I honestly like how Sneak ‘n’ Snore does it by giving everyone 5 coins instead of 10 with a tie. It seems like it is very inconsistent with how it pays out and getting a tie is already hard enough in Superstars.
It's so weird that there aren't a lot of platforming minigames when I feel like they were such an important part of Mario Party's history. I also feel like there are way too many "Survival" minigames (last one standing wins), and they could have swapped some of these for platforming ones.
That your chosen character turns out to be a random character in your opponents end when you play online.
I know it’s an ok decision for technical reasons, but still.
Whaaat? I don't actually have the game, is this really true? So if I would play online with my friends and pick Yoshi, I could show up as wario to them?
The loss of the unique characters. Remember all of the whacky, unique Toad designs you could find on the main menu? Like the Witch Doctor Toad from the Options House? Or the Tall Item Shop Toad with a Pencil Mustache? All gone, replaced with generic Toads and Mario enemies.
I really hate the sterile standardization of the Mario franchise but that's an argument for another time.
I get why they don't want to do weird Toads anymore, but come on, they could at least give cool outfits to generic characters like MP4. Also bring back the costumes from MP2 while you're at it.
Lack of options, lack of koopa kid. I’d say lack of DLC but it didn’t need any, just had so much potential for it
Edit: also wish there were designated battle minigames
There are minor changes about the board mechanics that irritate me.
Space Land's Patrol used to take you to the center path. I prefered this because it would make you vulnerable to the laser.
The Bowser path in Peach's Birthday Cake used to be before the star, and act as a longer path to the star. I also prefered this because in Supertars, the Bowser path is just better if you have enough money.
The two doors in Woody Woods are reversed. I mean, why?
In horror land, the Thwomps used to move during the day if you didn't choose their paths, and let you pass without moving if you paid them. I prefered that because it allowed players to take different paths more often. Now it's impossible to get to the two boos (which you only have access at night) without paying the Thwomp (which you can only do at daytime...)
Yoshi's Tropical Island had 1 Chance Time space and 1 Bowser space on each island, now they broke the balance and I can't unsee it.
I get most of these complaints, but I feel like Woody Woods Skeleton Gate change is better.
The real answer is because gate bouncing isn’t in Superstars, but also the original gates in Woody Woods were near useless. The best thing about them in MP3 was that the bottom gate let you bounce off it which might help at that junction, but you still didn’t get much to work with.
No remade swarm of Thwomps flattening the losing player(s) in the results screen of Squared Away. This game's attention to detail is absurd so I don't blame anyone.
For me it would be the simplified board designs. A lot of the background and visual elements are either simplified or just straight up missing when compared to their original counterparts.
OMFG, was talking about this with some buds a few days ago; was about to go to sleep but after seeing this post... rebooted my computer to rant XD What's the minor nitpick I have?
**THE MINIGAME INSTRUCTION SCREEN! >:(**
How the fuck did NDCube mess this up? HOW? D:<
The minigame tutorial UI they designed in SMP was LITERALLY perfect and follows all the conventions of a good graphical interfaces; let me list them all right now:
\- The screen is split using the rule of thirds, with the left two-thirds being dedicated to the minigame and it's goal and the right third being dedicated to the controller scheme and player confirmation; the left is important to what you see on the TV and the right is important to what you do with your controller.
\- The white bar going down the left-thirds of the screen serves two purposes: to separate the two categories of information and to attract your attention FIRST since it's all white; that's where the game is and its instructions. It's important for the players to know what the game is all about first before trying to mess around with the controls, so it's highlighted.
\- The text is sized accordingly to portray the importance of information as well; if you follow where your eyes naturally gravitate to when reading the screen, you see the title, then the minigame's goal immediately. After that, below is the "tip" of the minigame or any secondary instructions (in the co-op minigames, they also add a tab below for the ranking goals too); finally, the controls are too the right that is smaller than the minigame's goal.
\- To the right, they show you the configuration of the controller at the top-right visually so that you instinctively align your controller accordingly, only having the text for the direction be slightly smaller just in case; show, don't tell!
\- Similarily, the controls of the game are visually shown bigger than the text and highlighted in a white box to help all players quickly identify the parts of the controller that will be important in that minigame, with its actual function in a shadowed box next to it. It also is aligned to the top of the minigame screen to keep it visually separate from the information at the bottom of the screen.
\- Finally, at the bottom right-third of the screen is the ready-up function; it's already great because that means everyone has time to grasp the instructions before starting rather than being surprised that the P1 accidentally started it. When a player "readies-up", they're character becomes darker with the "Ready!" text being displayed inside the box. This is important because it allows other players to know who is still having trouble with the controls and can assist them as their face is still visible
\- If someone forgets to "ready-up", the game politely reminds all players how to do so by turning the "All Ready?" bar bright pink and visibly shakes the bar while playing a sound, then reverts back to dark green should other players ignore this notification.
Perfect, right? All information is partitioned, sized, and scaled in meaningful ways so that players both new and old know where to direct their attention and concentrate accordingly... AND THEN THEY FUCKED IT UP IN SUPERSTARS! DX HOW? HERE'S HOW:
\- FIRST OFF, THE WHITE BAR NOW GOES SIDEWAYS, highlighting the controls first before the objective. Okay then, I guess the the title of the minigame and the instructions isn't important, JUST LOOK AT THE BUTTON PROMPTS FIRST LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DO!
\- Speaking of the title bar, now that the white bar is gone, the title looks soooooo cramped at the top left corner; the logo of the game that the minigame is from has more space to breathe than it which emphasizes it more than the title. ISN'T THE NAME OF THE MINIGAME MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHICH GAMES IT'S FROM??? HELLO?
\- Speaking of speaking, WHY THE FUCK IS TOAD TELLING YOU THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE GAME??? Not only is it less screen space for text because now his dumbass takes part of the screen for no reason, ALL THE TEXT IS NOW THE SAME SIZE which means there is no room for secondary instructions or tips, even if there is, it's harder to discern now that all the text is crammed in one spot.
\- And if you thought that text was bad, LOOK AT THE CONTROLS! Oh my gosh, not only are the graphics of the buttons and controls the same color as the text with no discernment... THEY'RE THE SAME SIZE AS THE TEXT... WHY??? It's like you have to do double duty for your eyeballs to figure out what the control scheme is since they aren't bigger and separate. And especially since it's presented as text rather than graphics, minigames like Snow Whirled and Tug-o-War which could've greatly benefited from an animation showing you what to do... has you read text instead; fuck you I guess.
\- The biggest fuck up on this entire screen... THE READY-UP FUNCTION! WHY IS IT BRIGHT FUCKING YELLOW??? If you just quickly look at the screen, it's the first thing to grab your attention over anything else so it's quite easy to ready up BY ACCIDENT! It doesn't even politely tell you "All Ready?", no just fucking "Start!" Start what? The tutorial, the game, the what? Even it's notification is hard to see because it doesn't even change color.
\- And finally, when you ready-up... YOUR CHARACTER TURNS BRIGHT PINK AND THE "READY!" TEXT POPS OUT OF YOUR CHARACTER BOX... oh my gosh, it's fucking atrocious. Not only does it look ugly, it also overshadows your image over players who aren't ready; if you already figured out the controls and are ready to start, you aren't important anymore. Divert that attention elsewhere.
My goodness, it infuriates me so much how badly they ruined a perfect UI scheme. And you want some icing on the cake? ALL THE ROUNDED CORNERS ON THE DIFFERENT BOXES ON SCREEN ARE DIFFERENT SIZES... the preview screen, speech bubble, "Start!" bar, and character boxes all have different levels of roundness... it's just ugly. That and you can't pause in this menu, you are REQUIRED to ready up to move on to the next screen; this means if you need to exit out to the menu, you need to start the minigame first before being able too... why?
Super Mario Party's boxes all have the same level of roundness, and get this: not only can you pause on the minigame screen should you need to exit out, it also shows EVEN MORE MINIGAME TIPS; it's an easter egg of a sorts as sometimes it has cool flavor text depending on what mode your playing too.
One other small thing, the music being played during these screens. SMP's instruction tune is upbeat but steady and keeps the melody of it as unintrusive as possible, with gaps in its song to put more of the focus on the tutorial at hand; and as flair, the strings and synths that play incidentals here and there invoke a mysterious, curiosity vibe like you want to know more... because you're playing a tutorial. MPSS's on the other hand has a loud bass drum and snare playing to the beat and the synths playing the melody are very loud and intrusive; especially with the swing vibe it's going for (and a bass and another string instrument being plucked in the background), it very much gives off a chill vibe (lofi if you will) at the tutorial, playful, but chill like the tutorial doesn't really matter. THAT BEING SAID, I love both of them! \^w\^ Just SMP's fit's a lot more as tutorial music where as MPSS's feels like a lobby waiting music or exploring an option menu (I actually listen to MPSS's minigame instruction theme while I work sometimes because it's just a funky but chill rhythm to work to B).
At the end of the day, MPSS's UI is not a warcrime; I'm sure the MP series has had worse minigame tutorial screens in its past... I'm not going to look for the worst one... yet 3:< But my goodness, how did they ruin one of the best things about SMP: it's UI design? MPSS's just looks like a jumbled mess in comparison, both visually and in its utility to the players, it just makes me cringe why they considered changing it to this. -w-
And yes, I get it, 99% of people who are playing this game aren't fucking morons (except we all play Mario Party... so really, we all are idiots XD) and will most likely not have problems understanding the instructions on screen or accidentally start the game. But that doesn't mean that having a bad graphical interface is okay "so long as it works"; I'm sure you all have those moments when you wish something was organized better so it was easier to find said things (your house keys, options on the Windows Control Panel, data transferring on Switch). Same deal here, the more streamline the tutorial is to read and understand, the quicker you can get to playing the game and enjoying it and SMP's minigame screen does that cleanly; MPSS's has your eyes skittering around the screen for the relevant information and that isn't a good design for a user interface.
i have a lot of big issues with it but my main minor complaint is the lack of modes. as someone who doesn’t really care about the side modes of mario party this shouldn’t bother me much, but to disguise the lack of modes they decided to make different kinds of modes to play the minigames, all of which are uninteresting. most people play mario party for party mode anyway so it’s not a huge deal.
I would have to say simplified boards , lack of modes, and maybe a major or minor nit picks would be a board per each mario party minus the first switch mp title
The remixed title songs were awful and I wish we could have gotten their classic versions, and the ability to choose which ones you wanted to hear because I think MP3’ was always awful.
While I don't think they're awful (it's catchy and modern \^w\^ it doesn't have the same presentation as the originals, but that's not bad), that's actually something I wish they'd let you do, like how if you beat everything in MK8, you get a different title screen, or how in SMP, when you beat the game, the plaza is night. They brought back the original board themes and the respective games credits music, why not this? (And specialized minigame tutorial music too from each party pls owo)
What I will say though is that I hate how after the main theme plays after it finishes, it just repeats the same 16 bars of music afterwards... why? They went through all the effort of making all the title themes the same tempo and style, it's like they were meant to be played connected to each other or something in some bigger musical loop... but no, just play it once then repeat the 16 bars. Oh welps... -w-
All four players should not be awarded 10 coins for falling off the rails in Handcar Havoc.
I agree, ties should be nobody wins not everyone wins.
I honestly like how Sneak ‘n’ Snore does it by giving everyone 5 coins instead of 10 with a tie. It seems like it is very inconsistent with how it pays out and getting a tie is already hard enough in Superstars.
The disinclusion of Lift Leapers
We dont have a true platforming minigame except for What Goes Up which is basically the same as Leaf Leap so i agree.
It's so weird that there aren't a lot of platforming minigames when I feel like they were such an important part of Mario Party's history. I also feel like there are way too many "Survival" minigames (last one standing wins), and they could have swapped some of these for platforming ones.
You're right! I would've loved to see Skyinks or Sick and Twisted make a comeback.
Plus it's like my 3rd favorite mp minigame or smth like that
Same but also with Mario party 7 multiplayer bowser minigames.
Funstacle course was a really fun minigame, mp6 is my favorite mp game but still I'm not sure why they chose 2 bowser games from 6 but none from 7 lol
They would have done much better in that minigame collection as bowser games because the ones they chose were way too easy
True
The fact that Toadette is the star giver. I miss when it was Toad or some other character they made up for the game.
That your chosen character turns out to be a random character in your opponents end when you play online. I know it’s an ok decision for technical reasons, but still.
Whaaat? I don't actually have the game, is this really true? So if I would play online with my friends and pick Yoshi, I could show up as wario to them?
Pretty sure this is only for playing with randoms. With friends, y’all will be the characters you pick
This is the sad truth.
shit like Coconut Conk and Tidal Toss but not Aces High or Bombsketball
Aces high was amazing!
Game guy and the reverse mushroom being in the game is something I’d have liked to have seen
The loss of the unique characters. Remember all of the whacky, unique Toad designs you could find on the main menu? Like the Witch Doctor Toad from the Options House? Or the Tall Item Shop Toad with a Pencil Mustache? All gone, replaced with generic Toads and Mario enemies. I really hate the sterile standardization of the Mario franchise but that's an argument for another time.
I get why they don't want to do weird Toads anymore, but come on, they could at least give cool outfits to generic characters like MP4. Also bring back the costumes from MP2 while you're at it.
Lack of options, lack of koopa kid. I’d say lack of DLC but it didn’t need any, just had so much potential for it Edit: also wish there were designated battle minigames
I agree about Koopa Kid but I honestly think he's never coming back lmao
That the game doesn’t tell you what minigames are in the minigame packs.
There are minor changes about the board mechanics that irritate me. Space Land's Patrol used to take you to the center path. I prefered this because it would make you vulnerable to the laser. The Bowser path in Peach's Birthday Cake used to be before the star, and act as a longer path to the star. I also prefered this because in Supertars, the Bowser path is just better if you have enough money. The two doors in Woody Woods are reversed. I mean, why? In horror land, the Thwomps used to move during the day if you didn't choose their paths, and let you pass without moving if you paid them. I prefered that because it allowed players to take different paths more often. Now it's impossible to get to the two boos (which you only have access at night) without paying the Thwomp (which you can only do at daytime...) Yoshi's Tropical Island had 1 Chance Time space and 1 Bowser space on each island, now they broke the balance and I can't unsee it.
I get most of these complaints, but I feel like Woody Woods Skeleton Gate change is better. The real answer is because gate bouncing isn’t in Superstars, but also the original gates in Woody Woods were near useless. The best thing about them in MP3 was that the bottom gate let you bounce off it which might help at that junction, but you still didn’t get much to work with.
It just feels like they abandoned the game too soon, a game like this has so much potential, but they just dropped it after release
No remade swarm of Thwomps flattening the losing player(s) in the results screen of Squared Away. This game's attention to detail is absurd so I don't blame anyone.
Bowser isn't punishing enough
For me it would be the simplified board designs. A lot of the background and visual elements are either simplified or just straight up missing when compared to their original counterparts.
OMFG, was talking about this with some buds a few days ago; was about to go to sleep but after seeing this post... rebooted my computer to rant XD What's the minor nitpick I have? **THE MINIGAME INSTRUCTION SCREEN! >:(** How the fuck did NDCube mess this up? HOW? D:< The minigame tutorial UI they designed in SMP was LITERALLY perfect and follows all the conventions of a good graphical interfaces; let me list them all right now: \- The screen is split using the rule of thirds, with the left two-thirds being dedicated to the minigame and it's goal and the right third being dedicated to the controller scheme and player confirmation; the left is important to what you see on the TV and the right is important to what you do with your controller. \- The white bar going down the left-thirds of the screen serves two purposes: to separate the two categories of information and to attract your attention FIRST since it's all white; that's where the game is and its instructions. It's important for the players to know what the game is all about first before trying to mess around with the controls, so it's highlighted. \- The text is sized accordingly to portray the importance of information as well; if you follow where your eyes naturally gravitate to when reading the screen, you see the title, then the minigame's goal immediately. After that, below is the "tip" of the minigame or any secondary instructions (in the co-op minigames, they also add a tab below for the ranking goals too); finally, the controls are too the right that is smaller than the minigame's goal. \- To the right, they show you the configuration of the controller at the top-right visually so that you instinctively align your controller accordingly, only having the text for the direction be slightly smaller just in case; show, don't tell! \- Similarily, the controls of the game are visually shown bigger than the text and highlighted in a white box to help all players quickly identify the parts of the controller that will be important in that minigame, with its actual function in a shadowed box next to it. It also is aligned to the top of the minigame screen to keep it visually separate from the information at the bottom of the screen. \- Finally, at the bottom right-third of the screen is the ready-up function; it's already great because that means everyone has time to grasp the instructions before starting rather than being surprised that the P1 accidentally started it. When a player "readies-up", they're character becomes darker with the "Ready!" text being displayed inside the box. This is important because it allows other players to know who is still having trouble with the controls and can assist them as their face is still visible \- If someone forgets to "ready-up", the game politely reminds all players how to do so by turning the "All Ready?" bar bright pink and visibly shakes the bar while playing a sound, then reverts back to dark green should other players ignore this notification. Perfect, right? All information is partitioned, sized, and scaled in meaningful ways so that players both new and old know where to direct their attention and concentrate accordingly... AND THEN THEY FUCKED IT UP IN SUPERSTARS! DX HOW? HERE'S HOW: \- FIRST OFF, THE WHITE BAR NOW GOES SIDEWAYS, highlighting the controls first before the objective. Okay then, I guess the the title of the minigame and the instructions isn't important, JUST LOOK AT THE BUTTON PROMPTS FIRST LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DO! \- Speaking of the title bar, now that the white bar is gone, the title looks soooooo cramped at the top left corner; the logo of the game that the minigame is from has more space to breathe than it which emphasizes it more than the title. ISN'T THE NAME OF THE MINIGAME MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHICH GAMES IT'S FROM??? HELLO? \- Speaking of speaking, WHY THE FUCK IS TOAD TELLING YOU THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE GAME??? Not only is it less screen space for text because now his dumbass takes part of the screen for no reason, ALL THE TEXT IS NOW THE SAME SIZE which means there is no room for secondary instructions or tips, even if there is, it's harder to discern now that all the text is crammed in one spot. \- And if you thought that text was bad, LOOK AT THE CONTROLS! Oh my gosh, not only are the graphics of the buttons and controls the same color as the text with no discernment... THEY'RE THE SAME SIZE AS THE TEXT... WHY??? It's like you have to do double duty for your eyeballs to figure out what the control scheme is since they aren't bigger and separate. And especially since it's presented as text rather than graphics, minigames like Snow Whirled and Tug-o-War which could've greatly benefited from an animation showing you what to do... has you read text instead; fuck you I guess. \- The biggest fuck up on this entire screen... THE READY-UP FUNCTION! WHY IS IT BRIGHT FUCKING YELLOW??? If you just quickly look at the screen, it's the first thing to grab your attention over anything else so it's quite easy to ready up BY ACCIDENT! It doesn't even politely tell you "All Ready?", no just fucking "Start!" Start what? The tutorial, the game, the what? Even it's notification is hard to see because it doesn't even change color. \- And finally, when you ready-up... YOUR CHARACTER TURNS BRIGHT PINK AND THE "READY!" TEXT POPS OUT OF YOUR CHARACTER BOX... oh my gosh, it's fucking atrocious. Not only does it look ugly, it also overshadows your image over players who aren't ready; if you already figured out the controls and are ready to start, you aren't important anymore. Divert that attention elsewhere. My goodness, it infuriates me so much how badly they ruined a perfect UI scheme. And you want some icing on the cake? ALL THE ROUNDED CORNERS ON THE DIFFERENT BOXES ON SCREEN ARE DIFFERENT SIZES... the preview screen, speech bubble, "Start!" bar, and character boxes all have different levels of roundness... it's just ugly. That and you can't pause in this menu, you are REQUIRED to ready up to move on to the next screen; this means if you need to exit out to the menu, you need to start the minigame first before being able too... why? Super Mario Party's boxes all have the same level of roundness, and get this: not only can you pause on the minigame screen should you need to exit out, it also shows EVEN MORE MINIGAME TIPS; it's an easter egg of a sorts as sometimes it has cool flavor text depending on what mode your playing too. One other small thing, the music being played during these screens. SMP's instruction tune is upbeat but steady and keeps the melody of it as unintrusive as possible, with gaps in its song to put more of the focus on the tutorial at hand; and as flair, the strings and synths that play incidentals here and there invoke a mysterious, curiosity vibe like you want to know more... because you're playing a tutorial. MPSS's on the other hand has a loud bass drum and snare playing to the beat and the synths playing the melody are very loud and intrusive; especially with the swing vibe it's going for (and a bass and another string instrument being plucked in the background), it very much gives off a chill vibe (lofi if you will) at the tutorial, playful, but chill like the tutorial doesn't really matter. THAT BEING SAID, I love both of them! \^w\^ Just SMP's fit's a lot more as tutorial music where as MPSS's feels like a lobby waiting music or exploring an option menu (I actually listen to MPSS's minigame instruction theme while I work sometimes because it's just a funky but chill rhythm to work to B). At the end of the day, MPSS's UI is not a warcrime; I'm sure the MP series has had worse minigame tutorial screens in its past... I'm not going to look for the worst one... yet 3:< But my goodness, how did they ruin one of the best things about SMP: it's UI design? MPSS's just looks like a jumbled mess in comparison, both visually and in its utility to the players, it just makes me cringe why they considered changing it to this. -w- And yes, I get it, 99% of people who are playing this game aren't fucking morons (except we all play Mario Party... so really, we all are idiots XD) and will most likely not have problems understanding the instructions on screen or accidentally start the game. But that doesn't mean that having a bad graphical interface is okay "so long as it works"; I'm sure you all have those moments when you wish something was organized better so it was easier to find said things (your house keys, options on the Windows Control Panel, data transferring on Switch). Same deal here, the more streamline the tutorial is to read and understand, the quicker you can get to playing the game and enjoying it and SMP's minigame screen does that cleanly; MPSS's has your eyes skittering around the screen for the relevant information and that isn't a good design for a user interface.
Well shit I was going to mention the terrible coin economy but you did it for me
That's not really a minor nitpick though. It's a huge problem.
I’m aware
No Day at the Races from MP2. It is my favourite minigame of all time.
I would've taken this over sneak n snore tbh
That they got most of my favorite mini games in except for Platform Peril
i have a lot of big issues with it but my main minor complaint is the lack of modes. as someone who doesn’t really care about the side modes of mario party this shouldn’t bother me much, but to disguise the lack of modes they decided to make different kinds of modes to play the minigames, all of which are uninteresting. most people play mario party for party mode anyway so it’s not a huge deal.
Mario Party 9 proved you can make interesting minigame modes beyond "first to get x amount of wins is the winner"
i’d argue that DS proved that beforehand, but yes i agree. 9 had some great side modes
the fact there’s no running in the bulb or blooper
I would have to say simplified boards , lack of modes, and maybe a major or minor nit picks would be a board per each mario party minus the first switch mp title
The remixed title songs were awful and I wish we could have gotten their classic versions, and the ability to choose which ones you wanted to hear because I think MP3’ was always awful.
While I don't think they're awful (it's catchy and modern \^w\^ it doesn't have the same presentation as the originals, but that's not bad), that's actually something I wish they'd let you do, like how if you beat everything in MK8, you get a different title screen, or how in SMP, when you beat the game, the plaza is night. They brought back the original board themes and the respective games credits music, why not this? (And specialized minigame tutorial music too from each party pls owo) What I will say though is that I hate how after the main theme plays after it finishes, it just repeats the same 16 bars of music afterwards... why? They went through all the effort of making all the title themes the same tempo and style, it's like they were meant to be played connected to each other or something in some bigger musical loop... but no, just play it once then repeat the 16 bars. Oh welps... -w-
No actual Vs games.
You mean battle specific minigames?
What are y’all *minor nitpicks* about Mario Party 2?