Introduction
In the year of 1998, Nintendo published and released the original Mario Party for the Nintendo 64 in Japan. The game was later released outside of Japan in 1999. Hudson Soft helped with the development of the hit Nintendo 64 game. It was the very first game that introduced the Mario Party series. The game consists of a total of eight boards, and six of them are personalized for each main player in the game. You can play Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong (DK), Yoshi, Wario, and Princess Peach. I always played as either Mario or Yoshi, who are my two most favorite Nintendo characters. The objective of Mario Party is to collect the most stars and become victorious as the Super Star. One of my favorite parts of playing Mario Party is the mini-games. There are a total of 50 mini-games included in Mario Party, but I will only be covering my top 10 picks of the mini-games featured in the first-ever released Mario Party game. Keep in mind, that there are no right or wrong choices in the selected mini-games as everyone's opinion is different. These are my personal favorites. Without further ado, let's get onto the top 10 mini-games (in no particular order) in Mario Party.
1. Bombsketball
Using a bob-omb instead of a basketball? Seems dangerous, but so much fun at the same time! This is a 2 VS 2 mini-game where your goal is to steal the "bombsketball" (or basketball, in our universe) from your opponent and shoot it into the Bowser head-shaped hoop. You gotta hurry though, because you only have 60 seconds to slam dunk the bomb-shaped basketball into the stone hoop. The winning team will earn a total of 10 coins.
2. Grab Bag
So you have some coins and need to keep them in a bag. Just be careful and watch your back, because someone may be sneaking up on you and trying to rob you! You are all in it for yourself to protect your valuable gold coins. You have one minute to steal as many coins as possible from your opponents' bags. Just make sure no one tries to steal from you. If someone has a hold on your bag, to need to fight your way to freedom to protect your valuables. Once the timer runs out, you will either gain more, lose more, or not get any coins at all. Whatever coins you have gained or lost will be what you'll end up with at the end of the mini-game.
3. Hot Bob-omb
It's a hot potato with a twist! You use a bob-omb instead of a potato! I tell you what, Mario and his friends have a dangerous imagination when coming up with mini-game ideas! There is no time limit to this mini-game but you still need to act fast to avoid getting blown up by the angry bob-omb. The player who does not throw the bomb quickly enough before it explodes will be considered the loser of Hot Bob-omb. There are only 3 winners and one loser in this mini-game. The loser will need to fess up 15 coins (as well as getting treated for a singed face), distributing a total of 5 coins to each winning player.
4. Shy Guy Says
Now this game is a crazy take on the classic Simon Says game. You are sitting in a small barrel that is tied to a boat in the middle of the ocean, with a Shy Guy that is eager to cut you off and cast you in the endless ocean becoming lost forever. Yikes! This is a 4 player mini-game and the goal is to do what the Shy Guy tells you to do. When he lifts the red flag, you lift the red flag. If he lifts the white flag, you better lift that white flag. Be careful, the Shy Guy is known to be tricky and will change the flags on you very quickly. The last remaining player is declared the winner. As for the losers, let's hope you have good navigational skills and find yourself back to land! Waving your flags out of panic as you drift away into the sea will not help you any.
5. Bash 'n' Cash
This is a mini-game that's similar to Grab Bag except that you hit the solo player to receive coins. One player is in a Bowser suit while the other 3 players are armed with hammers making squeaking noises. Depending on how many coins the player in the Bowser suit has, chances are you'll be losing the majority of your coins unless you are quick enough to avoid being smashed into the ground. Whatever aggression you have towards Bowser, feel free to take it out on the player wearing the evil Koopa's suit because it'll be worth it, literally!
6. Crane Game
If you love playing crane games to win prizes in your local arcade, then you'll be sure to love this Mario-themed crane game! Crane Game is a 3 VS 1 mini-game that is only half a minute long. If you are the player operating the crane, you have your choice of grabbing one of the three players portraying as dolls, one giant coin, a bag of coins totaling 5 coins, and a treasure chest carrying 10 coins. If you are the player who is at risk of being captured by the crane operator, you will need to do your best to struggle to break free from the crane player's grip. Otherwise, it's down the drain you go and you'll lose a portion of your coins!
7. Running of the Bulb
One player has a light bulb, and three players are there to protect you from the Boos who are trying to possess you and your light bulb. All four players have to work together to keep the hallway lit and eliminate all the Boos from reappearing again. Everyone will claim victory and be awarded coins when they reach the end of the hallway and insert the light bulb into the light socket. If everyone has been possessed and turned into zombies by the Boos, well, you lose and you're doomed forever! Spooky, isn't it?
8. Bowl Over
When I was a kid, I loved to go bowling. I got good at it to the point I joined some bowling leagues way back in the day. Perhaps maybe this is why I love this mini-game so much. Hard to say. It could be out of pure coincidence. Of course, Mario Party takes the fun of bowling to a whole new level. They have bowling lanes that all of us are not very familiar with nor have we ever seen bowling lanes designed like this in a bowling alley before. And instead of using the traditional bowling ball, Mario and friends use a Koopa shell. There are even bowling pins that either throw out coins or look just like your opponents. The player throwing the Koopa shell needs to knock down the other 3 players or hit some optional coin pins. The players hit will lose coins if they are knocked over.
9. Face Lift
Let's all gather around and make Bowser even more hideous than he ever was before! This is a 4 player mini-game that has a similar take on the intro screen of the iconic Super Mario 64 game. Notice how the background says "Super Bowser 64"? If you've played Super Mario 64 in the past and enjoyed messing with Mario's handsome face, then I'm sure you won't have any issues playing Face Lift. You only have a total of 30 seconds to recreate Bowser's face to match the image in the middle of the screen. The player that gets the highest rank is declared the winner.
10. Ground Pound
This is a game that will determine whether or not you'll have yourself a sore rear-end afterward. Ground Pound is a one-player mini-game and your objective is to ground pound all the polls with a flat top. Be sure to avoid ground-pounding the polls with a pointy tip, or you'll get injured temporarily, costing you valuable time in completing the mini-game. If you manage to ground pound all of the flat top polls within 30 seconds, you will win some bonus coins.
Conclusion
Here you have it. These mini-games are my top picks that I feel deserve recognition. There is, however, one mini-game that I feel deserves an honorary shoutout for being the most painful mini-game in Mario Party. That mini-game would be:
Tug o' War
There's not much to explain about Tug o' War other than the fact it leaves a nasty blister on the palm of your hand for weeks and chances are you'll end up losing to the game anyway. At least that always happened to me. When this game is randomly selected, I simply take the intentional loss and get eaten by a hungry piranha plant. Why? Because I rather not have a sore hand over playing a mini-game. I much rather stick to our traditional tug of war instead of the Mario version of tug of war.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my article. I hope you enjoyed it. More articles will be coming out soon. But in the meantime, this is your girl guineapig64, signing out!
Note: credit for all images and GIFs used go to their original creators.