Mario Party 9

Mario Party 9 is the twelfth game in the Mario Party series, including E, Advance, and DS. It was announced in the Nintendo E3 Conference 2011. It is the second and most recent Mario Party game for the Wii.

Story
On a night outside of Princess Peach's Castle, Mario and his friends came to watch the Mini Stars in the sky. As Mario peers though the telescope, he notices that the stars suddenly begin to get sucked through a vortex. It is then revealed to be Bowser and Bowser Jr. on a spacecraft, who are using a vacuum-like machine to suck the stars in the sky. Upon witnessing this, Mario and the gang set out to defeat them and save the Mini Stars. After they start their journey, Shy Guy and Kamek are seen coming out of the woods and start following them, as part of Bowser's plan.

Gameplay
A new form of gameplay was introduced in this game, retiring the old format seen in the prior eight titles: players move all at once through the board in a vehicle (a car in Toad Road, a magic carpet in Boo's Horror Castle and a legged machine in Bob-omb Factory, for example). Instead of trying to collect coins to buy stars, players receive Mini Stars if they pass by them. New minigame types are introduced in the Mario Party series, one example being 2 vs. 1 minigames against Bowser Jr. Players must try to avoid Mini Ztars, which deduct their current amount of Mini Stars. In this game, the minigames don't appear after every four turns, but only when a player ends up on any of the spaces that triggers a minigame. Also, when receiving dice blocks, a minigame might pop up after as well. Unlike previous Mario Party games, where often only the winner mattered, all minigames are ranked from first to last place and generally all players receive Mini Stars, although the winning player earns the most.

Modes
Mario Party 9 has 5 modes in all. They are:
 * Party Mode
 * Solo Mode
 * Minigame Mode
 * Extras Mode
 * Museum

Minigame Mode
Blue Toad is the host of Minigame Mode.
 * Free Play: In the Free Play mode, the players can play unlocked minigames freely.
 * Step It Up: In this mode, players must win minigames to climb stairs. The player who reaches on the top first wins.
 * Garden Battle: The players must get puzzle pieces to fill their gardens winning minigames. The player who completes it first wins.
 * Choice Challenge: All the players choose three minigames from a group of five that they would like to play. These minigames are played and the player who get more points wins.
 * High Rollers: In this mode, the players must win minigames to roll a Dice Block to pass through a panel floor. The player who gets 500 points first wins.
 * Time Attack: The player must try to win 10 minigames as fast as he or she can.
 * Boss Rush: The players must defeat a series of bosses to win, similar to Boss Bash in Mario Party DS.

Party Mode
Once again returning from previous Mario Party games, Party Mode involves the players going around the board like with the previous games, but changed due to the new gameplay mechanics of Mario Party 9.

Solo Mode
The game's story mode, Solo Mode involves the players traveling across all six boards to defeat Bowser and save the Mini Stars.

Extras Mode
In Extras Mode, the player can play through various extra minigames such as Goomba Bowling, Castle Clearout, or Shell Soccer. There is also a mode called Perspective Mode, in which the player plays through various minigames with a changed camera angle.

Museum
The Museum is where the player can spend Party Points on various things such as constellations, game sounds, vehicles, extra game modes, or watch the credits. Once they return a constellation into the sky, the player can go back and see it in the sky.

Confirmed Characters

 * Mario
 * Luigi
 * Princess Peach
 * Princess Daisy
 * Yoshi
 * Toad
 * Wario
 * Waluigi
 * Birdo
 * Koopa Troopa (new)
 * Shy Guy (new)
 * Kamek (new)

Other Characters

 * Goomba
 * Piranha Plant
 * Whittle
 * Pianta
 * Thwomp
 * Wiggler
 * Bullet Bill
 * Dry Bones
 * Lakitu
 * Toad
 * Kamek

Board Maps
These are all the playable board maps in Mario Party 9
 * Toad Road
 * Bob-omb Factory
 * Boo's Horror Castle
 * Blooper Beach
 * Magma Mine
 * Bowser Station
 * DK's Jungle Ruins

Free-for-All Minigames

 * Pit or Platter

Bowser Jr. Minigames

 * Zoom Room

1-vs.-Rivals Minigames

 * Line in the Sand

Boss Battles

 * DK's Banana Bonus

Trivia

 * This game is the first of Mario Party series that has been done by the Nd Cube.
 * This game was in production and development the longest of any game in the series.
 * This game is the first Mario Party not created by Hudson Soft.
 * This is the only Mario Party that does not have coins, stars, number of turns, and item shops. Instead, they use Mini Stars and Mini Ztars, the negative version of stars.
 * The golden star is only shown in the Superstar scene.