4.5/5 ★ – TNGLiam's review of Mario Party 2.

Platform: Switch (via Switch Online) Time Played: 14.5 hours Status: Completed ⟳ I played through Mario Party 2 for the first time with friends over two and a half years ago, and at the time I said that it was clear that this was an incredible installment in the overall Mario Party series, but my final thoughts left me believing that there was still much more to improve in future installments, but after proceeding to play the rest of the series, I came to realize that Mario Party 2 truly was my favorite out of the series. After properly revisiting it after some time, I still firmly believe that Mario Party 2 is the most charming, balanced in quality, fun to play with friends, and memorable Mario Party game to date. This game’s overall aesthetic is my favorite out of the entire series. Each board and area is so vibrant and colorful. Having the characters dressed in unique costumes that represent each board is such a great creative inclusion to the point that it is baffling that no further entries in the series have went back to this idea. Every board is so distinct and designed with such care with so many little details that make them some of the best and most memorable boards on just an aesthetic level, and that’s not even counting how fun the boards are to play on. Mario Party 2 has no bad or even mediocre boards. All of the boards present in this game are incredibly fun to play on, with a handful of them just flat-out being the best boards in the entire series. Starting off with Pirate Land, one of my two favorites from this game, starts out a little frustrating with the pirate ship shooting you off the bridge to the other island quite frequently sending you back to the start, but when you get to the other side by using a Mushroom, having to deal with the Thwomps and potentially blocking their paths to your opponents with a lower amount of coins by paying them a high amount to pass is a really fun gimmick that can cause a fair bit of hectic fun. I should also mention the Sushi spaces that have him take you to the other island which weirdly aren’t Happening Spaces. The pirate theming here works so well with the multiple ships sailing around the ocean and the several stone sculptures; just a fantastic board in my opinion. Western Land is another really fun one with the train being a fun mechanic that you can either trigger intentionally or by landing on a Happening Space, and having to plan around the train’s placement on the board adds an extra layer of strategy and planning to your moves throughout the board. Wiggler’s Hootinhanny Bar isn’t really that important of a gimmick in my eyes as it costs so much to use, but I suppose if you REALLY don’t want a certain player to get the star and they’re close to it and you have the coins to do so, it can be a very good way to fuck over your opponent. The Wild West theme here is done so well and looks absolutely incredible. Also having two spots for Boo is really fun as I love everything regarding that shared mechanic. Space Land was perhaps my least favorite board in the game during my first playthrough, but it really isn’t that bad of a board. Its a lot bigger than others in the game, with the main gimmick being the counter in the middle that counts down one point from five whenever someone walks across it, and when hitting zero, anyone within the line of fire of Bowser’s coin laser gets ALL of their coins taken from them, causing quite a bit of stress and extra planning so as to not get hit by that devastating set back. The Thwomp drivers and Snifit police thing can become an annoyance, but having the ability to choose whether or not the event can take players further away from where they are by paying off the Snifit police to chase the drivers can add some more strategy. Overall though, Space Land probably still is my least favorite board in the game, but that by no means means that it is a bad board at all. Mystery Land is quite the unique board. It is essentially Wario’s Battle Canyon from Mario Party 1 but improved significantly. This time around there are only four islands, with two of them able to be traveled across by paying some Bob-Ombs to take you there, but the main way to get from one to the other is to land on a Happening Space that will take you to the next island in line. I really like the mixture of references to ancient archeology, alien conspiracies, and even the Loch Ness Monster. There’s even a smaller gimmick where you can curse another player with a lower dice roll. Overall this is a very fun and unique board that I like revisiting. Horror Land is my favorite board in this game, and one of my favorites in the entire series. The day and night cycle here is such an incredible gimmick here (one so good that Mario Party 6 based every single board on it). You can pay off Whomps to pass by certain paths during the day, but at night they become solid stone and are unable to get past until the morning again which provides some great obstacles to strategize your moves around. You can pay off Kamek to change day to night. You can pay Mr. I to take you to the other side of the board. There are even four different Boo spots that are available whether it's night or day, and even a Big Boo hidden behind a Skeleton Key gate that can steal coins and stars from every player at once, which can be a monstrously dominating move if performed at the right time. There’s just so much about this board to love, not to mention that the background track heard while playing it is an all-time banger. Truly one of the best boards ever. And then finally Bowser Land, a much more generic board but that isn’t to its detriment. Every five turns, the Bowser Parade will begin, chasing players in its path back to the start of the board, losing several coins for each space they’re forced to travel across. Players can pay the Koopa Kids to change the direction of the race, potentially fucking over your opponents big time if planned properly. There’s also some Warp Pipe Happening Space around and a Blooper ride that you can easily get stuck in for a while, although the star can spawn in there. This is probably my second least favorite of the boards in this game, but still a fun one nonetheless. Overall, Mario Party 2’s board selection is fantastic, and this is only complimented by the additions and improvements to board gameplay that this makes over its predecessor. Mario Party 2 adds in items, which really changes up how players approach their strategies and moves throughout the game, although you can only carry up to one at a time. You have items like the Mushroom or Golden Mushroom that let you spin additional dice, the Plunder Chest that lets you take someone else’s item, the Warp Block that will swap yours and another random player’s position on the board, the Skeleton Key can be used to unlock certain gates that have paths that can only be used via said gate (this game be a major bummer though as you can miss out on some great items if you’re holding onto the Skeleton Key for too long, and you can’t even discard it in this game), the Dueling Glove which will initiate a duel against a player of your choice (more on duels later), the Magic Lamp which will summon a genie that takes you straight to the star, the Boo Bell which will summon Boo to you, the Bowser Suit which lets you steal twenty coins from whatever play you pass during your roll, and the Bowser Bomb which summons Bowser at the nearest Koopa Kid point and will essentially do the same things that you can do yourself with the Bowser Suit, but you are not immune to its effects. Items are an incredible addition to the Mario Party formula which allows for a lot more potential strategies and events to take place amongst players. It actually makes it quite jarring to go back to Mario Party 1 and not have items whatsoever. Other great inclusions are Battle Minigames, Item Minigames, and Duel Minigames. Battle Minigames are initiated when landing on their respective spaces and will take a set amount of coins from each player, with the person winning in first place in the minigame receiving 2/3 of the coins and second place receiving 1/3. Item Minigames are great pace breakers and some great ways to get some free items without having to spend any coins at the Item Shops for them, making an overall great balance for the item system in general, with some items even being exclusive to these minigames. And then there are Duel Minigames, initiated either by landing on the same space as another player during the last five turns, or by using a Dueling Glove on another player; in these minigames, the player that initiated the minigame sets the amount of coins that both players must bet on the line, and the winner takes it all, honestly such a great and tense event when it happens. Both Item and Duel Minigames have unique minigames for whatever board you’re on, and honestly, that’s super fun, and some of them are really good and only serve to enhance already great boards. Moving onto the minigames themselves, even though this game brings back a fair amount of minigames from Mario Party 1 (even some not-so-good ones), the minigame pool here is still one of the greatest in the series in my eyes, with a lot of them creating some really tense and fun challenges with you and your friends. Some personal highlights of mine are: Toad in the Box, Mecha-Marathon, Roll Call, Abandon Ship, Totem Pole Pound, Honeycomb Havoc (which is a great strategy minigame), Skateboard Scamper (which makes a greatly improved return), Filet Relay, Crane Game, Shock, Drop or Roll; Toad Bandstand, Bobsled Run (another one that makes a great return), Handcar Havoc (same again), Balloon Burst (a great 2v2 version of a free for all from the first game), Cake Factory, Looney Lumberjacks, Destruction Duet, Grab Bag, Face Lift, Crazy Cutters, Roll Out the Barrels, Coffin Congestion, Saber Swipes, Quick Draw Corks, Psychic Safari, and Mushroom Brew. As you can tell, there are a lot of minigames here that I really like, probably the most out of any Mario Party (although I could prove myself wrong after replaying some more), but there really are just so many great minigames here. And that means it really sucks when some of the shitty minigames show up, like Rainbow Run and Bumper Balls which are still as bad as the first game, Torpedo Targets which is just awful control and horribly unfun to play for everyone, and Day at the Races which is just pure luck and always causes everyone in the room to groan when randomly selected. Still, the minigame pool here is excellent, and what’s brought back from 1 is usually improved significantly and deserved to be brought back. There isn’t much in the way of other content besides the main usually Mario Party multiplayer mode besides a few very small minigame-centric modes and Mini-Game Stadium which returns from the first game. The single-player campaign where you traverse across a world map with each “level” being one of the game’s minigames returns once again, but this time only after playing each of the game’s minigames at least once in regular multiplayer, which isn’t really a good setup for someone who may actually just want some single player content to play if they don’t have any friends to actually play the game with, not to mention how hard it is to unlock all of the minigames and to beat the final challenge in the campaign (those Koopa Kid tanks can go fuck themselves). Besides that, the soundtrack present in this game is impeccable and outshines the other entries on the N64 and honestly the rest of the games in the series in every way. There are just so many all-time bangers in this game’s score that there are just too many to count, so many great board tracks, menu tracks, minigame tracks, etc, etc. Just such an absolutely outstanding and phenomenal soundtrack. To conclude, Mario Party 2 is an incredible party game to throw on when you have some friends over and want to have an absolute blast. For the last two and a half years it has been THE Mario Party that I throw on when friends are over, even though 6, 8, and Superstars are equally as fun, but 2 just holds a special place in my heart man. Countless improvements to the overall Mario Party formula have stuck with the series even to this day. I can not understate just how fun it is to play this game with your friends. I love this shit.