What’s your favorite game? Favorite series? The one you’ve put far and away the most time into? For some, there’s an obvious answer; whether it be World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Final Fantasy, League of Legends, Fortnite or Legend of Zelda. For some, you may need to think on it, weigh the pros and cons of the experiences, where you were in your life when you first experienced it, and what it has meant to you since.
There is no wrong answer to this question, and all opinions are valid in this space, it’s simply a matter of personal taste. So while one of the given titles above (World of Warcraft) holds the record for amount of time spent playing (I had a Mage alone with over a year of real-world time spent logged in), one series has meant the absolute world to me, and has played a weirdly regular role in my life at key moments. So grab your dice blocks, buy your items, and prepare to have relationships tested like a friendly game of Monopoly as I present my case for the wonderment that is Mario Party.
I first met my wife in high school and one of our first interactions that I can remember was sitting next to each other in class making small chat about upcoming plans for the weekend.
“Playing Mario Party with my sister.”
“They still make those?”
“Yeah, we get a little… intense with it.”
A few months later we began dating and I was invited to one of their Saturday night sessions. There were pizza and snacks, 50 turns and a cut-throat attitude I was not prepared for in the least. They mopped the floor with me. I was used to being good at video games, or at the very least I could pick it up quickly so I wasn’t embarrassing myself. This was beyond a humbling experience, but as with the point of this article, Mario Party (7 in this example), was the glue that held a formative part of my life together.
That sister who gave no mercy that night has since moved out west with her husband. They come home once a year and without fail, as soon as their feet hit Nova Scotian soil, the plans for a Mario Party night start. It’s such an institution at this point that her husband bought a Mario shirt specifically for it this year, and gave it to me after it failed to bring him luck.
A few years passed from my humbling high school experience and we moved out together, continuing our enjoyment/obsession with the Mario Party Series; making a point of trying to track down an N64 and the original 3 titles from Yard Sales, Retro Shops and eBay. We quickly maxed out the star count and unlocked all the collectibles, playing by ourselves or with friends we’d invite over. I can still hear the select menu music playing on a loop in my head from nights we’d fall asleep on the couch fort we’d built together, our balcony door open due to the extreme heat in our apartment, listening to the sounds of the night combined with the soothing tune.
Throughout all those years, Mario Party 7 was still a constant fixture in our lives and this really ramped up once again when we moved in with another couple who remain two of our closest friends. We all had jobs we didn’t really like, money was always tough and we all bonded over dice blocks, minigames and the one arena of combat were all matters were to be settled; Pagoda Peak.
Without exaggeration, we spent hundreds, if not thousands of hours playing Mario Party 7 and bonding over shared miseries and triumphs of our daily lives, usually coupled with a shouting match over a stolen star or botched mini-game. We reached a level where we knew the rules to the games based on the name alone, who was good at what, and even some where the group would toss controllers on the coffee table before the game had even started because one person had the lock on that particular one.
Our wives are best friends, we were part of each other’s wedding parties and I’d like to think Mario Party had a hand in that. We continued buying and playing each new iteration that arrived. Even the ones that didn’t live up to expectation (Looking at you Wii, with your Motion Controls) were still Mario Party and worthy of at least a few get-togethers a month; or as we get older and adult life sets in, every few months.
Mario Party 10…. It isn’t great. It’s a product of its time and a weird new direction they were taking the series in before course-correcting with Super Mario Party for the Switch. It focused heavily on Amiibo play, gaining you special items, outfits and a mode completely dedicated to your pieces playing against a giant Bowser. Amiibo’s are great and a fun way to get something Nintendo related as a collectible, they’re just not for me. My wife and I tracked down a Rosalina Amiibo, but only because she really likes the character and wanted the unlocks for Mario Kart 8 as well.
The gameplay is streamlined, all characters traveling together in a customizable cart (Unlocks; my one true weakness!) along courses so linear they make a straight line envious. Whoever was driving at the time (dice roller) received all the mini-stars instead of racing against each other to reach a single point to earn your star. It may have been to introduce new players to the series with a simplified version more focused on mini-games and quick rounds, but to veteran players who treated the board game as seriously as the mini-games, it feels a bit like playing on auto-pilot.
Even with all my critiques of this entry in particular, it doesn’t matter. It’s still Mario Party, so we gathered, we ate good food (A taco dip in particular that became a fixture) and we played at least 3-4 rounds before calling it a night.
So I ask you again, what’s your favorite game series? Think about more than just the bosses beaten and the levels gained. Think about the experiences that came along with it.
Wahoo! You are a Super Reader! But the adventure doesn’t stop here… There’s more of this project in another castle! This article is just one level in an entire Super Mario Multiverse, a galactic collaboration between writers around the world sharing a bit of our hearts and memories about our favorite Mario games. Visit the Center of the Multiverse to see more:
