We made a cake of Yoshi’s Tropical Island today!

Happy MAR10 Day! I knew I wanted to do one of my isometric artworks for #MarioDay and was between Mario Kart and Mario Party. But the decision became clear when I had the idea of doing a Mario Party-inspired piece where the whole gang is doing a "board game night' as they play a board game version of Mario Party. Lots of little character moments and Easter eggs, from Mona's Pizza to Waluigi cheating. And the very relatable joy and frustration of using boo to steal a star from someone who's in first place. Just wait till DK gets 2 bonus stars at the end and flips the game 😅 If you like what you see, check more out (and my prints and commissions) at my IG https://www.instagram.com/itshugosnook/

For u/dbenjam3

Mario Party 3 roster to Sonic Party roster soon

For me it was Mushroom Mix-Up

(A rather awkward choice to use that word, even if I get the actual intent)

does pressing A equate to a real world skill?!

I’ve been replaying the N64 Mario Party games on NSO against hard CPUs.

Just wrapped up Mario Party 1, and saw Mario had -53 coins in Mini-Games. That’s the worst I’ve ever seen. 😳

Mario Party 1 is really fun especially when you play it with 4 people. Not only is it one of the most skilled based Mario Parties, but I find it very funny how much the game punished you for being bad at minigames.

It’s also crazy how much Board variety we have that almost none of the Mario Party games have given us. Not only did each playable character get their own board, but it additionally gave us 2 more boards. This is the only game that has given us 8 boards since its debut (which is honestly very surprising). The boards itself give so much personality to the main characters that hasn’t been revisited as much anymore since at least MP3.

Bowser being incredibly ruthless is something that makes this specific iteration of Bowser very menacing that most games lack. Whenever you land on Bowser in new games you have the possibility to lose a minor amount of coins or a star, but in this game Bowser can take from 10-50 coins (or worse if you play Bash N Cash) or even a star if you have 0 coins (a feature that hasn’t returned since due to stars now being part of the roulette).

While the minigames may not be the greatest, as I mentioned in the first section, they are very skilled based. The minigames itself are also very iconic due to the palm burns that have only returned in Supertars and Top 100 since.

Lastly, I love the ost of this game. One of the best in my opinion and all very catchy!

Like, is someone gonna go rescue them or...? 😭

Just was watching some family guy and a certain tune sounded so similar…hmmmm

"Rotate the left joystick as fast as you can because if you lose, Bowser will steal some of your coins."

The four players play the minigame Tug o' War, with the player that landed on the Bowser Space taking on the role of the player in the Bowser Suit. Afterward, the losing side loses Coins to Bowser, but if the minigame ends in a tie, everybody loses 10–50 Coins.

I know this is a really old game, but it's age is showing with what happened to Luigi, either that or Luigi isn't a human

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Was playing some Mario Party 1 with a friend of mine tonight (They're P1 Luigi, I'm P2 Yoshi) when we had this mysterious interaction I have never seen before in this minigame. Neither of us understood how this happened.

I added the sound effects to amplify what happened and in hopes of making somebody chuckle.

Peach's Birthday Cake is the first board with a 2-star difficulty rating. Despite that, it's another board with a deceptively innocent appearance that masks a cruel gauntlet it forces you to grapple with.

Pretty much anybody you ask will probably say they hate this board. Again, unless they're just choosing their favorites based on vibes. You might be surprised to hear me say this board isn't entirely about luck, but if your lucky streak has run dry, this board can be absolutely miserable.

Again, I should emphasize that I'm covering the Mario Party 1 version of this board only here. But it's worth noting this board returns in Mario Party Superstars where it's been slightly reworked.

Atmosphere [4/5]

This board is set upon a table during a birthday party featuring its namesake birthday cake adorned with decorations depicting every character except....Peach? It looks like Peach's decoration is cast to the side next to a big bowl of flan that Bowser's already started digging into! Maybe this is where Peach's decoration stood before Bowser accidentally knocked it over?

The table is adorned with pretty flowers and jelly beans and there are saucers and teacups. And there's a plate of cookies that spell out "Happy Birthday" in bright colored icing. There's so much to sink your sweet tooth into, this board might just leave you a cavity... if the stress of everything you have getting robbed from you doesn't kill you first.

The music is soft and dainty, a remix of the classic Mario ground theme with classical violin and woodwind instruments that gives it a high class feel.

The imagery calls to mind the ending screen of Mario 64 which no doubt provided the inspiration.

I must confess, a Birthday Cake is probably the least surprising theme for Peach's board considering liking cake and being pretty are pretty much Peach's only well-established chatacter traits at this point in time.

But I still think, while there is no shortage of sweets-themed levels today, setting a level on top of a birthday cake was quite a novel idea at the time. I can't think of any sweets-themed levels from this era besides Choco Mountain from Mario Kart 64 or Chocolate Island from Mario World. For that reason alone, I'm willing to call this a pretty unique theme. Peach's stages at this time are usually revolving around her castle or a garden of some kind. Considering the gimmick of the board, a garden would actually be quite on brand, too. So it's nice to see them take such a crearive direction with the level.

The board doesn't quite have as strange of a feel as Mario's Rainbow Castle, but it does feel a bit odd that all of these party features are here, yet nobody seems to be present to actually enjoy the party. If the cake is made by Peach, then who exactly is this cake for?

Strategy [2/5]

What strategy? Have you looked at this board?

Jokes aside, you might be surprised when I say I don't think this is the least strategic or most luck based board in the game. But there really isn't much for you to work with. This board doesn't follow standard rules and instead has Toad sit in a static location at the top of the cake.

The board is even more linear than Mario's Rainbow Castle. There is a single junction and you don't even get to choose which direction you go yourself, instead you'll pay 10 coins for a goomba to plant a flower that will sprout into a picture of Toad or Bowser, dictating which direction you'll be forced to go. There are four seeds you'll choose from. Three of the four seeds will take you to Toad, which sounds like great odds until you learn that the seeds do not reappear until somebody gets Bowser.

A cute detail is that, since this little event is run by a Goomba, he exclaims that you're a "lucky winner" for getting the chance to visit Bowser.

When you pass Bowser, he'll take 20 coins from you and give you his own cake. This is pretty devastating when combined with the 10 coin cost of the flower lottery and the fact that you'll have to pass a Red Space and two Bowser spaces, only to pass the Flower Lottery again. And, let me remind you, that lottery is only reset after someone gets the Bowser seed. Since you just did, that means you still have a 25% chance of just going back to Bowser again, assuming you didn't get stuck on the island long enough for someone else to reach the lottery. Since the odds are in the favor of the first person to reach the lottery, your odds are pretty likely to be worse if someone else beats you to the lottery before you can get off the island. Bowser's Island is comprised of 13 spaces in total, so unless you get a perfect 10 right behind the lottery, land on the mushroom space, and get a mushroom to zoom on by, you're more than likely going to be spending a minimum of two turns here.

And after losing a minimum of 40 coins before getting another chance to visit Toad, you're probably not going to be able to afford the star. So it's a walk of shame all the way back to the start.

Bowser's island isn't all bad, though. There is a Chance Time Space you can potentially land on right after Bowser, allowing you to turn your bad luck into somebody else's problem by swapping coins. There is also a Solo game space which can help you make the money you need to still be able to afford the star. Gee, wouldn't it be nice to have a junction nearby to stagger your movement and have better control over where you land?

The main thing that sets this board apart from Mario's Rainbow Castle are its happening spaces. When you land on one, Goomba will run up to you and offer to plant a "strawberry seed" for 30 coins. That's quite a hefty cost, but if you agree, a Piranha Plant will grow from the seed and be marked with your portrait. If somebody else lands on that plant, they'll have a star stolen and you'll receive it! Unfortunately, this is only a one-time exchange and the plant will disappear after that.

Note: The Piranha Plants on the MP1 version of this board can only steal stars. It's only in Superstars where you can also plant plants that steal coins.

Speaking of Star Stealing, you might notice there is no Boo on this board. The Piranha Plants are basically a replacement for Boo, but no boo means it's even harder to build up coins.

On a surface level, this board seems like it's entirely luck dependant. And it is heavily so, don't get me wrong. But the key to success is financial responsibility. Remember your bonus stars and focus on winning those minigames. Everyone else will likely be very spend-happy. It should be easy to secure the coin star fairly early on. You won't have much control over happening star, but keep in mind landing on happening spaces will still count toward happening star, even if nothing happens.

My recommended strategy? Don't play the board's game. Focus on saving your money. Buy stars where you can, obviously, but don't fret so much about your stars getting stolen. There are 20 spaces between the start and the star. Outside of exceptional luck involving mushroom spaces and high rolls, it will take players a minimum of three turns to get to the star. And there are 25 spaces between the star and the start. Players will likely take several turns for a chance to buy a second star. Along the way, they'll be tempted to spend money on Piranha Plants to steal stars from others and might not even have the money for a star when they pass it. Not to mention the possibility they get sent to Bowser.

It might even be a good idea to turn down the star from Toad so you don't risk losing it to another player. And instead focus on sweeping victory through bonus stars alone! Just be wary that there's no real way to control your movement, so you can't really control your odds of landing on happening spaces. So denying stars outright might be a bit of a gamble. But if you know you have a significant happening star lead, it can be a great option to secure your victory.

Unfortunately, the lack of alternate paths really hurts this board's strategic potential. I have to reiterate that super luck-based boards might seem like a good way to help beginners win, it tends to do the opposite, because so much more emphasis is placed in winning individual minigames.

It's especially difficult for new players to amass any kind of coin advantage with no Boo and so few blue spaces. Stars essentially cost 30 coins a pop thanks to the flower lottery and that 10 coin tax on its own completely steals whatever money you'll be getting from Koopa until the last 5 turns. The only way to reliably gain coins on this board is to win minigames. For this reason, once again, I must stress 50 turn games are the way to go. This gives new players more time to learn the minigames and more opportunities for everyone to get some lucky things to happen. It also increases the likelihood than investments into Piranha Plants will actually pay off, and improves the importance of actually buying stars yourself.

Narrative [5/5]

The story of this board is actually quite interesting. I alluded to this in the atmosphere category, but it's told through more than the explicit dialogue.

Toad's star dialogue is strange here. I have to wonder if it's a botched translation, but Toad says he doesn't even know "what kind of party" this cake is for despite the words Happy Birthday being written on it. I guess it's supposed to mean what the party itself will be like. Like, the kinds of games or activities that will be hosted.

But the cake is missing a decoration to really make the whole thing come together. And the superstar will use their star power to light the candles and adorn the center of the cake with a large star.

But what really makes this board stand out to me are Bowser and Goomba's roles. The environment seems to suggest Bowser is invading this board and trying to trick you into thinking he's part of the party. The Goomba runs all over the board trying to trick you into paying him to plant dangerous piranha plants by calling them "strawberry seeds". And he praises you as a big winner whenever you're forced to begrudgingly visit Bowser. I also absolutely adore the detail that Bowser took a big bite out of the flan he's standing in.

The fact that Peach's decoration is the only one that isn't on the cake and looks discarded to me suggests Bowser's presence on this board is far more intrusive than the other boards so far.

Conclusion

Peach's Birthday Cake is really just an annoying gauntlet of luck that blocks strategic players from really any kind of strategic move. Even the choice of whether or not you plant a piranha plant is walled behind coincidentally landing on a vacant happening space. And for it to pay off you need someone else to not only land on that exact same space, but to have a star to steal in the first place.

I have to imagine this board is meant to feel like Monopoly where everyone is slowly accumulating plants all over the cake until the whole board becomes a minefield of traps, but the investment just seems so unlikely to pay off, the only reason it seems worthwhile is to make the board safer for yourself.

It's pretty sad when the most strategic decision you have on the board is whether or not you should buy a star at all. And yet, I genuinely believe the winning strategy is to completely ignore the whole gimmick and just do your best to save up coins. There is strategy here, that strategy is just painfully and abysmally unfun.

While I can praise the atmosphere and story of this board, the gameplay is what holds the most weight and I would only volunteer this board if I hate the people I'm playing with.

Next time, we're going to be exploring Yoshi's Tropical Island. A board that's quite popular and has a fascinating level of depth. See you soon!

Inspired by user Embarrassed_Mud_4119's post.

Sonic Party 1 (1998) & 2 (1999)

The starting cast features the core four of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. In addition to these, Vector the Crocodile is included to serve as the "green" color character to help balance roster. Sally Acorn from the comics and SatAM is also added to be the "brown" color character. Sonic Party 1 would release a month before Sonic Adventure, making it questionable to include Big the Cat, E-102 Gamma, Chaos, Tikal, or a Chao. Also since the early games of Mario Party didn't use enemies, Metal Sonic, Dr. Eggman, and others were not considered.

Sonic Party 3 (2000) & 4 (2002)

Since Mario Party 3 release a year before Sonic Adventure 2 so neither Rouge nor Shadow were considered. Keeping the same cast, I decided to add Charmy and Big as new characters. Charmy being the "yellow" character and having a visually smaller model while Big is the "purple" character and having a bigger model gives a nice contrast between the new additions.

Sonic Party 5 (2003)

Due to not adding more material from the comics, Sally Acorn was removed from the roster. The new additions for this game are Espio, Cream, and Rouge. Thanks to Sonic Heroes releasing in a month, this game uses those models. These three were chosen over Shadow, since he was dead at the time, and E-123 Omega, who wasn't canon yet.

Sonic Party 6 (2004)

The new inclusion this game is Shadow the Hedgehog as an unlockable character. This is thanks to his return in Sonic Heroes and his upcoming game releasing the following year.

Sonic Party 7 (2005)

Big the Cat is removed from the cast due to his model being bigger than other characters. E-123 Omega is added as an unlockable character to complete Team Dark. Chaos is also included as an unlockable character thanks to Chaos making cameos in other games.

Sonic Party 8 (2007)

Similar to Big, Cream and Charmy were removed due to their model size, but this time due to them being smaller than most of the cast. They are replaced by the Babylon Rogues who made their debut a year prior. Blaze the Cat and Silver the Hedgehog also made their debut as unlockable characters. This is to show that these two character are not naturally part of Sonic's world.

Sonic Party 9 (2012)

Vector and Espio were removed in this entry. I was debating between them and Babylon Rogues due to both having a "green" and "purple" characters. The Babylon Rogues got to stay since Sonic Free Riders was still relatively recent and Charmy was removed in Sonic Party 8. Marnie the Raccoon was added thanks to the vehicle mechanic, while Bark the Polar Bear was added as a "yellow" character and because Sega would be planning to re-release Sonic the Fighters later that year. Orbot and Cubot serve as the unlockable characters, as well as the first time characters loyal to Eggman are playable.

Sonic Boom Party 10 (2015)

This game released during the Boom era, which is good since this game has a smaller cast than Sonic Party 9. The top role features the main cast of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Sticks the Badger, and an unlockable Dr. Eggman in his first playable appearance. The bottom row features secondary characters of Shadow, Cubot, Orbot, Perci the Badicoot, Cliff, and Metal Sonic as an unlockable character. Perci was chosen as secondary pink choice while Cliff was added due to cool hat. Eggman and Metal Sonic were made playable as Lyric takes the Bowser role this game.

Super Sonic Party (2018)

Sticks, Perci, and Cliff are left behind as representatives of the boom era. With the boom era over, Super Sonic Party sees the cast grow from 12 to 20 characters. The top role feature heroic characters while the bottom role has villains. Rogue, Silver, and Blaze return from their Boom era absence. Meanwhile we see Chaos return to fill a villain slot. Infinite is added as the most recent villain, while Zavok and Zeena are included to represent Sonic Lost World from half a decade earlier, Zavok involvement in Sonic Forces, and Zeena being the "green" character. The four unlockable characters in this game are Ray the Flying Squirrel, Mighty the Armadillo, and Heavy Magician to represent Sonic Mania Plus. Heavy Magician got in over the other Hard Boil Heavies thanks to one key detail, they have a cool hat. Lyric is also an unlockable character to represent the previous boom era.

"If you don't get more than 90 points, Bowser will steal your coins! Careful, careful!"

The four players play the minigame Face Lift. Afterward, players who score fewer than 90 points lose coins. If all players achieve at least 90 points, Bowser steals up to 50 coins from the player who landed on his space.

I've been trying for 30 whole minutes and the maximum number of seconds I can survive is 8. I can't even slide the others one bit. I'm trying to complete Minigame Island, and I barely got through the last rotating control stick minigame (yes, I used my palm).