Best Mario Party Games Of All Time

Another reminder that Superstars still has no DLC

Ouuuuch, MP8 is criminally low. But I'm happy with the placements of Superstars and MP2!

Huh, I had no idea that so many mario party games had such low user scores.

You forgot to mention one of the reasons Mario Party 2 is so popular in the first place.

The costumes.

Obviously just costumes won't do a tremendous deal, almost the entire game was a really good experience, but the costumes was one of the most memorable things about that entire game! And I'm still sad that never returned in any other Mario Party.

@Yosher That's right!! The costumes were such a cute touch that really showed the attention to detail for that game. I really wish they would return

The only bad thing here is most if not most are moving to NSW irrespectful of retro games listed. Unless remastered for NSW that would be a different story. Retro reminiscing doesn't bring them back. Switch is the new Sheriff in town. It's good to remember Nintendo roots but we should be looking future support of NSW and it coming generations that otherwise we will loose sight what makes Nintendo Great.

@Vortexeo There are definitely quite a few bad apples out there. I love the series so it hurts to see how many missteps Nintendo and NDcube have taken over the years.

Surprised to see such positive words written in the blurb for Super Mario Party. Yes, it gave us back boards and let us individually walk around the board instead of stuffing us in a car (still the most baffling decision in series history to me, including the godawful microphone and delivering a game with NO boards in The Top 100), but there were only four boards and they were so SMALL. Superstars was Nintendo finally waking up out of a coma and remembering that we liked the big boards. Still needs more, though.

My only complaint about the Top 100 game was that it included a few of the mini-games that are purely random with no skill involved. Really more like the top 95 and a few that are universally disliked.

Yes U would have cried foul if MP2 wasn't MP#1. And, can we please talk any the costumes and the overall themes of the boards.

Hard top 5 to argue with too much, though I'd have put 3 in at number one myself.

2's in an odd spot for me. It formalized a lot of the series' trappings and has a ton of charm, but compared to the other N64 games I've just never really been that fond of it. Like it a lot, can totally sit down and play it, but given the choice between it, 1, and 3 it's going to be rare that it's the one of them I'm in the mood for.

While I don't agree with a lot of this stuff, I get that it's a fan-driven ranking so I can't get too mad. However, the first game isn't anywhere near Top 5 material. It's way too RNG-driven and barebones compared to pretty much all of the later entries.

@SpaceyCiel Agree to disagree. There's no reason board games can't rely on RNG; plenty of actual tabletop games have random elements thrown into them, Mario Party 2 is no different. Besides, it's not like MP2 throws strategies or skill out the window entirely. If you suck at minigames, then you may not get very far.

And while there's not a crazy amount to do in the game, the core gameplay in this game is way too solid and actually fun to more than make up for that.

Besides, I'm sure a lot of people, me included, gave it an ''at the time'' score, but even then if scored in present day standards, it's really not THAT much 'worse' than other games.

For me, Mario Party 2 was and still is the best Mario Party game of them all.

But that's the beauty of opinions, isn't it? I love Mario Party 2, while yours would be an entirely different entry, and we can both just enjoy the game we both enjoy the most while respecting each other's opinion. I wouldn't put too much weight on these kinds of lists anyway. You enjoy what YOU want to enjoy, and no list should tell you otherwise!

I really really like the music from Super Mario Party and the custom dice blocks were a neat mechanic. But other than that I can agree with this list.

MP10 really should be at the bottom.. It's as much of a disgrace as Paper Mario Sticker Star.

The thing I agree the most about this list is "But really, Nintendo, where's the DLC?" regarding Superstars. The vast majority of Nintendo's 1st party Switch games got free updates or DLC (even MK8 Deluxe got DLC 5 years later) yet Superstars has nothing, a huge shame as the base game is extremely fun but could do with more boards and minigames.

Mario Party 5 and 6 are swapped in the list.

im excited at the potential future of MP, now that we know theyre willing to do the traditional formula again it makes me more comfortable for them to do unique takes like SMP and star rush.

custom dice and partner party were so refreshing and fun they just need to stop half assing the boards for them. heck 8 player parties seem more possible now than ever. i can only hope the quality of the games go up from here

Here's my list:

1) Mario Party 3 (9/10)
2) Mario Party 5 (8.5/10)
3) Mario Party: Star Rush (8.2/10)
4) Mario Party Superstars (8/10)
5) Mario Party 9 (7.8/10)
6) Mario Party DS (7.5/10)
7) Mario Party 4 (7.3/10)
8) Mario Party 10 (7/10)
9) Mario Party (6.5/10)
10) Mario Party 2 (6.3/10)
11) Mario Party: The Top 100 (6.2/10)
12) Super Mario Party (6/10)
13) Mario Party Advance (5.5/10)
14) Mario Party: Island Tour (3/10)

Island Tour had neat ideas, but it was a disaster left and right, with its boards being some of the most poorly-designed outright.

Super Mario Party was a needed return to the classic formula, but not without its plethora of flaws that ranged from its broken ally system to ungodly slower-paced boards, and from bland boards and mini games to shortage of content overall and disappointing modes (save for River Survival, which is literally the only mode I liked). Literally the only thing that's keeping SMP lit up is its character roster, but even that isn't enough to make SMP better than "okay at best".

I'm not much of a fan of the vehicular-based board gameplay, but I still greatly enjoyed 9 and 10 for their mini games.

Edit: I never played 6 or 7, plus I haven't played enough of 8 to have an opinion on.

MP 8 deserved to be higher. MP 10 also deserves to be higher because of Bowser Party and amiibo Party, which are atandouts for me.

Mario Party DS has excellent multiplayer, download play even... What is that part talking about? It implies the game was single-player only.

Mario Party top list reads like a countdown
The latest are the worst and oldest are the best

Why not create a "Best Xenoblade Chronicles list" list this too?

shame the switch has drift or I'd get back into the series

Once again Mario Party 2 gets way too much attention. 6, 3 and DS are all so much better in my opinion. DS is just way, way too far down in general. That game is excellent and seemingly criminally underrated, especially the multiplayer which was not lacking, in fact it was quite the opposite. I used to play it all the time through classic Download Play with a full 4- player party back in the day, with every single board and mini- game accounted for. No clue what you're talking about, honestly. Did you perhaps play it on the Wii U Virtual Console?

@StephenYap3 You forgot 6!

@Eel I was thinking the same thing! DS is one of my favorites due to the download play multiplayer. I remember many fun games with my girlfriend and my niece and nephews back when everyone had a DS🙂

@Bobb The second highest on the list is the newest game in the series.

While I've played most, but admittedly not all of the Mario Party entries.. My personal favourite is Mario Party 6 with the microphone on Game Cube. Lots of fond memories of playing with family- even some visiting relatives and it was a great game & time.

The microphone had some issues, but overall it was also a great addition and way to mix things up- albeit I'm sure the technology would be better today. Mic/Audio tech is really under-utilized today in gaming I think and could really be fleshed out for some unique experiences.

... Wun can only hope.

Good thing the best one is on VC.

Even though it might not seem like it, I feel like these comments reflect that there is a pretty good variety in the entries. Something for everyone. I get a lot of people don't like 9 or 10, but I really like the change of pace of moving together. I wouldn't want every Mario Party like that, but it's really fun for people that don't like the traditional boards and it is streamlined for quick sessions. Also, I really like the minigames in both entries. I don't know, I guess I just like them all for different reasons.

Of the mainline games, I think Super Mario Party was actually my biggest disappointment. I was glad to back to boards, but they didn't feel great to me. I also didn't love having to use the joy cons. Some good ideas and I'm glad others loved it, but it was my least favorite since the beginning (excluding Advance because I never played that one).

Island Tour and Super are way too low

Mario Party Superstars would actually be number one for me and the reason for that is the online play. Took the series forever to deliver on that front but Superstars fully delivered for me.

@StarPoint Agreed, 8 is my favorite. 3 And Superstars are solidly my top 3 with 8. I can still play 8 to this day.

Good ol' Mario Party. I only played the first four as those were the ones out in my youth, and therefore had access to friends to play them with. I have actually been meaning to buy Superstars because you can apparently play online with randos.

I think Super Mario Party should be higher on the list due to it having the AMAZINGLY FUN 2v2 party mode. I absolutely LOVE it! My boyfriend and I play this almost weekly with family online. The 2v2 format is such a fun experience. I also have such a great time with the unique character dice and the ally system.

I didn't even vote in this but I came here to say that Mario Party 2 is the best. You didn't disappoint me Nintendolife, well done. The list in general is pretty good, some games are rated extremely low, but the ranking is solid.

Agreed with 2. Once again, the theming is what makes it really stand out, from the costume-wearing to seeing who can go defeat one of Bowser’s alter egos in each board’s cute, little story. While it borrows a lot of minigames from the first game, they were polished or updated, and it’s still a wonderful collection overall. I would’ve rated 5 higher on the list, though.

The Top 100 was certainly mediocre, and even changed the music for some minigames for some silly reason, but it does have something I really wished Superstars had: a single-player mode inspired by the first game’s Minigame Island. It has that going for it, at least.

6 and 4 need to be higher in my opinion but I‘d pretty much agree with the rest.

@AlanaHagues
0/10, Mario Party-e is missing.

@Vil Never played 6 (or 7 or enough of 8). Sorry.

@StephenYap3 Ah, I see. Well, I highly recommend it if you're in any way interested. It's probably the most polished GameCube entry overall.

@Vil Yeah, I'm aware of the heys for 6. Hopefully one of these days, I'll play it (and 7 and enough of 8).

Also, agreed to your other post. The costumes were a neat idea and I do hope that feature returns (this time, optional), but outside of that, Mario Party 2 was kind of..."okay". Outside of Horror Land (and in some cases, Bowser Land), much of the boards were "whatever" to me, Mystery Land being a pure example of a bad Mario Party board (having ? Spaces as the only means of traversal on a board is a big fat gigantic Godzilla-sized no-no). Unlocking mini games was also monotonous in that you had to get them to appear in a board before purchasing them to actually freely play them, not to mention that a great deal of these mini games were copypasted from the predecessor; adding to all of that you need to buy all of the mini games to play the Mini Game Coaster mode (why?).

Now, I still had a bit of fun with Mario Party 2 in spite of its flaws, but simply put: Everything great MP2 did (outside of costumes), Mario Party 3 did substantially better, in my opinion.

@StephenYap3 Yes. looking past nostalgia and the costumes, 3 is the best one on the N64, I'd say. Definitely. It had the most strategy with all the wacky items and the mini- games were very unique, unlike 2 which was more of a (still great, but quite safe) refinement of 1. I just loved how weird 3 was, and who could forget Waluigi and the Duel mode.

Mario Party 10 is a lot better than people say

Honestly, I don't get the appeal of Mario Party, Mario Kart, Mario Sports (or any of the other Mario spinoffs, Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi excluded).

I love Mario, but I prefer the mainline Mario games. Yet so many people clamor for the spinoffs, like Mario Kart and the aforementioned Mario Party.

Erm, Mario Party DS doesn't have multiplayer you say? Of course it does. It has Download Play, just like you guys gave credit to Star Rush for having. DS got extra points in my book for having true asymmetrical multiplayer in the minigames, and being the only true handheld Mario Party outside of the games on Switch.

Mario Party does not need DLC.

Those asking for it are those who play for 2 hours only and thinks that they "finished" the game.

@Tirza Why not? I've played Superstars for nearly 50 hours and would welcome DLC. The minigame and character roster are completely fine to me but the number of boards is severely lacking. Picking 1 or 2 boards from each of the original games is always going to feel lacklustre especially when your favourites don't make it in. I'd love to see more items make it in too. 5 boards is already less than those games had so it doesn't feel like a celebration of those games as much as it should've been.

8 is the best Mario Party game, I will literally die on this hill

I'm not sure what you mean about Mario Party DS lacking multiplayer. It definitely supports a full 4 players, plus bonus modes only available in 2 player! I would know, I just played Mario Party DS with 3 friends last week.

Hmmmm...I think Superstars is somewhat inflated by it being the latest game in the series, and thus, most fresh in everyone's minds. Don't get me wrong, I think it's absolutely a top 5 contender, but while I think it's a solid base with the potential for it to be the best in the series (DLC would really help), as it stands I don't think it's quite that, and I think even second place is a bit high for it.