Rocket Rascals is a four-player minigame competition found in the Minigame Mode of Mario Party DS.
Gameplay[]
The contest takes place in a space station set in space, and the four players compete to collect bridge pieces to reach the purple rocket in the center first, by winning minigames and placing their pieces on a 5x5 grid. Players have a maximum of 20 minigames to play in order to reach the rocket before all turns expire. To unlock this mode, the player must play a wide variety of 4-Player and Battle minigames (the latter of which are included in the collection of the former set of minigames in this mode). On every turn that is a multiple of five, players will play a minigame to win a Crazy Crosspiece Clash, a crosspiece which can be placed over any existing piece. It should be noted that, since only one piece is offered in every turn, only one player can win a minigame; if a minigame has ended in a draw, then no one wins that piece. If a player cannot reach the rocket at all, all obstructive pieces will be discarded.
The possible bridge shapes include: straight (connects two opposing sides), T-shaped (connects all but one side), L-shaped (connects two adjacent sides), and cross-shaped (connects all four sides).
Once a player connects a bridge towards the rocket, they'll cross over it onto the rocket. Then, on another space station, the other three players do their losing animations, while the winning player stands on the rocket and does their victory pose. Should a final piece connect a bridge where multiple players are in reach of the rocket, a Dice Block is used to determine the final winner, with the highest roll going forward.
Occasionally throughout the contest, Bowser Jr. will appear, either to cause mischief or to help players finish the game quickly. By spinning a roulette, either of these events can occur:
- Crosspiece Crisis: Players will compete to earn crosspieces only.
- Turnaround Madness: Bowser Jr. will scatters the pieces in random areas in the grid.
- Tiebreaker Trouble: Bowser Jr. chooses where to place a piece should a minigame end in a tie. If a tie does not occur, the game proceeds as though this did not happen.
- Bridge Breaker: Bowser Jr. clears all pieces currently on the grid, and force the players to start from scratch.
- Final 5 Frenzy: The game is skipped to the last five turns. If it has gone past 16 turns but before 20 turns, the game will reset back to 16 turns.