Rotisserie" are affected by the overall change in ranks in mini-games.
** "Balloon Busters" and "Dart Attack" do away with speech-based commands in favour of blowing into the microphone (or pressing L). Additionally, in the former, one player is eliminated at a time.
** The change in camera angle in "Track and Yield".

* AwesomeButImpractical: Big Boo in Horror Land from ''2'' (replaced by King Boo in ''Superstars'') can steal Stars from everyone, at the cost of a whopping 150 coins. The high cost alone makes it difficult to use this, but in order to even meet Big Boo, you must have a Skeleton Key and it must be nighttime. With those three conditions, odds are you won't be able to make much use of this. Big Boo's other appearance in Boo's Haunted Bash from ''4'' is even more restrictive: he arrives for whichever player lands on Happening Spaces for the third time, but there are only two Happening Spaces on the board, both tucked away in one corner that can only be reached if the Red Boo bridges are active.

* ''Mario Party 5'' ([=GameCube=], 2003): The theme this time is "dreams", and each level takes place in a themed dream, like a pirate cove or a toy-themed area. The game is hosted by the Star Spirits from ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'', marking one of the few times a character from that series has appeared in a non-''VideoGame/PaperMario'' game.

* BlatantLies: The "Give (insert obscenely huge number of stars or coins here)" roulette option that might appear whenever you land on a Bowser Space. Note that it is physically impossible to hold some of the selected amounts in most of the games due to various {{cap}}s. When you land on it, Bowser either usually does nothing at all and [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere flees the scene]], or sometimes give you a much smaller amount of mini-stars in the games that have them.

** Should Bowser or Junior land on a Bad Luck Space, Kamek will have unique dialogue for the occasion, saying that he doesn't want to inflict bad luck on them but has to.

* NonStandardGameOver: Losing a board in ''9''[='=]s Solo Mode normally doesn't matter, as you'll go on to the next board regardless of who wins. However, if [[TokenEvilTeammate Shy Guy or Kamek]] win the board, they'll steal all the Mini-Stars to give to Bowser before vanishing, forcing the player to redo the board.

** Dry Bones is introduced as a playable character in ''7'' despite regularly serving as an enemy to Mario and friends.

* BuyOrGetLost: Boo in ''Mario Party 2'' will shoo the player away as a bother if they don't have enough coins, or tell them they'll "regret it" if they decline his help. Most other times in the series, if characters will bring up that players don't have enough coins they'll just politely tell them to save up and to visit again when you do.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: As the series went on, it started with just six major ''Mario'' characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and DK), to having 14 in ''8'' to 20 in ''Super'', including a few various recurring enemies as characters.

* SuspenderSnag: The artwork for Luigi's Engine Room from the first game depicts Wario hanging from a crane by the back of his overalls, for which he looks angry at Luigi since he seems to be the one controlling it.

* ''Mario Party 4'' (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.

* GhostLegLottery: One of the [=1v3=] minigames in the first game is based on this game and goes by the name of Pipe Maze. Here, the screen quickly scrolls up from the player characters at the bottom standing under a series of pipes, briefly showing the turns in the pipes until a treasure chest is revealed at the top. The solo player of the [=1v3=] must quickly determine which path leads to them, and select the pipe that would ultimately drop the treasure chest and its coin bounty on them. Make a wrong choice and the coins go to whoever the chest lands with.

** ''Super Mario Party''[='=]s River Survival mode is a four-player co-op game — a timed trip down a river, with minigame scores adding to your time. Although the AI's skill at maneuvering is questionable[[note]]and setting the AI to "hard" means "hard to cooperate with"[[/note]], they will ''always'' perform the cooperative minigames with perfect synergy, allowing the time bonus to be made or broken by the player's own skill and not a faulty AI.

** With easy computer difficulty, some mini-games [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing practically wins themselves]]. 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.

* ShesAManInJapan: In German versions of ''6'', Brighton is female and Twila is male instead of it being the reverse in every other language. This is because, unlike in most languages with grammatical gender, the sun is considered female in German and the moon is considered male.

* ''VideoGame/MarioParty1'' (UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, 1999): 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/MarioParty3'' (Nintendo 64, 2001): This game's theme is "storybooks", and the game has a kind of pop-up book aesthetic to it. Hosting duties are shared between two new characters: The Millennium Star, a star that only shines once a millennium, and Tumble, a magical die that was brought to life by the Millennium Star.

* ''Mario Party 3'' (Nintendo 64, 2001): This game's theme is "storybooks", and the game has a kind of pop-up book aesthetic to it. Hosting duties are shared between two new characters: The Millennium Star, a star that only shines once a millennium, and Tumble, a magical die that was brought to life by the Millennium Star.

* ''Mario Party 2'' (Nintendo 64, 2000; 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/MarioParty'' (UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, 1999): 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.

* ''Mario Party'' (UsefulNotes/Nintendo64, 1999): 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.

* She’s a Man in Japan: In German versions of ''6'', Brighton is female and Twila is male instead of it being the reverse in every other language. This is because, unlike in most languages with grammatical gender, the sun is considered female in German and the moon is considered male.