Mario Party 2

did you know that Mario Party 2 was originally going to be a 64DD expansion pack disk for the original Mario Party? It’s true! The necessary hooks for the 64DD are even still there in the final retail version of Mario Party 1!

The fact that such a large chunk of its minigames are also just modified versions of minigames previously seen in Mario Party 1 (something that no other mainline Mario Party has done since), is another big telltale sign of this game originally being an expansion pack.

Ultimately though, I think that Mario Party 2 benefitted from being released as a standalone cartridge; because it meant that the game had more freedom to develop its own identity. I doubt that we would’ve gotten the Item mechanic if it had remained a mere content expansion disk…

… and really, you can’t talk about Mario Party 2 without mentioning the Item mechanic, because it was one of the most important gameplay additions the series has ever seen. It’s a simple concept, spread across the board are various shops and spaces that can potentially yield powerful items that allow you to strategise and either help yourself or screw over your frenemies. Ranging from the venerable Mushroom (allowing you to roll two dice in one turn), to the all powerful Magic Lamp (which takes you straight to the Star Space), to the devilish Boo Bell (which summons Boo and allows you to steal coins or even stars from other players!). It can’t be overstated how important an addition this was, as it completely changed the dynamic of the core board gameplay.

Unfortunately, Mario Party 2 hadn’t quite dialled in the Item mechanic fully quite yet, as you only get but a single item slot to work with… and no way of throwing away unwanted items. This has the unfortunate side effect of making Skeleton Keys borderline completely useless, while the Plunder Chest becomes overwhelmingly stupid broken powerful; capable of shutting down the Item game entirely. It wouldn’t be until its sequel, Mario Party 3, for the Item mechanic to reach its final form; granting a generous three slots for each player and a much vaster array of items at your disposal (some being amongst the best that the series ever saw; but that’s a discussion for another game later on).

The board selection is smaller this time than in the original Mario Party, but the designs are arguably stronger; with more branching paths and events that can shuffle coins and space placements around strategically. The likes of Western Land and Horror Land remain fan favourites to this day (both being remade in Super Mario Party Jamboree and Mario Party Superstars respectively for a good reason), but the first game’s mean streak has been reduced somewhat. No longer do 1 v 3 minigames result in the losing team having their coins stolen from them, while board events are typically less disastrous than before; and Single Player minigames have been exorcised entirely (probably for the best; as they did slow down the pace somewhat). However, Mario Party 2 also introduced another staple mechanic that the rest of the series would adopt… Battle Minigames, a new subset of minigames that pools a set amount of coins from each player into a pot that gets divvied out depending on placement. Naturally, the results of such a minigame can be utterly game changing for the winners and losers respectively; potentially ruining one person’s plans, while opening up many doors for another to run away with the game.

Single player options remain thin on the ground, but the Mini Game Coaster is a surprisingly enjoyable little endurance marathon of the full selection of 60 minigames played back to back. It’s naturally very similar to the Mini Game Island mode from Mario Party 1, but the removal of the branching paths now requires mastery of every single one of those 60 minigames… even the ones you hate (I’m looking at YOU Mecha Marathon!). Quite why future games after this ditched this endurance mode (with the sole exception of Mario Party: The Top 100) is beyond me.

But ultimately, that’s Mario Party 2 in a nutshell. It’s expansion pack (not Pak!) origins belie some truly game changing additions to the series, making it a pretty important entry in the series canon. But it does lose some of the more ornery elements of its progenitor; not necessarily a bad thing; but it does give this game a bit of a different flavour to the first Mario Party. I’d argue that it’s a bit overrated amongst the mainline Mario Party titles (I blame the fact that it was the only Mario Party game that kept getting re-released on the various Virtual Console services, for whatever bizarre reason), but the importance of its additions can’t be denied; and its boards are all solidly designed. It remains one of the better entries in the series to this day, and a must play for anyone looking for an endlessly replayable social nightmare of a multiplayer video game.