Mario Party 9 has a commitment issue

[u/Funny_Art_5073]

I know the main mechanic of Mario party 9 is inferior to the classic MP formula, but some maps showcase the merits of the car mechanic; Magma Mine and Boo's Haunted Castle in particular because they create really unique interactions (sometimes in Boo map the boos are in front of you, so using a low rolling dice is a better option than just a 4-5-6).

Personally I think MP9 was so mid because it didn't commit to its dice-block mechanic enough; apart from rolling on the board, you can't use dice blocks in any other scenario which would have been a great opportunity for mind games, especially in Captain's Event modes which I think are pretty mid all around (except for Dice Block Chicken).

Example 1: In Toad Road, the bridge following the first boss is completely luck based; it would be really smartly designed to give players opportunities to use their dice blocks to either get across, or to sabotage the path by using a low block to make sure the captain falls and loses; maybe even incentivize players' cooperation by giving mini stars for the roll someone gets.

The requirement to get across is a total of 16, and maybe to incentivize cooperation there is 16 mini-stars on the successful path and is rewarded so players who contribute higher rolls get more stars, but on the other hand if the car falls then players lose stars according to their rolls.

Example 2: In the captain event for Blooper Beach, the Captain wants to achieve 2 goals with the dice blocks: gain as most mini-stars while making sure all other players get no or low amount of mini-stars. Maybe make it so that non-captain players can secretly (press a button to signal) use their dice-blocks to overwrite the captain's choice so the Captain has to think about the perfect time to send a player a detrimental dice block without using . However I also think that this event would have to be longer to make it more interesting, 11 spaces only is not enough in my opinion.

Ultimately, I do think MP9 is limited and has a worse concept than most MP games, but I think that some features of the car-gameplay has serious potential. What do you think, how would you maybe improve or add to the car mechanic?

[u/ajhedgehog064]

I played Mario Party 9 a lot when I was 7 and I had no frame of reference besides Mario Party 8 which was too hard for me for some reason so I always went to 9. I did not know the game received a mix reception for deviating from the previous ones so it was one of my favorite games.

That being said, I haven’t played it since like 2014 so I don’t remember it all that well aside from Magma Mine and that first level, which is a testament to its overall lack of memorability. Magma Mine did the car mechanic very well. In retrospect, I can understand why the car has poor reception having sunken so many hours into the Switch Mario parties. However, I think it could have been interesting to have just one board with the mechanic to shake things up and that board should have been Magma Mine. The rest should have been more traditional boards.

I’m sure if I picked the game up today I’d have a fun time due to nostalgia. But I recognize the flaws in the game. I can’t fully remember how the mechanics worked but I do remember enjoying them in Magma Mine.

[u/clonetrooper250]

Mario Party launched in an age where you really can't fix a game after launch unless you do an expensive recall and republushing of the cartridges/discs, thus each new game that released had ONE chance to show off a new feature or mechanic. If it didn't work or wasnt well recieved, Nintendo (and Hudson Soft) would can the idea for all future installments in the series. Even now, Nintendo generally doesn't update games after release unless they add more content. This of course has its merits, but I feel that in some cases their games really COULD benefit from regular updates and gameplay changes.

In the case of Mario Party 9, I think it had some cool ideas that COULD work it they iterate a bit and keep playing with the mechanics in different ways. We're well past the era where a game can't be fixed after release, I think if Nintendo introduces a mechanic that doesn't quite work, they should be willing to at least consider reworking it rather than having a game suffer for it and drop the idea altogether for the next installment.

[u/Starmaninja]

My 9 was interesting and wouldve been great as a side mode in future games, but its issues are mostly how inconsequential your choices affect the other players in the long run. Especially when you can get Bowser revolution at the end to make it so it all rides on the boss. But I do like how the board gives you choices to risk screwing other players and the 0-1 dice block is really useful given the common event of "if you move, you may get struck". Just kind of wish it was fleshed out more.

[u/darthjawafett]

MP9's board play suffers a lot from Nintendo hyper fixating on the "board" aspect. There's no interesting junctions, no boards that mix up the gameplay. It's just point A to B and if there is a junction it just leads to the same path eventually.

Any merit attributed to the car is vastly outweighed by the negatives of losing out from the original formula's boards. Gameplay is just allowed to be so much more dynamic when everyone is allowed to do their own thing or try new strategies. 20 games of a MP3 board can feel so much different than 10 games of a MP9 board.

I think it would have made a fine side mode addition with like 2 boards to showcase it.

[u/ItsKevRA]

Honestly think MP9 and 10 are overrated. They're not my favorites, but there are certainly worse ones out there. At least they're good at being different. Super Mario Party on the other hand fails miserably at trying to go back to the traditional formula.

[u/pokemongenius]

You really want Captain mechanics to be even more busted? There's a good reason it was immediately removed in 10.

[u/Funny_Art_5073 → u/pokemongenius]

I mean in Blooper Beach captain event the captain chooses dice blocks, but my proposal is that other players can overwrite the captain's choice in secret by pressing a button. So the Captain has to think about when is a good time to sabotage a player, but also taking into account that the player might have a dice block to evade a punishment or loss.