Mario Party 2

Nearly 25 years later, and still the best Mario Party game in the entire series. Fantastic minigames, my personal favorite artstyle/aesthetic in the series, great boards, it's got it all. Everyone says Mario Party 3 is the best, but it just doesn't have that charm that Mario Party 2's got.

More of the same, but with everything dialed up over the original and, importantly, the palm-destroying mini games removed.

Mario Party 2 is a game that is perfect for a group of friends who want a fun and casual party game. I actually never grew up with Mario Party or played it until near the end of my first semester of my Senior year in college, I remember visiting my friends apartment with our other friends and he introduced this game to me saying it is one of the best party games. I remember having so much fun playing this with my friends, it was simple and easy, but at the same time had so many aspects that would make for interesting games. I know a big complaint about this is the luck factor and how people can get random stars from landing on the right space or people can land on a screen to screw the top coin holder over by stealing their coins, but well have you ever played a game like Life or Monopoly that almost entirely revolve around landing on the right spaces and drawing the right cards. Mario Party 2 has really fun boards and I remember the space level has a laser you could activate to push people back and during one game a guy trolled everyone and would keep activating the laser.

Of course the game also tends to be a good way to anger your friends, I remember many salty moments where I'd steal a coin from someone I felt was winning and he'd get upset and taking it personal that I targeted him, and some of the other friends would have moments like that during the game too. The variety of mini games is pretty good, and the boards are pretty varied, each with their own theme which I really liked. On top of that there were other things like being able to use coins to buy extra dice rolls or stars, and landing on spaces where you could lose coins or hurt other players.

Now if I did have some legitimate complaints, I would say the mini games were a mixed bag. Some were stupid and just required you to tap a button really fast, others were just entirely chanced based like picking the winner of a race. I would have preferred a bigger variety of skill based games. But its still a really fun party game and my favorite of the Mario Party games. Sure if I were playing this alone I would hate it, but with friends it is a great game and gave me many good memories playing it during the final half of my Senior year.