Mario Party 2

Mario Party 3
Information
Developer(s)	Hudson Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Series	Mario Party
Release date	Nintendo 64: December 17, 1999 January 24, 2000 January 24, 2000 October 12, 2000 November 6, 2000 Virtual Console (Wii): November 2, 2010 December 20, 2000 / December 24, 2000 Virtual Console (Wii U): March 30, 2016 December 22, 2016 April 21, 2016 April 22, 2016 Nintendo Switch Online: November 2, 2022 November 1, 2022
Genre(s)	Party
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Ratings	ACB: General CERO: All ages ESRB: Everyone PEGI: 3 years and older
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, Virtual Console (Wii, Wii U), Nintendo Switch Online (Nintendo Switch)
Navigation
Predecessor	Mario Party (1998)
Successor	Mario Party 3 (2000)

Mario Party 2 is the second installment and the sequel to Mario Party for the Nintendo 64. Mario Party 2 brings back the original cast from the first installment and adds innovations to the gameplay. This game is the only Mario Party game with the separate boards as main menu options rather than selecting from a list after confirming it with Toad and the only game where all players have different clothes on all boards.

Summary

This game begins with Toad telling the player a story about Mario and his friends arguing about Mario Land and that they should rename it. Toad then says that while they were arguing Bowser came and attacked Mario Land. He breaks the fight up by telling them that the first person to beat Bowser in the game will get to rename Mario Land. The game begins.

The main menu contains seven options:

1. Rules Land - Learn the rules of "Mario Party 2".
2. Pirate Land - Become pirates and scour a tropical island in search of treasure.
3. Western Land - Become deputies in a tiny town of the Old West.
4. Space Land - Become members of the Space Patrol and help keep the galaxy safe.
5. Mystery Land - Become archaeologists in search of answers to the mystery artifacts.
6. Horror Land - Become wizards and venture through the haunted forest.
7. Option Laboratory - Professor Fungi's research center; set game options here.

Boards

This game also features a difficulty on the boards. Several boards from the original Mario Party had their board mechanics recycled for Mario Party 2. So Mystery Land uses a gimmick similar to Wario's Battle Canyon, while Horror Land uses one similar to DK's Jungle Adventure. Also unique to the board Horror Land, the main gimmick is the day/night cycle. This would later become the foundation of Mario Party 6.

To unlock the board Bowser Land, the player must use all starter boards in Party Mode at least once.

• Easy
  • Pirate Land
  • Western Land

• Medium
  • Space Land
  • Mystery Land

• Hard
  • Horror Land
  • Bowser Land (unlockable)

Characters

Playable

• Mario
• Luigi
• Peach
• Yoshi
• Wario
• Donkey Kong

Non-playable

• Toad
• Bowser
• Boo
• Koopa Troopa
• Baby Bowser

Items

• Magic Lamp (Rare)
• Golden Mushroom
• Mushroom
• Bowser Bomb
• Bowser Suit
• Warp Block
• Dueling Glove
• Boo Bell
• Skeleton Key
• Plunder Chest

Trivia

• This was originally planned to be the first game Wario and the second Toad starred in. Since Wario was considered, he was a playable character in the first two games.
• This is the one of the three installments in the Mario Party series which have been released on Virtual Console (for Wii and/or Wii U). The other two out of the three are Mario Party Advance and DS. They --Mario Party Advance and DS-- were released on Virtual Console for Wii U on Dec. 25, 2014 (Christmas) and Apr. 21, 2016.
  • The reason why this was the only home console game in the series that made it to Virtual Console is because it was due to the control stick controversy in both Mario Party 1 and 3. So the other two home console games (the original Mario Party and Mario Party 3) never saw Virtual Console release and only Mario Party 2 did.
    • As a result, Mario Party 2, Advance, and DS are the only three installments in the series which you can get on VC. (That is, with Mario Party 2 being the only home console game you can get on VC.)
• This is one of the two installments of the Mario Party series whose boards have the same suffixes (that being, "Land") with its prefix/adjective (before it) being a unique prefix/adjective. (That is, such as Pirate Land, Western Land, Space Land, Mystery Land, Horror Land, and Bowser Land.) The other installment (of the two) in the series is Mario Party 5. (That is, whose boards use the suffix "Dream" --with a unique prefix/adjective before it-- except for the one board --in the said installment-- Bowser Nightmare. That board out of the seven uses "Bowser" for the board's adjective/prefix and "Nightmare" for the suffix. All the other six previous boards --in said later installment-- use "Dream". That is, for the boards Toy Dream, Rainbow Dream, Pirate Dream, Undersea Dream, Future Dream, and Sweet Dream.)
• This is the first installment in the series:
  • for the characters to have different outfits for each board.
  • to not include the stick-spinning mini-games.
    • The reason for this is because the original Mario Party caused blisters to many gamer's hands while playing them.
      • So as a result, this game was the only home console game in the Mario Party series which gamers (who owned a Wii/Wii Virtual Console and/or a Wii U/Wii U Virtual Console) could get on Virtual Console. (Only Mario Party 2 saw VC release and the original game didn't.)
• This is the first Mario Party in which the characters can hold an item. In later games, characters can hold more items, usually up to three.
  • to have a highest difficulty.
    • However, the highest difficulty (known as Super Hard in the game) is only playable in Minigame Mode. In Mario Party 3 and onward, the highest difficulty is playable on all modes.
  • to use the day/night feature.
    • However, this was unique to only the board Horror Land. This feature was later used in Mario Party 6 as the main mechanic for all of its Party Mode boards.
• This is the second and last installment --counting just the home console games-- to lack multiple female characters (aside from Peach).
  • The second female character Daisy was introduced in Mario Party 3 and 4. That is, while Toadette (third female) was introduced in Mario Party 6, Birdo (fourth female) was introduced in Mario Party 7 and 8, and Rosalina (fifth and final female) was introduced in Mario Party 10 and onward. (That is, if counting just the home console games in the series.)
• The Goomba House shows up on every map in the game.
• The majority of the minigames in Mario Party 2 are returning ones from the original Mario Party.
• This is the only Mario Party on the Nintendo 64 to not have any boards named after playable characters in the game. The original game had this for all playable characters, while Mario Party 3 had a board for Waluigi.
• This was the last Mario game to be released in the 1990's.

Gallery

To view Mario Party 2's image gallery, click here.