Mario Party 5

Mario Party 5 is a party video game published by Nintendo and developed by Hudson Soft.

Mario Party 5 is the fifth installment in the Mario Party video game series, which began with Mario Party in 1998 (1999 in North America). The game's story concerns Mario and his friends trying to restore peace to the Dream Depot which is being invaded by Bowser.

Story
The Star Spirits from Paper Mario invite Mario and friends to Dream Depot. Then, Bowser comes and ruins Dream Depot. Mario and friends fight him to restore Dream Depot.

Gameplay
Mario Party 5 drastically improves on the gameplay from the previous game with new innovations to the series. Mario Party 5 keeps the same modes from the previous games. The player will have a choice to choose between Party Mode, Story Mode, and Mini-game Mode. The rules for Party Mode remain unchanged for the most part. The player will have the choice to play up to four players on the board, with computer players filling in the role for human players that are absent. They will be able to customize the rules that they would like for the board maps, which includes the number of turns and types of mini-games that are played on the board. At the beginning of the game, the characters will hit a Dice Block to determine the turn order for the board. Once the turns are determined, the players will travel around the board and collect coins from spaces and events that lie around the board. The general idea is for the player to collect enough coins to purchase a star, that is randomly placed around the board. At the end of each turn, a special type of mini-game is played, where the players engage in a small game with the opportunity to win more coins.

One new change that was introduced in this game was the size of the board maps. In the past Mario Party games, the boards were flat and leveled evenly. Mario Party 5 breaks this tradition by making the boards into "3D". The board are now no longer flat, and contain a number of elevated pathways that are reached by climbing ladders and steps. This makes the board look bigger, and allows for different events to be incorporated at different sections of the board, without them being jumbled up. Like past Mario Party games, the board maps in this game follow a dream theme. Each board contains its own theme, which contains props and events that relates to this theme. For example, the board map Toy Dream is filled with toys scattered around the boards, and events that deal with the many toys on the board.

Capsule System
One new major feature to Mario Party 5 is the introduction of the Capsule System. The capsule system was designed to replace the old item system from the previous Mario Party games. The players can receive a capsule by collecting them from the Capsule Machines that are scattered around the board. The Capsule Machine will dispense the capsules for free. The player has a chance to get four different capsules which are based on color. A green capsule will effect the player's movement, a yellow capsule will effect the player's coin count, a red capsule will effect the player's capsules, and a blue capsule contains a variety of events. Each of the capsules represents a different Mario character. Once a player collects a capsule, they have the option of either using it on themselves, or throwing it on the board and create a "trap" space. If a player decides to use a capsule on themselves, then they will be forced to pay a certain fee, and receive the effects of the capsule. The player can also throw the capsule up to ten spaces in front of them on the board, creating a trap space for other players to land on. When a capsule is thrown on the board, the Blue Space or Red Space that its thrown on will receive a symbol to indicate that a capsule is thrown on the board. Any player can land on any of the capsule spaces on the board. This could be an advantage or disadvantage to the characters.

Story Mode
Story Mode was drastically changed from the previous Mario Party games. In Mario Party 5, the gameplay for Story Mode is sped up to make the game go faster. The general gameplay for Story Mode has changed also. In past Mario Party games, the player would have to compete with three other characters to win a board map similar to the Party Mode rules. However, the player will be dueling the Koopa Kids on the board maps to determine the winner. The main objective is for the player to deplete all the coins from each one of the three Koopa Kids to eliminate them from the game. They will have to do this in 15 turns or less. The board maps that the characters will play on is a much smaller version than the normal size of the board maps. The player will still be able to collect capsules, although some capsules effects change, while other capsules don't exist in this mode. The main way to get the Koopa Kids to lose their coins is by dueling them. Every time a Koopa Kid places the player, they will be forced to participate in a duel. The loser of the duel will lose coins. When a character doesn't have any coins remaining, then they will be eliminated from the game. The player is ranked at the end of each board depending on the number of turns it takes to eliminate all 3 Koopa Kids.

Plot
Somewhere beyond human stars lies a dream world known as the Dream Depot, where all of the dreams made on Earth merge into one. On one particular night, the guardians of this world, the Star Spirits (who last appeared in Paper Mario), decided to allow certain particularly powerful dreamers into the Dream Depot for a chance to visit. In the end, they invite Mario and his closest allies into their world, as they are the biggest dreamers on Earth. However, Bowser, Mario's nemesis, has somehow snuck his way into the Dream Depot, and is now threatening to replace everyone's dreams with his own megalomaniacal delusions. The Star Spirits now look to their guests to play their minigames and stop Bowser's evil plot.

Characters
Mario Party 5 is the first game to introduce new characters to the series since Mario Party 3. The three new characters include Boo, Toad, and Koopa Kid. In addition to these three character, Donkey Kong was removed from the playable character line-up. He becomes a host of the new DK Space that appears on the boards, which acts opposite of the Bowser Space. Mario Party 5 also introduces a new set of hosts, the Star Spirits. The Star Spirits are responsible for hosting each of the modes and events in this game.

Non-playable Characters

 * Star Spirits - The Star Spirits are responsible for hosting the different modes in Mario Party 5. Each Star Spirit hosts a different mode, and will instruct the character in that specific mode.
 * Donkey Kong - For the first time in the Mario Party series, Donkey Kong appears as a non-playable character DK now owns his own space on the board map called the DK Space. When a player lands on the DK space, they will participate in an event that could net them coins or a star. DK also appears sometimes to help the player out when they land on the Bowser Space.
 * Bowser - Bowser appears as the antagonist in Mario Party 5. He invades the Dream Depot and wrecks the dreams that exist within the Depot. Bowser hosts his own space like in past games. When a player lands on Bowser's space, they will usually engage in an event that will effect their coins, capsules, or stars. He is also the final boss that is fought at the end of Story Mode.
 * Capsule Machines - These dispensers are scattered throughout the board. When a player approaches a Capsule Machine, the player will be asked if they would like a free capsule, which is then dispensed by the machine.
 * Koopa Kid Gang - These Koopa Kids appear in Story Mode, and fight team up against the main player in order to prevent them from winning the board. These Koopa Kids are classified by their colors: blue, green, and red

Boards

 * 1) Toy Dream
 * 2) Sweet Dream
 * 3) Future Dream
 * 4) Rainbow Dream
 * 5) Undersea Dream
 * 6) Pirate Dream
 * 7) Bowser Nightmare

Arcade version
Super Mario Fushigi no Korokoro Party (literally, Super Mario: The Mysterious Rolling Party) is an arcade version of Mario Party 5 released exclusively in Japan in 2004. It was developed by Capcom instead of Hudson Soft.

Up to six players could play, unlike Mario Party 5 which only allowed four players that can battle each other.

Trivia

 * This is the first Mario Party game to not have Donkey Kong as a playable character.
 * However, he is still playable only in Super Duel Mode if you build his machine together.
 * This is also the first game that makes former supporting/host characters Toad and Boo as playable characters.
 * This is the first Mario Party game not to include any Battle Spaces. Instead, Battle mini-games randomly appear whenever a 4-player mini-game was going to be played.
 * Daisy's voice in this game is actually a higher pitched version of her voice in the previous game, similar to how her voice in Mario Party 3 was.
 * The capsule depicting a Toady is incorrectly labeled as "Magikoopa Capsule". Later Mario Party games correctly labeled it as "Toady Orb".
 * This is also the last Mario Party game to feature Bowser's sound effects from the first four Mario Party games.

Mario Party 5