Release Date: January 24, 2000
Developers: Hudson Soft
Publishers: Nintendo
System: N64 Rated: E

The first sequel to the original Mario Party. Although I loved this Mario Party, I still think there are too many. Of course, since this is a sequel, I will put a (+),(-), or (=) to tell whether it was worse, better, or equal to its original version. I will grade on a scale of 1-10, 1 meaning awful, 10 meaning EXCELLENT!

Gameplay: 9
The game contains a standard party mode in which up to four players play through a board, trying to collect as many Stars as possible. The Star Space appears randomly on the board, and players have to reach it before anyone else. However, the Stars carry a price tag of 20 coins, and players have to acquire these coins through various methods such as winning mini-games, which take place at the end of each turn after all the players have rolled the dice block between one and ten. Battle mini-games appear for the first time in Mario Party 2. These games are like the 4-player games, but generally (with many exceptions) a little more elaborate. Battle games are usually tense because every player has to put a certain number of coins (from 10 to 50) into a pot. First place gets 70% of the pot, second place gets 30%, and a  random player gets any coins lost to rounding. Duel games also make their first appearance in Mario Party 2. Duel games pit two players against each other. In Party Mode, one player initiates the duel, and bet coins against another player. The winner of the duel wins all of the coins in the bet. Typically, Donkey Kong uses certain cheating tactics in order to win, while Mario tends to lose. Four-player games are a free-for-all in which all players compete against each other. 2-on-2 and 1-on-3 mini-games put players in groups, so they have to cooperate in the mini-game to win even though they are against each other in the main game. In most situations, winners of these games earn 10 coins each. Unlike in the original Mario Party, you do not lose coins if you lose in a mini-game (battle and duel mini-games aside), which Mario Party often did with few exceptions (most of them for the mini-games where characters weren't placed on teams). The 1-player mini-games from Mario Party have also been removed. I liked this gameplay better because it had more spaces, I love battle mini-games, and I also like the new costumes the characters where on every course. (+)

Mini-Games: 5
This sort of made me mad. Ok, I love the mini-games, but a lot of them were already in the first game. Bumper Balls is back, along with Slot Car Derby, Bombs Away, Skateboard Scamper, Hexagon Heat as a replacement for Mushroom Mix-Up , Hot Rope Jump, Deep Sea Salvage, Platform Peril, Tipsy Tourney, Shy Guy Says, Toad's Bandstand (only now it's 2-vs-2), Bobsled Run, Handcar Havoc, Balloon Burst, Dungeon Dash (Desert Dash), Bowl Over, Crane Game, Rainbow Run for Tightrope Treachery, Grab Bag, Face Lift, Crazy Cutters, and Hot Bob-omb. I loved these mini-games, but I didn't want to play them all again. I gave five points for the new item mini-games and some of the new games including Shock, Drop Or Roll, etc. Overall, I liked the mini-games as much as I did in Mario Party, even the new ones. (=)

Items: 8
This time you use them on the game board. What you do is you stop by the item shop on one of your turns, and buy an item. You can get a Mushroom, which just means you use two dice blocks in one turn, or a Golden Mushroom, to get three die at a time. You have a Magic Lamp, which calls a genie to take you to the Star  immediately, but you still have to pay 20 coins for it even though you probably paid 30 for the lamp. Then you have others such as the Treasure Chest, which means you get to steal other people’s items, and so on and so forth. I loved them this time around because you can actually use them on the board. You don't have to turn them on randomly while in play. So this gets a BIG plus. (+)

Characters: 7
The same as last time: Wario, Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Peach, and Yoshi, of course DK being my favorite. Anyway, you do get some more characters on the board  itself too, but they ain't a big deal, really. I really wanted some more playables, but these do, really. I of course love seeing Luigi and Mario, and DK. So this really wasn't much different then Mario Party either. =)

Originality: 3
I've already mentioned why above,really. The mini-games well a lot of them) are the same but with different stages for them, the characters are exactly the same, and adventure mode is the same: beat every mini-game in the game. So it's not very original. The 3 points came from Battle mini-games and items. This is definitely worse because Mario Party didn't have another game to copy off of in the first place. (-)

Graphics: 8
The graphics I think are slightly better this time. Bowser looks better, and so do the characters in their costumes. The boards look basically the same, but the mini-games look better too. (+)

Difficulty: Depends
Some mini-games are hard, some are normal, and some are easy. Also pay attention to how you set your CPUs’ difficulty. Now I'll compare it to the adventure modes, Mini-Game Coaster vs Mini-Game Island. Mini-Game Coaster in Mario Party 2 is WAY harder. There aren't as many save opportunities, and the games are harder to beat, not to mention it's a lot longer too. Plus beating the CPUs on the game boards is even harder, I noticed. You can also set your CPUs on Super Hard. So yes, this is a big plus from its original version. (+)

Secrets: 6
You unlock certain mini-games in this one. But you only unlock one board, which turns out to be a very difficult one. Mario Party offered more boards and mini-games, so looks like this got its second minus of the review. (-)

Music: 9
The music was great. I like the music before a mini-game is played, on Shock, Drop Or Roll, and on Roll Call. The music is almost flawless, really. I can't think of many games with better music. I like the Mini-Game Coaster theme, too. Yes, do I need further explanation? (+)

Controls: Depends
There's really no way to compare it to the original version. Whatever mini-game you’re playing determines the controls. Some are easy, like in Bumper Balls, Bombs Away, and others. One thing I liked better though was NO turning the control stick around and around with your palm. This right here gives it a plus because that was painful. (+)

Boards: (Explained below, scale of 1-5, 1 being best, and 5 being worst.)

Pirate Land -(1)- My favorite one because it's a cycle, meaning you will come back the to start. I love the costumes the characters wear, and I like the ? Spaces.

Western Land -(3)- This board is another average Joe, really. Just normal, and I think it's for beginners.

Mystery Land -(5)- This land is horrible. It's not in a cycle, there are like five different islands to explore, and the ? Spaces are bad. Not to mention I hate the costumes.

Space Land -(4)- Hate the costumes, and never was a BIG space fan either. Besides, it's boring.

Horror Land -(2)- I dig the costumes, and love everything else about the board. I love horror stuff anyway.

Overall Board Grade: 9(+)

Overall: 9
Possibly the best Mario Party. Sure, even if it's not an original game, I still loved it. I would recommend everyone buy this even if you have the other eight (including Advance). Buy it! You still have time! (+)