Mario Party 2

Released: December 17, 1999

Mario Party 2 is the second in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular Nintendo characters. It was released on the Nintendo 64 in North America on January 24 , 2000 following a Japanese release on December 17 , 1999 . It was released in the PAL region much later on October 12 , 2000.

The game contains a standard party mode in which up to four players play through a board, trying to collect as many stars as possible. The star space would appear randomly on the board, and players would have to reach it before anyone else. However, the stars carry a price tag of 20 coins, and player has to acquire these coins through various methods such as by winning minigames which take place at the end of each turn (after all the players have rolled the dice block, which will always roll a number from one to ten).

Battle minigames appear for the first time in Mario Party 2. These games are like the 4-player games, but generally (with many exceptions) a little more elaborate. Battle games are usually tense because every player has to put a certain number of coins (from 10 - 50) into a pot. First place gets 70% of the pot, second place gets 30%, and a random player gets any coins lost in rounding. Duel games also make their first appearance in Mario Party 2. Duel games pit two players against each other. In Party Mode, one player initiates the duel, and bet coins against another player. The winner of the duel wins all of the coins in the bet. Typically, Donkey Kong uses certain cheating tactics in order to win, while Mario tends to lose.

Every Mario Party contains 50 to 80 minigames of a few different types. Four-player games are a free-for-all in which all players competed against each other. 2-on-2 and 1-on-3 minigames put players in groups, so they have to cooperate in the minigame to win, even though they are against each other in the main game. In most situations, winners of these games make 10 coins each. Unlike the original Mario Party , you don't lose coins if you lose in a mini-game (battle and duel mini-games aside), which Mario Party often did with few exceptions (most of them for the mini-games where characters weren't placed on teams). The 1-player mini-games from Mario Party are also gone.

Playable characters

• Mario
• Luigi
• Princess Peach
• Yoshi
• Wario
• Donkey Kong

List of new space spots

• Item Space - is where there is a chance to play an Item Game in various locations. It's marked as a green space with a treasure chest drawn on it.

• Battle Space - is where there is a chance to play games similar to 4-player games, but a chance to take some coins away. It's marked as a green space with a lightning bolt drawn on it.

• Koopa Bank Space - Players who pass this space must pay 5 coins to the bank. If a player doesn't have 5 coins, they put in as many as they have. Players who land on this space get all of the coins in the bank. It's marked as a green space with a money bag drawn on it (although the Koopa Bank building is indeed present before this space). In Bowser Land, it's called Bowser Bank and works in an inverse form: every time this space is bypassed, the player receives 5 coins and, whoever lands on it, loses as many coins as there were given away to the players, if the player who lands on the space has no coins he/she loses a star.

List of boards

Mini-games

There are a number of mini-games in Mario Party 2 .

All of the playable characters from the original game are still available, but this time, they are all dressed in costumes unique to the board players are playing on (except for Bowser Land, on which they wear their usual attire). Board characters include Toad, Baby Bowser, and Boo, with the notable absence of Bowser and Koopa Troopa (although both have roles in the game). Another new feature of the game is the introduction of buildings on the boards: the Item Shop and the Koopa Bank.

MP2 also features several new spaces, with the Mini Game Space and Mushroom Space absent: the Battle Space, the Item Space, and the Bank Space. The Item Space activates minigames specific to the board that allow one to collect an item, which is now used to further players' board strategy (as opposed to items being used to toggle universal settings in Mario Party). The Battle Space triggered the newly introduced Battle minigame, which pits players against each other for a giant pot of coins. The Bank Space gives players who land on it all deposits made in the Koopa Bank by others, who must deposit five coins if they pass the space. On Bowser's board, this reversed: players passing the bank get 5 coins, and the player landing on the bank must pay back the interest.

The game also features seven brand new boards (including Mini- Game Coaster) with the return of Mini-Game Stadium. 43 new mini-games were introduced in MP2 , while old MP1 minigames were updated and some were retitled. Three new types of minigame were also introduced: the Battle minigame, the Item minigame, and the Duel minigame.

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