LogFAQs > #938513136

Raka_Putra posted...

Toadette is actually really adorable and totally worth the coins! I like her color scheme a lot.

It's a cute color scheme! I just see her as a half-measure between a lot of characters. Hot Pink's a good color, though!

Mushroom Mix-Up (MP1)
This is the classic. I mean, I assume it sucks if you're colorblind, then it may not be a classic, but there's so many good strats to this game. Jumping into the water just as the mushroom start to rise to psyche your opponents out, ground pounding on an opponent hogging the edge in order to return to center, body blocking when they're desperately trying to leap to safety, "Long Live The King"ing them into the briny abyss. I also appreciate Toad being the host, so often are one of Bowser's minions in charge of a mini-game, but Toad proves to be just as cruel of a taskmaster as Hammer Bro or Shy Guy. Just a relief and fun whenever it shows up on the roulette. Has a better aesthetic than Hexagon Heat, too.

Mario
I understand why you would pick Mario in Mario Party and Mario Party 2. If Luigi's taken, you still need someone to be heroic, despite the lack of personality and inferior voice lines. You may delude yourself into thinking you're an altruistic destined hero, but this is Mario Party. If you're playing with that line of logic, your soul animal is already Wario, so either you're deluding yourself or someone's already picked him. And I guess you just hate animals and girls or whatever, or don't want the CPU's in 2 to pick a character who likes Mushrooms instead of the far more situational Skeleton Keys or Warp Blocks.

That excuse goes out the window as soon as Waluigi and Daisy come in and have personality pouring out of their single-polygon ears. Mario is the equivalent of white bread: all filler, no killer. You lack the exceptional voice lines of Wario or Luigi, the obnoxiousness of Peach, the cuteness of Yoshi, the weird jank hitboxes of Waluigi or DK... you simply exist. You serve your function... okay, I guess, but that's about it. You do not become a Mario main by choice, you do it out of circumstance. Or you really, REALLY love Super Mario 64 and that is the ONLY Mario game you love other than Mario Party, which means you have incredibly specific and strange tastes.

Every time Mario gets to be unique, he's a disappointment. Partner in duel mode? Koopa Troopa, a boring choice that's uber-defensive, but lacks the economy advantage of Peach or taking the intentional nerf in picking DK's Whomp. You're not keeping things interesting or playing to win, you're just... playing, I guess. Fireball orb in 7? Worse Bowser Suit, with all of the "potential to roll low" drawbacks, and none of the incredibly broken benefits of Peach, Boo, or Toad's orbs. Even his dice block in Super is incredibly boring: 1-3-3-3-5-6. The spread lacks the consistency of Daisy or Shy Guy, and has the exact same odds as just rolling the damn regular dice, unless you REALLY hate the numbers 2 or 4 VERY specifically. But in almost every scenario, another block is going to be better or more interesting (except maybe Yoshi's, poor Yoshi).

There are only two redeeming qualities to Mario that keep him out of the dredges of Mario Party. The first is that in MP2 and MP3, during the last five turns, a Whomp has a chance of showing up and predicting who will win. Whomp is such a Mario fanboy that he will pick Mario EVERY time, giving him 10 coins. I am glad that GameFAQs Mario followed suit with a last-minute boost every time, as Mario rigging things in his favor by being Freakin' Mario is canon based on this. He also has an incredible taunt in 7 where, instead of annoying grunts and sounds, Mario yells out "Hey, Stinky!" This is a top-tier taunt, and while it's not worth choosing Mario because of his low-tier personal orb, it is pretty exceptional. But that's about it. You aren't playing Mario Party for Mario; it ain't Smash, he isn't inherently fun, he simply is.

Mario Party 8
A tale of two games. You have some of the best boards in the series (with one being in contention for THE best board) filled with strategy, proper uses for every candy (and the candy oozes charm with its effects), some of the best 2v2 minigames, Blooper as a playable character who is utterly adorable, and that one funny moped game where a Thwomp rides a moped.It also has some of the most luck-based, "go through the motions" boards since 1 with none of 1's utter propensity to dick players over, perhaps THE WORST selection of 4-player mini-games in the entire series, the worst final boss, the worst Bowser board, and the Golden Space that utterly destroys any sense of other strategy as "just target that space" will see you through MAJORLY. Mc Ballyhoo also exists, and I like him - he's perfectly annoying and his HAW HAW HAW sound clips are very easy to mockingly imitate. Being frustrated is good in Mario Party. Ultimately, I do prefer having good boards to having good mini-games, especially in the randomized bonus star world where being the best at mini-games guarantees nothing (a mark against it but whatever). I find 8 neither a step up or down from 7 - just making it a lot more uneven in between the 'good' and 'bad'. It's a Mario Party of extremes.

Chance Time
Next to the Bowser Space, definitely the space that varies the most in quality from game to game! MP1 had a really unique system where every time a Star was obtained, the space that it occupied would turn into a Chance Time space. 2 had a center dice block with totally consistent cycles based on what turn it was that started in the same place in the cycle every time, making it THE most abusable Chance Time in the series. From then on, it started getting weirder - 3 stopped letting you choose the order of the wheels, 4 turned it into a weird pachinko machine, 5 and 6 had a rough system where if you were on a team, you could target your teammate and then the whole thing would be considered defunct, and then 7 gave the thing a damn failure chance making it completely neutered. It's peaked at 2 and has gotten weaker with every iteration of Mario Party, until it's a sad shadow of its former self, like Blizzard or WWE Return Kurt Angle. Accounting for its bullshit with unstealable bonus stars is part of the game, so I fully encourage its presence, but later game weakness makes it a lot more depressing an entry. At least we still have the memories, you can never take away from the legend.

Hexagon Heat (MP2)
It's slightly better than Mushroom Mix-Up because it's in a less shitty world in Mini-Game Coaster than Mix-Up's world in Mini-Game Island. Cast Aways bullshit.

Millennium Star Tier
Booksquirm (MP4)
Hexagon Heat (MP2)
Mushroom Mix-Up (MP1)

Super Star Tier
Faire Square (MP6)
Lights Out (MP2)
Slapparazzi (SMP)
Chance Time

Happening Star Tier
Bumper Balls
Control Stick Spinning (MP1)
Mario Party 8

Red Star Tier
Toadette
Mario

Sonic Shuffle Tier
Duel Mode (MP3)
Kamek (MP2)

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