Nintendo’s Mario series is most known for its family-friendly games that are always a blast for anyone of any age and skill level to play. However, in the spin-off side of the series, theMario Partygames are notorious for ruining friendships.
The Mario Party games have you and up to three other people duking it out to see who is the superstar for the ultimate bragging rights. A competitive game, of course, means plenty of ways to mess with your competition. Mario Party loves its brutal, luck-loving gameplay, but which entry is truly the most friendship ending?
Mario Party Advance and Mario Party-e are not included on this list as they are very different games in the series.
Friendship-Ending Mechanics Present In Mario Party 9 And 10
Duels: No (Both have Duel modes)
Overpowered Items: No
These two titles have been lumped together here because of one thing that these games both have: the dreaded car. After Mario Party 8, came many not-so-great changes to the series, including how everyone now moves along together in a car.
This, of course, makes the game much less competitive, as while you are still competing against one another, there’s much less you can do when you are all tied together. Even in design, these two titles are regarded as the most uninspired in the series and you and your friends will just end up bored out of your minds instead of being mad at each other.
Mario Party: Island Tourwas a strange entry that got rid of so many classic elements of the series in favor of a more linear board design and boring gameplay. Even with friends, it’s a game that just lacks the Mario Party fun.
A core mechanic of every game is the mix of collecting Coins and Stars, and Island Tour chucks both out the window in favor of race-to-the-end-style gameplay. Since the game itself is unenjoyable and lacks what makes Mario Party so aggravating in the first place, Island Tour is just a bore.
Mario Party: Star Rush is an interesting title, to say the least. It focuses more on having a variety of game modes that aren’t just the traditional board game thrills Mario Party usually has. Inherently, it’s not a bad game, but it most definitely isn’t agood traditional Mario Party.
The game actually introduces an interesting way to play the classic board gameplay with everyone rolling their dice and moving around a grid-based board all at the same time. However, with very generic boards that lack personality or luck-based elements, they all feel shallow, and the boredom will set in before the rage does.
Fair Bonus Stars: No (Too many potential options)
Overpowered Items: Yes
The very first entry on the Switch,Super Mario Party,looked to mix classic Mario Party up in another new way. This did not go to plan, however, as the economy in the game is completely butchered, with coins being plentiful and Stars only costing ten coins.
What makes Super Mario Party unique is its Buddy system, which has you gathering a squad of characters across the board that will aid you. These Buddies do end up breaking the already unbalanced gameplay even further, and most games just come down to whoever had the most Buddies wins.
Super Mario Party even has a character tier list, since each character has their own unique Dice Block, and this is just unfair for everyone.
The leap between consoles gave Mario Party new wings to soar even higher and destroy a new generation of gamers' loved ones in their quest to be a superstar. Mario Party 4 tries its best to achieve this, but it heavily toned back its cheap gameplay compared to its N64 counterparts.
Unfortunately, the fun of Mario Party 4 is ruined by its questionable board design that will just end up frustrating everyone into not wanting to play. Most boards have junctions that send you in a random direction or require a specific Item to be used before you roll to access parts of the board, and it just makes it nearly impossible for any enjoyment.
As far as the series goes, Superstars is one of the most balanced entries, with only some questionable economic issues, such as Gold Pipes being easily obtainable and Lucky spaces being very generous.
However, being a more traditional entry in the series that brings back boards and minigames from older titles, it will still tear you apart if you even get a little bit unlucky. This title was the first in over a decade to bring back Chance Time, and all the entries with these spaces in play are guaranteed to get heated.
The final entry on the GameCube, Mario Party 7, took everything the previous three entries on the system did and mixed them up into something interesting, but struggles to stand out. Regardless, there are still plenty of painful moments that can get your friends holding pitchforks up to you and your GameCube.
The Orbs add a layer of strategy to the boards that can make even the most seasoned of players get filled with hatred as they roll just enough to land on the space that is loaded up with a Pink Boo that just steals a Star. With this in mind, this title is a lot less luck-dependent and quite skill-based, which is a shame for those who want all their friends to hate them.
Mario Party is at its best when everyone can get completely obliterated by luck, and in Mario Party 5, there’s a good mix of skill and luck. With iconic evil elements such as Boo, duels and Chance Roulette (Chance Time) alongside some of the most enjoyable minigames in the series, it’s a blast for all.
One great part about Mario Party 5 is that its Items, the Capsules, can be placed on the board as traps for foes to trigger. However, you have to be careful because you can also trigger your traps, which can lead to your temper rising when the reason you lose half your coins is not any of your friends but yourself.
Mario Party 8 was the final Hudson Soft era title, and of course, being a Wii game means it has plenty of motion-controlled minigames alongside some cheap luck-based ones.The boards and minigames in this game are fun, but the Candies come along to ruin not just the balance but also your life.
Candies are Mario Party 8’s Items, and they are some of the most powerful the series has seen. The Duelo Candy, for example, allows you to start a duel with the first person you pass that turn, allowing multiple Stars to be stolen without any risk, as even if you lose the duel minigame, the worst you can lose is 20 coins.
Mario Party 6 is seemingly the GameCube era’s most beloved, with its brilliant day and night system adding a new level of strategy that pushes past just luck and focuses even more on skill. If you love planning and making stupidly powerful leads, Mario Party 6 lets you do this more than ever.
This title was sadly the last entry in a long while to include the classic Chance Time mechanics, and it made sure they went out with a bang. The boards in this entry have plenty of chaos and carnage to make you potentially never speak to the people you play with ever again.
