(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Marioparty1.jpg)(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/Marioparty2.jpg)(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Marioparty3.jpg)
(This post is about Mario Party, but I'm talking about the 2nd one in particular. I haven't played any of the others, so I don't really know how different the other games are from 2.)
Ah, Mario Party. If you've played Mario Party, you already know how downright (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GangUpOnTheHuman) sadistic (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty) the computers (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheComputerIsACheatingBastard) can (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RubberbandAI) be. I remember being foolish enough to buy Mario Party 2 at Gamestop during the Summer (When I was much younger and Gamestop was actually good), thinking it would be a fun party game to play, since it is called Mario Party. TWO! Upon coming home, I put it in my N64, and started playing. I wasn't really good at it, but I remember most of it to this day. Especially the mini-games.
The basic goal of Mario Party (2) is to buy Stars from Toad. Toad appears in a predetermined spot, doing nothing, while Baby Bowser sits somewhere else waiting to steal five coins (Or, rarely, GIVE 5 coins.) from players. After spending twenty coins on a Star, Toad appears in a different predetermined spot, while Baby Bowser teleports to where Toad was last. After a certain amount of turns end (You can set the amount of turns the game goes for.), the game ends and Toad counts the amount of coins and stars each player has, then awards bonus stars for "excellent performance", i.e winning the most mini-games. The player with the most stars wins (If two or more players are tied for stars, then the player with the most coins out of the tied players wins.)
So, I was bored a few days ago and decided to play a game I hadn't played in a long while. Mario Party 2 was there, so I thought it would be a good way to just sit down, and play a nice casual game of Mario Party. So after choosing a board, the characters (Difficulty Level), turns, and the Bonuses, the round started. Yoshi went first and got a ten, which was followed by Mario getting a ten, followed by me rolling a six, which was followed by Peach getting...a ten.
You already see a pattern, don't you? Three computers got a perfect ten. And they're not even on HARD. Their difficulty was set to normal. (Well, Yoshi's AI was on Easy, and he got a ten as well.) Now, it's understandable if one computer got a ten, but when two computers (1 on Easy) on normal get a ten, you know something is wrong.
After everyone finished moving, the turn ended and a roulette appeared to randomly select the next mini-game, out of a random set of five selected mini-games. The mini-game selected was Totem Pole Pound, in which every player stands on a Totem Pole and Ground Pounds it until the Totem Pole reaches the ground (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin). The first person to reach the ground wins. What's the point of this? The winner of the mini-game gets ten coins. What do you do with these coins? Save them, buy stars/items with them, change directions of parades, "teleport" to other areas, ect...
What followed after was quite possibly the most hardcore board game experience. EVER. With computers somehow finding hidden blocks and getting FREE stars, winning mini-games that require pushing button mashing skills that only masturbating can grant, abusing the Slow Curse (Which limits your movement from 1-3 spaces) to land on a Bank Space and getting 75 coins, abusing the Random Number Generator, and rolling THREE TENS after using a Golden Mushroom (Which triples how far you can move).
After duel minigames, coin stealing, star stealing, and anger, the game ended. Toad came from nowhere and tallied up the stars and coins, when, suddenly, Bowser, the Riddle Sphinx came and forced a Koopa (Who had conveniently just discovered an artifact, which looks a lot like the Bob-omb Bowling Tournament's Trophy). The Koopa failed, and at that point, Luigi came and solved Bowser's riddle, which forced Bowser to vanish into the darkness, while Alien Bob-ombs came and destroyed the Bob-omb trophy which actually encased another alien Bob-omb, after which that Bob-omb was freed and went into the Bob-omb's Alien spaceship, flew off, while Luigi "became the Super Star" of Mystery Land.
...are you still here? Good, I can't take this seriously either.
If you haven't played Mario Party, this is just how the game is. Fun, crazy, and frustrating. Of course, I'm not saying the game is bad. It's just...surprisingly evil for a party game.
Well, I'm done. Was there really a reason to post this? No. But if any of you have played Mario Party (Any of them) and have some fun memories/experiences, feel free to share. And comment on the post.
Mario Party 4 was my favorite, and the series really took a turn downhill after it.
The mini-game land from the first Mario Party was awesome. I wish they did that in the Mario Parties.