Retro Review: Mario Party 2

Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Party
Number of Players: 1-4
ESRB: E for Everyone
Available on: Nintendo 64
Release date: Jan. 24, 2000

As a child, my friends and I spent countless hours playing Mario Party 2. As I got older, I played every Mario Party title; nothing came close to Mario Party 2. In my opinion, it is the best Mario Party title ever released.

What makes it so great, you say? For one, the mini-games in Mario Party 2 are the absolute best. Hot Rope Jump, Hexagon Heat, Honeycomb Havoc, Toad in the Box…I don’t think there is one mini-game in Mario Party 2 that I don’t enjoy.

Another thing that makes Mario Party 2 stand out from the other entries in the series is its great selection of boards. There are six: Pirate Land, Western Land, Space Land, Mystery Land, Horror Land, and Bowser Land. For each board, excluding the final board, Bowser Land, the characters are dressed in costumes that correspond to the board they are on. For example, in Western Land, players are dressed as Cowboys.

For those who don’t know much about the Mario Party series, it’s a simple party game where the objective is to collect as many Stars as possible. Each game takes place on a board, much like a board game, and each player rolls the dice to determine how many spaces they can move for that turn. After every player has a turn, they all compete in a mini-game, and repeat it until the number of turns (chosen by player 1 at the beginning of the game) is up. Whoever ends up with the most Stars wins, and whoever loses feels like absolute crap.

As with any other Mario Party game, it is most enjoyable to play Mario Party 2 with friends. Playing with computer players is fun as well, but sitting around with a few friends and yelling at them when they steal your stars is the best way to play this game.

Final thoughts

Gameplay: Pure, simple fun. A party game at its finest.

Appearance: Menu presentation is fun. Graphics were great, at the time. Still fun to look at.

Sound: The music in this entry of the series is particularly enjoyable.

Replay value: Extremely high. I’ve been playing this game for over 10 years, and it’s still just as fun as it was the first time I played it.

Overall score:

9/10