Mario Party 9

For eight games the Mario Party board had worked the same way: four pieces wandering round a looping map, each player alone with the dice, a minigame after every round, Stars at 20 coins apiece. Mario Party 9 threw nearly all of it out. Nintendo’s own description says its Party Mode “rewrites the Mario Party rule book”, and for once the marketing was simply accurate.

Everybody now travels in the same vehicle, a car on Toad Road, a flying carpet in Boo’s Horror Castle, a mine cart in Magma Mine. Each turn a different player is the Captain, who hits the Dice Block, moves the whole party and takes whatever the journey brings: the Mini Stars strung along the road, or the Mini Ztars that cancel them out. The boards are no longer loops but routes with a beginning and an end. Half way along stands a fortress with a mid-boss, at the end a Bowser Gate with a boss, and the fights themselves are minigames in which the four players cooperate to bring the monster down while quietly competing to do the most damage.

The result is a faster and more theatrical game. A board is over when the boss is, not after a set number of turns; minigames arrive only when someone lands on the right space; and the skill lies in manipulating the count, using a special Dice Block so that the Captain’s seat passes to a rival just as the vehicle reaches a hazard.

It was also the first Mario Party not developed by Hudson Soft, which was absorbed into Konami the day before the game came out in Europe. The new studio was NDcube, though not quite a new team: its producer and director had made the earlier games at Hudson. Koopa Troopa, Shy Guy and Kamek make their series debut as playable characters, and Bowser Jr. has ten minigames of his own.

Reviews were respectable and sales solid, but the shared vehicle split opinion from the first day, and still does. Mario Party 10 kept it; Super Mario Party put the four separate pieces back.

The questions people ask most about Mario Party 9, answered briefly here and in depth further down the page.

It begins with a night of stargazing. Mario and his friends are outside Peach’s Castle watching the Mini Stars twinkle through a telescope when the stars start streaking away across the sky. Bowser and Bowser Jr. have arrived in a spacecraft fitted with an enormous vacuum, and are sucking every Mini Star into storage canisters. Bowser, it turns out later, wants them to decorate his castle.

The party sets off to get them back, and two of Bowser’s servants, Shy Guy and Kamek, slip in among the travellers to make sure they fail. That journey is Solo Mode. Before each board Bowser is seen gloating over his collection, or, as the heroes get closer, fuming. At Bowser Station they beat Bowser Jr. and then Bowser himself, the canisters burst and the Mini Stars pour back into the sky, and Bowser tumbles out of his Koopa Clown Car to be caught by his son. The last scene is the first one again: Mario and friends at the telescope, with the stars where they belong. The same boards, without the story, make up Party Mode.

Toad Road

The first board is a gentle introduction: rolling grassland with flowers and windmills, modelled on World 1 of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The route crosses a pond on lily pads, climbs to the fortress where Lakitu waits, and comes to a broken bridge. Here the players must roll a high enough total between them to jump the gap. Make it and there are Mini Stars on the far side; fall short and the car drops to a lower road paved with Mini Ztars. Lucky Spaces lead underground through blue pipes or up a beanstalk to clouds full of Mini Stars.

Past the bridge a cannon fires the car across to 9 Island, the Captain Event, where each player rolls once to gather Mini Stars. Then the green Toad calls “Almost There!” and Bowser Spaces appear along the home straight to the Bowser Gate. The mid-boss game is Sock It to Lakitu, in which you punch blocks to fire Bullet Bills at him; the boss is a giant Wiggler, whose segments have to be ground-pounded in Wiggler Bounce.

Bob-omb Factory

A factory floor where Bob-ombs are assembled and carried about on conveyor belts, crossed in a machine that walks on legs. In the first room an oval conveyor cuts across the zigzag path, and Event Spaces set it running, carrying the vehicle and the spaces with it. In the second, the direction of the belt decides whether the party takes a lucky blue path or a worse orange one.

The hazard is the product. Pass a Bob-omb sign and one drops on to the vehicle, where it ticks down for ten spaces of travel and then explodes, costing whoever is Captain at that moment half their Mini Stars. The Captain Event is the Side-by-Side Zone: everyone rides a cart down parallel tracks lined with Mini Stars, and the Captain decides who gets which track. Whomp guards the fortress, in a game where he topples on to the players and they ground-pound his back, and King Bob-omb, known as Big Bob-omb in Britain, waits at the gate to be pelted with bombs of his own.

Boo’s Horror Castle

A haunted castle toured on a flying carpet: through the halls, out on to the roof and up the tower. The danger hangs on the walls. Pass a Boo portrait and a Boo comes out of it and follows the carpet at three spaces a turn. If it catches up, the Captain loses half their Mini Stars, and more if several Boos arrive together. Lit rooms are safe, but a Boo may slip round and lie in wait ahead.

The Captain Event is the Scaredy Rat Race. A Scaredy Rat snatches a pile of Mini Stars and bolts down a corridor of Dash Spaces, and the players give chase with their dice; catch it and the Stars come back, lose it and they are gone. On the roof a Bowser Gate shows a number that the Captain has to beat with a roll, the target dropping by two after each failure. Dry Bones is the mid-boss, in a memory game played with cards, and King Boo the boss, in a match-three puzzle battle.

Blooper Beach

A sea voyage from a tropical shore to a fort and on to a rocky lair, made aboard the Sub Baleen. Early on a Dolphin swims alongside, and the Captain who catches it up gets five Mini Stars. Later it is a Sushi, the shark, doing the chasing, and if it reaches the boat the Captain loses half. Unlucky Spaces drop the vessel into a whirlpool that drags it back two spaces a turn.

The cleverest trick belongs to the Huckit Crabs. Land on an Event Space and they turn every Mini Star on the board into a Mini Ztar; land on one again and they turn them back. In the Captain Event, Sunken Treasure, the players dive for Mini Stars and must then get back to the top with dice rolls to keep what they have gathered. The mid-boss is a monstrous Cheep Cheep, fought underwater by throwing Green Shells, and the boss is Blooper, bombarded with cannon fire while the players bat away the Urchins it sends back.

Magma Mine

A climb out of a live volcano in a mine cart that can run straight up the walls. At forks in the track everybody votes on the way to go, and if the vote is split a wheel picks one player to decide. After the mid-boss the board’s real idea arrives: the magma starts to rise. It climbs two spaces every turn, and faster whenever the Captain lands on a Magma Space marked +2, +3 or +4. If it catches the cart, the Captain of the moment loses half their Mini Stars, so nobody wants to be driving when the cart is slowest.

The Captain Event, Dice Block Chicken, is a game of nerve. The players leave the cart and roll their way down parallel tracks collecting Mini Stars, towards a cliff edge, and the Captain decides when everybody stops. Spike is the mid-boss, his spiked balls knocked back at him with hammers, and the lava rises during his fight too. The boss is a Chain Chomp, attacked by choosing mine carts and hoping your track leads to a cannon and not under its jaws. In Solo Mode this is where Shy Guy and Kamek start to turn up as your only opponents.

Bowser Station

Bowser’s space colony, a ring-shaped track among the stars that Super Mario Wiki compares to Bowser’s Warped Orbit in Mario Party 8. There are no chasing hazards here. The board is about a Jackpot Machine: every Jackpot+ Space the Captain lands on feeds it 5 or 8 Mini Stars, and once it holds 20 or more a minigame is played for the lot. A rare Jackpot Space simply hands the whole pile to the Captain.

It has three Captain Events instead of one. In Heart Star Colony players are rewarded for rolling matching colours. Bingo Colony is bingo with dice, which Bowser may flip into Dark Bingo Colony, where a line costs you Mini Stars. Speed Star Colony is a race for a prize of ten. Bowser Jr. is the mid-boss, in Bowser Jr. Breakdown, and Bowser the last boss, in Bowser’s Block Battle, where players throw dice bearing their own faces and fire the energy they earn at him. The board opens once Solo Mode is finished, or once the first five boards have each been played.

DK’s Jungle Ruins

The bonus board, bought in the Museum for 500 Party Points and not part of Solo Mode, is an old temple in Donkey Kong’s jungle with a look borrowed from Donkey Kong Country Returns. It breaks the game’s own rules. The currency is Bananas, with Z-Bananas as the penalty, and they sit on the spaces instead of between them. The track is a single circle, driven round twice. And there are no bosses: the first time the party reaches the Boss Space Diddy Kong hosts a banana-grabbing bonus game, Diddy’s Banana Blast, and the second time Donkey Kong hosts DK’s Banana Bonus.

DK Spaces set a wheel of Bananas spinning round the vehicle for the Captain to jump at. The Captain Event, Barrel Choice, comes round on both laps: barrels are filled with Bananas and shuffled, and the Captain hands one to each player. On the second lap one of the barrels is full of Z-Bananas.

Solo Mode

The story is played on the first six boards in order, usually as a four-player game against three computer characters, sometimes with only three or two at the table. The twist is that one or two of those characters are Bowser’s plants. If Shy Guy or Kamek finishes a board as the Superstar, they make off with everybody’s Mini Stars and you must play it again. If you win, tie with them, or one of your honest companions wins, the journey continues. On the last two boards the traitors may be your only opponents, and then nothing less than first place, or a share of it, will do.

Finishing Solo Mode makes Shy Guy and Kamek playable, opens Bowser Station if it is not open already, lets you buy Boss Rush, and pays 500 Party Points on top of every Mini Star you collected along the way.

Minigame Mode

Blue Toad hosts seven ways of playing the minigames away from the boards. Free Play offers any you have met. Step It Up, which returns from Mario Party DS, is a race up a staircase, four steps for each win. In Garden Battle wins earn blocks of plants to fit into a plot, and the first full garden takes it. Choice Challenge lets each player pick three minigames out of five to be scored on. High Rollers is a dice game over panels worth 10 to 30 points, played to 500. Time Attack is a solo run through ten minigames against the clock. Boss Rush, which has to be bought, lines up six or all twelve of the boss fights.

The Museum and Extras

Every mode pays out Party Points, and the Museum is where they go. Its best idea ties back to the story: fifty constellations, at 50 points each, can be bought and returned to the night sky, where you can go and look at them, and for a single point let off a firework. They have names like Super Bro Major, Princess Minor, Killer Caterpillar and On Porpoise. The Museum also sells the spare vehicles, the sound test, Boss Rush and DK’s Jungle Ruins, and shows the credits.

Extras holds three games that stand apart: the marble puzzle Castle Clearout, the two-a-side Shell Soccer and a full-length version of Goomba Bowling. It also has Perspective Mode, in which ten of the ordinary minigames are replayed from a different, harder camera angle.

Every board in Mario Party 9

The seven boards in order, with the mid-boss and boss of each and how it is unlocked. The first five are open from the start.

1. 
   Toad RoadMid-boss: Lakitu · Boss: Wiggler · Captain Event: 9 IslandGrassland in the style of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, with a broken bridge to jump by rolling high enough.
2. 
   Bob-omb FactoryMid-boss: Whomp · Boss: King Bob-omb · Captain Event: Side-by-Side ZoneConveyor belts move the spaces, and a ticking Bob-omb costs the Captain half their Mini Stars.
3. 
   Boo’s Horror CastleMid-boss: Dry Bones · Boss: King Boo · Captain Event: Scaredy Rat RaceBoos escape from portraits and hunt the flying carpet three spaces at a time.
4. 
   Blooper BeachMid-boss: Cheep Cheep · Boss: Blooper · Captain Event: Sunken TreasureA Dolphin to catch, a shark to outrun and crabs that turn Mini Stars into Mini Ztars.
5. 
   Magma MineMid-boss: Spike · Boss: Chain Chomp · Captain Event: Dice Block ChickenRising magma chases the mine cart up the volcano, two spaces a turn or more.
6. 
   Bowser StationMid-boss: Bowser Jr. · Boss: Bowser · unlocked by finishing Solo Mode or playing the first five boardsA space colony with a Jackpot Machine and three different Captain Events.
7. 
   DK’s Jungle RuinsBonus games with Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong · 500 Party Points in the MuseumTwo laps of a jungle temple, collecting Bananas instead of Mini Stars.

Solo Mode uses the first six. DK’s Jungle Ruins is for Party Mode only.

Party Mode is for two to four players, where earlier games always needed exactly four participants, and a game is one trip along one board. Here is how the trip works.

One vehicle, one Captain

The party moves as a unit. On your turn you are the Captain: you hit the Dice Block, the vehicle advances that many spaces, and the consequences are yours. The Mini Stars strung along the road go to the Captain who drives through them, and so do the Mini Ztars, each of which cancels a Mini Star. Then the wheel passes to the next player.

That single change turns the dice into a weapon. The ordinary Dice Block runs only from 1 to 6, and the special ones let you choose roughly how far to go, so the art of the game is to stop the vehicle one space short of trouble and let the next Captain drive into it. Board hazards, such as a Bob-omb on the bonnet, a Boo on your tail or lava at your heels, usually cost whoever is Captain at that moment half their Mini Stars. Nintendo’s description talks of “pushing your opponents into trickier spots”, and that is exactly the feel.

Every board has its own vehicle, and two alternatives to buy in the Museum, the third always modelled on that board’s boss.

Mini Stars, minigames and winning

There are no coins and no Stars to buy. Whoever holds the most Mini Stars when the last boss falls is the Superstar, and if two players are level they share the title: for the first time there is no dice-roll tie-break. If the option is switched on, bonus Mini Stars are handed out after the final boss to players who led in certain categories.

Minigames no longer follow every round. They start when the Captain lands on a minigame space, or sometimes when a Dice Block is collected, and everyone is ranked from first to last, with more Mini Stars the higher you finish. Most are free-for-alls. In a 1-vs-Rivals game the Captain takes on everybody else, and on a Bowser Jr. Space the Captain and one other player, chosen at random, must work together to beat Bowser Jr. There is no two-against-two category at all.

Near the end of each board a green Toad announces “Almost There!”, this game’s answer to the last five turns of old, and Bowser turns a stretch of the remaining spaces into Bowser Spaces.

The spaces

Most of the road is plain Green Spaces, where nothing happens; the old Blue and Red Spaces are gone. A Dice Block Space gives the Captain a special block. Lucky and Unlucky Spaces do what they say: on Toad Road a Lucky Space leads to pipes or a beanstalk full of Mini Stars, and on Blooper Beach an Unlucky one drops you into a whirlpool. A Dash Space grants another roll forwards, a Back Space forces one backwards, a Spin Space brings a helpful surprise, and a Shuffle Space reshuffles the order in which players take the wheel. Event Spaces set off the board’s own gimmick, and a Bowser Space summons Bowser to make mischief.

The rest start games. Free-for-All, 1-vs-Rivals, Bowser Jr. and Battle Spaces begin a minigame of that kind, a Battle game being one in which the Mini Stars are shared out differently from usual. The vehicle cannot pass a Captain Event Space or a Boss Battle Space: it stops there whatever was rolled. A few spaces belong to one board only: Magma Spaces, Jackpot+ Spaces and DK Spaces.

Captain Events

Each board has a set piece of its own, triggered when the vehicle reaches a Captain Event Space. Everybody takes part and Mini Stars are at stake, but the player who was Captain on arrival gets some advantage, usually the right to choose first or to decide who gets what. On Toad Road it is 9 Island, where each player rolls once to collect Mini Stars. Bob-omb Factory has the Side-by-Side Zone, Boo’s Horror Castle the Scaredy Rat Race, Blooper Beach Sunken Treasure, Magma Mine a nerve-racking game called Dice Block Chicken, Bowser Station three different Colonies and DK’s Jungle Ruins Barrel Choice. They are described with their boards below.

Boss battles

Twice on every board the road is blocked: by a fortress, where the mid-boss waits, and by the Bowser Gate at the end. Each fight is a minigame for all the players at once. Hits score points, the boss has a health bar that everyone is wearing down together, and whoever lands the final blow gets a bonus, usually three points. The Mini Stars are then shared out by rank, and more generously than after an ordinary minigame. Nintendo’s page puts it well: “Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a team game though.”

Boss minigames were not new to the series. They had appeared in Mario Party DS, as Super Mario Wiki notes, but this is where they became a fixture. Twelve of the fourteen are real fights; the two on DK’s Jungle Ruins are friendly banana-collecting games hosted by Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong.

Dice Blocks and Mini Stars

Mario Party 9 has no items in the old sense. The only things you carry are special Dice Blocks, picked up from Dice Block Spaces and used in place of the ordinary one when you are Captain.

• 
  Dice BlockThe standard block, numbered 1 to 6. It is what you roll when you use nothing else; unlike earlier games, nobody starts with a block that goes up to 10.
• 
  Slow Dice BlockAlso 1 to 6, but it turns slowly enough for you to stop it on the number you want.
• 
  0-1 Dice BlockThree faces show 0 and three show 1. The way to stay put, or nearly, and leave the next space to the next Captain.
• 
  1-2-3 Dice BlockRolls 1, 2 or 3, each on two faces. For short, careful moves.
• 
  4-5-6 Dice BlockRolls 4, 5 or 6, each on two faces. For clearing a hazard in one go.
• 
  1-10 Dice BlockTen faces, numbered 1 to 10: the long shot.
• 
  Mini StarThe score. Collected by the Captain as the vehicle passes, and awarded after minigames, Captain Events and boss battles. Most Mini Stars at the end wins.
• 
  Mini ZtarThe opposite. Each one the Captain collects takes a Mini Star away.

Mario Party 9 leans heavily on the look of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy, and its own inventions were handed on to everything NDcube made afterwards.

Party Crashers ContestPromotion · Nintendo of America · 1–7 March 2012To launch the game in the United States, Nintendo asked fans to plan a party for 25 guests and tweet, with the hashtag #1UPMyParty, why it deserved to be crashed. Six winners each received a Wii, a copy of the game and a half-hour visit from Mario and Luigi.

Prima’s official guideGuide book · Prima Games · 2012Prima Games published the official strategy guide; Super Mario Wiki keeps its cover.

Wii PartyWii · 2010NDcube’s previous game is the nearest relative. Super Mario Wiki notes that the rules, controls and result screens of Mario Party 9 resemble it, and that its first-to-fourth ranking system is reused.

Mario Party: Island TourNintendo 3DS · 2013NDcube’s handheld follow-up reuses this game’s minigame victory music.

Mario Party 10Wii U · 2015The direct sequel keeps the shared vehicle and brings back a remix of the minigame victory tune.

Mario Party: The Top 100Nintendo 3DS · 2017Ten minigames return: Bumper Bubbles, Don’t Look, Goomba Bowling, Jigsaw Jumble, Logger Heads, Magma Mayhem, Peak Precision, Pier Pressure, Speeding Bullets and Tackle Takedown. Boo’s Horror Castle has a cameo.

Super Mario PartyNintendo Switch · 2018Shy Guy’s and Koopa Troopa’s victory animations and artwork are carried over from this game, as is King Bob-omb’s profile artwork.

Super Smash Bros. UltimateNintendo Switch · 2018The minigame track “Pandemonium” is among its music.

Mario Party SuperstarsNintendo Switch · 2021Four minigames carry the Mario Party 9 logo: Manor of Escape, Goomba Spotting, Tackle Takedown and Shell Soccer. Birdo’s artwork and some of her animations come from this game, and Bowser’s artwork is an update of the picture on its box.

Super Mario Party JamboreeNintendo Switch · 2024The tune that plays after a minigame in Free Play is a rearrangement of this game’s “Good Job!”, and Shy Guy’s artwork is reused.

Twelve playable characters, two fewer than Mario Party 8: ten from the start and two to earn. Toadette is absent for the first time since Mario Party 5, and Boo, Dry Bones, Blooper and Hammer Bro are no longer playable. As ever, all twelve play alike. The hosts and villains follow.

Character	Who they are	In this game	Abilities & notes
MarioPlayable	The leader of the stargazing party.	Front and centre in the key artwork, at the wheel of the Toad Mobile.	Voice: Charles Martinet.
LuigiPlayable	Mario’s brother.	Available from the start.	Voice: Charles Martinet.
Princess PeachPlayable	It is outside her castle that the story begins.	Available from the start.	Voice: Sam Kelly.
Princess DaisyPlayable	Peach’s fellow princess, pictured with her in the official art holding a Dice Block.	Available from the start.	Voice: Deanna Mustard.
WarioPlayable	Drawn for this game with a chest of jewels, naturally.	Available from the start.	Voice: Charles Martinet.
WaluigiPlayable	Drawn for this game juggling Bob-ombs.	Available from the start. The wiki’s screenshots show him losing Mini Stars to both a Bob-omb and a Boo.	Voice: Charles Martinet.
YoshiPlayable	The party’s dinosaur.	Available from the start. His artwork from this game was recoloured for Yellow Yoshi on the box of Super Mario Bros. Wonder.	Voice: Kazumi Totaka.
BirdoPlayable	Playable for the third game running.	Available from the start. Mario Party Superstars reuses her artwork and animations from this game, her last playable appearance before it.	Voice: Kazumi Totaka.
ToadPlayable	The red-spotted original, while his yellow, blue and green cousins run the show.	Available from the start.	Voice: Sam Kelly.
Koopa TroopaPlayable · new	A helper and banker in the early games, promoted at last.	A series first as a fully playable character, and available from the start.	His victory animation was reused in Super Mario Party.
Shy GuyPlayable · new · unlockable	One of Bowser’s two agents in Solo Mode.	Rides with the party in the story and must not be allowed to win a board. Playable once Solo Mode is complete. He had been controllable once before, in the Beach Volley Folly minigame of Mario Party 4.	Unlock: finish Solo Mode. Voice: Nate Bihldorff.
KamekPlayable · new · unlockable	Bowser’s Magikoopa, and the other saboteur. The American version calls him simply Magikoopa.	Unlocked with Shy Guy by finishing Solo Mode, in which neither can be chosen. His first playable appearance in a Mario Party.	Unlock: finish Solo Mode. Voice: Atsushi Masaki.
Yellow Toad, Blue Toad and Green ToadHosts	Three Toads share the hosting duties.	Yellow Toad hosts the boards, Blue Toad the minigames, and Green Toad turns up near the end of each board to announce “Almost There!”	Voice of Blue and Yellow Toad: Sam Kelly.
BowserVillain and final boss	Stole the Mini Stars to decorate his castle.	Appears on Bowser Spaces, seeds the last stretch of every board with them, and is fought at the end of Bowser Station in Bowser’s Block Battle. He travels in the Koopa Clown Car.	Voice: Kenny James.
Bowser Jr.Villain and mid-boss	Bowser’s son and partner in the theft, in his Junior Clown Car.	Has ten two-player minigames of his own, in which a pair of players must beat him, and is the mid-boss of Bowser Station.	Voice: Caety Sagoian.
Donkey KongBoard host	Master of DK’s Jungle Ruins.	Hosts DK’s Banana Bonus at the end of the second lap, in place of a boss fight, and the Banana wheel on DK Spaces.	Voice: Takashi Nagasako.
Diddy KongBoard host	Donkey Kong’s sidekick.	Hosts Diddy’s Banana Blast, the bonus game that stands in for a mid-boss on DK’s Jungle Ruins.	Voice: Katsumi Suzuki.

Every minigame in Mario Party 9

All 81 on Super Mario Wiki’s list: 44 Free-for-All, 10 1-vs-Rivals (the Captain against everyone else), 10 Bowser Jr. games for two players working together, 14 Boss games and 3 Extras. Every one is new. In boss games the player who strikes the last blow earns bonus points. Later appearances are from the wiki’s lists for The Top 100 and Superstars.

• 
  Buddy BounceFree-for-AllBounce on clouds, and on each other’s heads, to pop balloons for points in 30 seconds.
• 
  Logger HeadsFree-for-AllChop the logs a Whittle sets on your stump, and duck when it is a Bob-omb. First to split three wins. In The Top 100.
• 
  Pinball FallFree-for-AllPick which of five balls you think will roll down the slope fastest, then watch.
• 
  Launch BreakFree-for-AllFuel a rocket by hammering the 1 and 2 Buttons, then shake the Remote. Highest flight wins.
• 
  Goomba VillageFree-for-AllWatch Goombas scurry into five Toad Houses and guess which one now holds the most.
• 
  Speeding BulletsFree-for-AllRide a Bullet Bill down a course of boost zones and Piranha Plants to the finish. In The Top 100.
• 
  Pianta PoolFree-for-AllRaise the rings a Pianta throws into the pool so that Cheep Cheeps leap through them for points.
• 
  Chain EventFree-for-AllSlide down a chain, swapping sides to dodge the Spiked Balls. First to the bottom.
• 
  SkyjinksFree-for-AllA race over floating platforms as the screen scrolls, with a heart lost for every fall.
• 
  Skipping ClassFree-for-AllTap out the button sequences shown to pull off skipping-rope tricks. Best score after eight rounds.
• 
  Mecha ChoiceFree-for-AllMechakoopas are coming. Choose a door within three seconds and hope it is not a dead end.
• 
  Jigsaw JumbleFree-for-AllSpot the missing piece of five jigsaws in a row, faster than anyone else. In The Top 100.
• 
  Growing UpFree-for-AllBe first to press the button shown on a falling block and your beanstalk grows. Tallest after eight rounds.
• 
  Upward MobilityFree-for-AllClimb a tower of Jump Blocks to the rainbow cloud at the top.
• 
  Ring LeaderFree-for-AllSend a Dolphin leaping through floating rings: red scores one point, gold three.
• 
  Smash CompactorFree-for-AllMusical chairs with a crusher. There is always one glowing hole too few, and whoever is left out is flattened.
• 
  Peak PrecisionFree-for-AllScale a cliff by pressing the button marked on each handhold. A wrong press means a slip. In The Top 100.
• 
  10 to WinFree-for-AllTake turns flipping panels that raise your own platform or somebody else’s. First to 10 points.
• 
  Tuber TugFree-for-AllHold A and B and shake the Remote to haul vegetables off a vine for ten seconds.
• 
  Card SmartsFree-for-AllEveryone plays a numbered card from their hand and the highest scores a point. First to three.
• 
  Toad and Go SeekFree-for-AllWatch which house the Toad goes into, then be the first to knock on the right door.
• 
  Polar ExtremeFree-for-AllHop across drifting ice floes as the screen scrolls and be first aboard the ship.
• 
  Goomba BowlingFree-for-AllBowl a Red Shell into a crowd of 20 Goombas. Most knocked over wins. In The Top 100.
• 
  Tumble TempleFree-for-AllDodge the Spiked Balls that tumble through a field of pegs for 60 seconds.
• 
  Twist EndingFree-for-AllTwist the Remote to line up the dials on three chests, one inside another, and open them all.
• 
  Manor of EscapeFree-for-AllFind the one door on each of four floors that leads down and out of a haunted manor. In Superstars.
• 
  Player ConveyorFree-for-AllRide a maze of one-way conveyor belts and be first to reach the middle.
• 
  Ballistic BeachFree-for-AllTake turns firing a cannon at distant islands until you have burst both your balloons.
• 
  Bumper BubblesFree-for-AllDrift about inside a bubble collecting balloons and avoiding Spiked Balls. In The Top 100.
• 
  Flinger PaintingFree-for-AllFire blobs of paint at a canvas. Whoever covers most of it in their colour wins.
• 
  Bomb BargeFree-for-AllDodge, or kick away, the Bob-ombs landing on a raft, and do not fall in.
• 
  Don’t LookFree-for-AllLook any way but the way the arrows point, ten times over. In The Top 100.
• 
  Snow GoFree-for-AllFive laps on a snowmobile, round deep drifts and past Mr. Blizzards throwing snowballs.
• 
  Piranha PatchFree-for-AllPick pink and gold flowers for 30 seconds, and lose a point for every Piranha Plant you blunder into.
• 
  Plunder GroundFree-for-AllWatch jewels drop into chests, keep track of the Monty Moles that burrow off with them, and choose well.
• 
  Pier PressureFree-for-AllTake turns reeling in a fishing line. A Cheep Cheep is safe; an Urchin puts you out. In The Top 100.
• 
  BillisticsFree-for-AllSurvive on top of a tower as Bullet Bills fly in, the flashing ones homing.
• 
  Pit or PlatterFree-for-AllTilt a plate to roll a ball over the glowing patches, with more points for a run of hits.
• 
  Thwomper RoomFree-for-AllSix Thwomps, thirty seconds, and nowhere to hide.
• 
  Urn ItFree-for-AllSay which of three patterns matches the one on a spinning urn. The quickest right answer scores most.
• 
  Goomba SpottingFree-for-AllCount the Goombas as they run past, one press for each. Nearest the true number wins. In Superstars.
• 
  Magma MayhemFree-for-AllA brawl on a tilting platform above the magma. Last one standing. In The Top 100.
• 
  Pizza Me, MarioFree-for-AllSwing the Remote to throw your topping on to a spinning pizza and be first to cover every slice.
• 
  Fungi FrenzyFree-for-AllGround-pound the panels of a three-by-three grid to find the mushrooms hidden underneath.
• 
  Ruins Rumble1-vs-RivalsOne player drives a machine through ruins to flatten the rivals, and some Dry Bones, in 30 seconds.
• 
  Hazard Hold1-vs-RivalsThe soloist fires electricity, flames and wind at rivals who must keep dodging for 30 seconds.
• 
  Line in the Sand1-vs-RivalsThe soloist draws lines in the sand to fence the rivals in before time runs out.
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  Block and Roll1-vs-RivalsOne player has to carry three blocks to safety while the rivals roll boulders at them.
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  Tackle Takedown1-vs-RivalsAmerican football: one runner makes for the goal line and everybody else tries to tackle. In The Top 100 and Superstars.
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  Weird Wheels1-vs-RivalsA race between a car with square wheels and one with triangular wheels, each driven by its own button routine.
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  Spike-n-Span1-vs-RivalsThe soloist thumps the floor from underneath to bounce Spiked Balls at the rivals above.
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  Hole Hogs1-vs-RivalsWhack-a-mole with players as the moles: the rivals score by staying above ground, and the soloist has the hammer.
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  Pix Fix1-vs-RivalsBoth sides race to turn the scrambled panels of a picture the right way up.
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  Mob Sleds1-vs-RivalsOne player on foot must keep out of the way of the rivals’ sleds for 30 seconds.
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  Mecha MarchBowser Jr.Wave the Remotes in step to walk a two-legged machine after Bowser Jr., and kick his before he gets away.
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  Bowser PopBowser Jr.Bounce on a seesaw to burst eight balloons, then Bowser Jr.’s own.
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  Double PounderBowser Jr.Ground-pound matching switches at exactly the same moment: four pairs in 30 seconds.
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  Zoom RoomBowser Jr.Corner Bowser Jr. in a maze by closing in from both sides.
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  Cage MatchBowser Jr.Chase Bowser Jr. round a fence and stun him from the far side to knock him off.
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  Crossfire CavernsBowser Jr.Fire cannonballs from a pair of mine carts and hit Bowser Jr. three times.
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  Bumper SparksBowser Jr.Barge Bowser Jr. into an electrified ring three times in 30 seconds.
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  Sand TrapBowser Jr.Ground-pound switches together to remove the sand blocks under Bowser Jr. until he falls.
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  Pair of AcesBowser Jr.Shoot Bowser Jr.’s Junior Clown Car out of the sky: three hits in 30 seconds.
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  Pedal to the PaddleBowser Jr.Jump on lifts in turn to drive a Paddle Platform to the goal ahead of Bowser Jr.
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  Sock It to LakituBoss · Toad Road (mid-boss)Punch blocks to fire Bullet Bills at Lakitu. Hitting a Spiny by mistake costs a point.
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  Whomp StompBoss · Bob-omb Factory (mid-boss)Choose whether to spin your platform. Whoever Whomp falls on loses a point; the rest ground-pound his back for three.
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  Deck Dry BonesBoss · Boo’s Horror Castle (mid-boss)Memorise the shapes, then pick the card that matches Dry Bones’s platform. A Dry Bones card costs a point.
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  Cheep Cheep ShotBoss · Blooper Beach (mid-boss)Underwater, throw Green Shells at a huge Cheep Cheep and keep clear of its charges.
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  Spike StrikeBoss · Magma Mine (mid-boss)Grab a hammer and knock Spike’s spiked balls back at him, as the lava rises.
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  Bowser Jr. BreakdownBoss · Bowser Station (mid-boss)Time your hits on a Dice Block to charge an attack on Bowser Jr. Land on one of his spaces and you lose points.
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  Diddy’s Banana BlastBoss · DK’s Jungle Ruins (bonus game)Not a fight: launch yourself from swaying Barrel Cannons to grab Bananas.
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  Wiggler BounceBoss · Toad Road (boss)Ground-pound the segments of a giant Wiggler, three points for a red one and one for purple, and avoid the Piranha Plants.
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  Bombard King Bob-ombBoss · Bob-omb Factory (boss)Pick a Bob-omb to throw, the bigger the better, but if two players choose the same size neither throws. Bombard Big Bob-omb in the UK.
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  King Boo’s Puzzle AttackBoss · Boo’s Horror Castle (boss)A match-three puzzle: line up items to attack King Boo, with lightning bolts hitting hardest.
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  Blooper BarrageBoss · Blooper Beach (boss)Fire cannons at Blooper and knock away the Urchins that come back at you.
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  Chain Chomp RompBoss · Magma Mine (boss)Choose a mine cart and hope its track ends at a cannon pointed at the Chain Chomp, not in its path.
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  Bowser’s Block BattleBoss · Bowser Station (boss)Throw dice marked with the players’ faces and fire the energy balls they yield at Bowser.
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  DK’s Banana BonusBoss · DK’s Jungle Ruins (bonus game)Fire yourself from cannon to cannon to reach the Bananas hanging in the air.
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  Castle ClearoutExtraA marble puzzle for one or two: drop and rotate marbles to clear groups of six or more of one colour.
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  Shell SoccerExtraThe game’s only two-against-two contest: knock over the other team’s seven Goombas with a shell. In Superstars.
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  Goomba Bowling (Extras)ExtraThe bowling game stretched to five frames of two throws each, with strikes and spares.

The people who made it

Names and roles from the staff roll, as transcribed by Super Mario Wiki.

Nintendo did not publish an Iwata Asks interview for Mario Party 9. The nearest thing is the one for Wii Party, two years earlier, in which the same people explain who NDcube are.

New studio, old hands

Mario Party 9 is the first game in the series not developed by Hudson Soft, and by the time it came out there was no Hudson to develop it: according to Wikipedia, Konami absorbed and dissolved the company on 1 March 2012, the day before the European release. The work had passed to NDcube, the studio now known as Nintendo Cube.

But the credits read like those of Mario Party 8. Shuichiro Nishiya is the game director again, Hiroshi Sato and Atsushi Ikeda the producers, Kenji Kikuchi the senior director, Tatsumitsu Watanabe in charge of planning. In the Iwata Asks interview for Wii Party in 2010, Ikeda, by then on the board of NDcube, says plainly, “Nishiya and I used to work at Hudson”, and tells Satoru Iwata that they had made eight Mario Party games for home consoles and more for handhelds. Wii Party was made by the same team at the new company; Mario Party 9 was their return to the series, and Super Mario Wiki notes how much of Wii Party’s rules, controls and results screens came with them.

From E3 2011 to the shops

The game was announced at E3 in June 2011 with a trailer. In that early build Toad Road was simpler: where the finished board has 9 Island there was a plain round island, and the on-screen lettering was modelled on Super Mario 64. The final game switched to the typeface introduced in Super Mario 3D Land and, the wiki notes, never uses the traditional Mario Party font. The logo changed too.

Europe got the game first, on 2 March 2012, with Australia, North America and Japan following over the next eight weeks. It was the first Mario Party to be localised separately into Latin American Spanish and Canadian French, and the British English text is its own adaptation, which is why Kamek and Big Bob-omb in Europe are Magikoopa and King Bob-omb in America. Super Mario Wiki records it as the last Mario game released for the Wii.

Why the car?

No statement from the developers about the vehicle was found for this page, but Nintendo’s own description gives the official reasoning: the vehicles “help to streamline gameplay and keep everyone involved in the action”. With everyone on screen for every roll, and every roll capable of hurting or helping any player, there is less of the waiting about that reviewers had complained of in Mario Party 7.

The idea had a precedent of sorts. Super Mario Wiki points out that Mario Party Advance also moved its player round the board in a car, and that the Toad Mobile resembles it. The boss fights came from Mario Party DS, and the look of the boards from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, whose character poses and jumping sound the game borrows.

What Mario Party 9 changed, from Super Mario Wiki’s list of differences from the games before it.

There are no button codes. Everything is earned in Solo Mode or bought with Party Points in the Museum.

Unlock Shy Guy and Kamek

Finish Solo Mode. Both become playable in every other mode. Neither can be used in Solo Mode itself, where they are your opponents.

Unlock Bowser Station

Either finish Solo Mode or play each of the first five boards once in Party Mode.

Unlock DK’s Jungle Ruins

Buy it in the Museum for 500 Party Points.

Unlock Boss Rush

Finish Solo Mode, then buy it in the Museum for 500 Party Points. It offers six or all twelve boss fights, scored 5, 3, 2 and 1 points by placing; the two Donkey Kong bonus games are not included.

Earning Party Points

A game of Party Mode pays your final Mini Star total, up to 999, with a minimum of 10. Handicap Mini Stars do not count. Finishing Solo Mode pays 500 plus all the Mini Stars you ended its boards with. Each Minigame Mode game pays 10, and Free Play 1 for each minigame finished.

What the Museum sells

Two extra vehicles for each board at 200 Party Points each, the third always themed on that board’s boss; fifty constellations at 50 points each; sound tests; Boss Rush and DK’s Jungle Ruins. A firework over your constellations costs 1 point.

Surviving Solo Mode

You do not have to win every board yourself. A tie with Shy Guy or Kamek counts, and so does a win by one of your computer allies. Only an outright win by one of Bowser’s pair sends you back to the start of the board. In two-player duels a minigame pays 5 Mini Stars to the winner and 1 to the loser.

Pass the hazard on

On Bob-omb Factory, Boo’s Horror Castle, Blooper Beach and Magma Mine the board’s hazard takes half the Mini Stars of whoever is Captain when it strikes. Count the spaces, and use a 0-1 or 1-2-3 Dice Block to stop short so that the next player is at the wheel when the Bob-omb goes off or the magma arrives.

Strike the last blow

In boss battles the final hit carries a bonus, three points in most fights and ten against King Boo. It is often worth holding back a strong attack until the health bar is nearly empty.

Perspective Mode

In Extras, ten of the regular minigames can be replayed from a different, more difficult camera angle.

SLB’s own cheats page for the game is linked under Reference below.

Two trailers as uploaded to the YouTube channel named Wii (youtube.com/@wii); YouTube’s data gives only that name, not who runs it. They are the reveal from E3 2011 and a later one on Captain Events and vehicles.

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  Kamek is Kamek in Europe and Magikoopa in North America, and the boss of Bob-omb Factory is Big Bob-omb in the British version and King Bob-omb in the American one, so the same minigame is Bombard Big Bob-omb or Bombard King Bob-omb depending on where you bought it.
• How many minigames? Nintendo’s page says 80, Super Mario Wiki lists 81 by counting both versions of Goomba Bowling, and Nintendo Power’s review spoke of 82 “activities”.
• The fifty constellations include Super Bro Major and Minor, Scheming Major and Minor, Koopa Major and Minor, Jungle Major and Minor, Hello Mole, Cloud Charmer, Fierce Fish and Bad Ball Boy.
• When a mid-boss is beaten its fortress self-destructs, just as the fortresses do in Super Mario World, and the tune on the results screen is an arrangement of that game’s overworld theme.
• The music that announces a boss battle is based on the opening of Bowser’s Road from Super Mario 64, and several Bowser Jr. minigames use arrangements of his themes from Super Mario Galaxy and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

• 

  The Whittles who set out the logs in Logger Heads, and cheer the winner of Step It Up, come from Super Mario Galaxy 2.
• Wiggler’s segments and Whomp’s back are both stamped with the Ground-Pound Switch symbol from Super Mario Galaxy, to show where to land.
• Goomba Spotting brings back the Goomba Tower of Super Mario 3D Land, viewed through binoculars like the ones in that game.
• A portrait in Boo’s Horror Castle shows the Mario of Super Mario Bros. jumping out of a Warp Pipe.
• The Barrel Roller, the first vehicle of DK’s Jungle Ruins, resembles the DK Jumbo kart of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, and the Toad Mobile resembles the car in Mario Party Advance.
• Toadette, playable in every home console game since Mario Party 6, is missing entirely. Super Mario Wiki notes this is the first Mario Party since the fifth in which she does not appear at all.
• For the first time since Mario Party 3 the winner gets a Superstar animation unique to this game.
• Nobody begins with a ten-sided die any more. The 1-10 Dice Block, the series’ standard since 1998, is now a special item.
• The game does not save during a board, only when it is over.
• In Europe the game was reissued as a Nintendo Selects budget title on 6 November 2014.
• According to Wikipedia it was among the final first-party Wii games to be released in North America.

The cover art, with Bowser looming in his Koopa Clown Car, was used worldwide with regional logos. Super Mario Wiki also archives a pre-release Japanese design and the editions distributed in Asia.

More from the road.

Logos, official artwork and the look of Toad Road as painted for the game.

Mario Party 9 closed the Wii’s Mario catalogue and opened the NDcube era, and the argument it started about the car ran for the rest of the decade.

Every release

• Wii (Europe) 2 March 2012The first release anywhere.
• Wii (Australia) 8 March 2012South Africa followed on 9 March and Mexico on 10 March, according to Super Mario Wiki.
• Wii (North America) 11 March 2012Launched with the Party Crashers Contest.
• Wii (Japan) 26 April 2012The Japanese release.
• Wii (Taiwan and Hong Kong) 29 June 2012A Traditional Chinese edition.
• Wii (South Korea) 11 April 2013A Korean-language edition, more than a year after Europe.
• Nintendo Selects (Europe) 6 November 2014Budget reissue.

The car drives on, then stops

NDcube followed the game with Mario Party: Island Tour on Nintendo 3DS in 2013 and Mario Party 10 on Wii U in 2015, which kept the shared vehicle. By Super Mario Party in 2018 the series had gone back to four players moving separately, and Mario Party Superstars rebuilt boards from the Nintendo 64 games.

What lasted

Plenty did. Boss minigames became a regular part of the series. The first-to-fourth ranking of minigames was used up to Mario Party: The Top 100, by Super Mario Wiki’s account. Koopa Troopa and Shy Guy were playable again in Super Mario Party, and artwork drawn for this one was still being reused a decade on, in Superstars, in Jamboree and on the box of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Ten minigames were remade for The Top 100 and four for Superstars. The series’ earlier Wii entry is Mario Party 8.

Sales

Nintendo’s Financial Results Briefing for the six months to September 2012, dated 25 October 2012, lists Mario Party 9 among its million-sellers with life-to-date sales of 2.24 million worldwide, about seven months after its European launch.

The later figure comes from the Japanese trade body CESA: Wikipedia cites its Games White Paper for 3.11 million as of 31 December 2020, which makes the game the twenty-sixth best-selling on the Wii. That is roughly a third of what Mario Party 8 managed on the same console, though Mario Party 9 arrived late in the console’s life. It is not on Nintendo’s own top-ten list for the system.

• 2.24mworldwide to September 2012 (Nintendo results briefing, 25 October 2012)
• 3.11mworldwide to 31 December 2020 (CESA, via Wikipedia)
• 73Metacritic score (45 reviews)
• 26thbest-selling Wii game (Wikipedia)

Reviews

Scores as listed by Wikipedia and Super Mario Wiki from the original reviews.

The reviews were kinder than they had been to Mario Party 8: 73 at Metacritic against 62. The Nintendo magazines were warmest. Nintendo Power found most of the activities fun while warning that some players would be put off by what it called the game’s radical changes, and that sentence sums up the reaction to the vehicle. GamesRadar admired the balance but found the boards predictable; and Wikipedia’s summary is that the overhaul got a mixed reception over its linear boards and its reliance on luck.

Luck was the constant complaint. IGN’s Samuel Claiborn liked the graphics and controls and still felt chance decided too much, Game Informer’s Kyle Hilliard called the result disheartening, and GameSpot’s Ashton Raze called the story mode something players would wish they could avoid. Destructoid’s Jonathan Holmes called it solid and fun in spite of some hard-to-ignore faults.

Super Luigi Bros readers have reviewed Mario Party 9 over the years. Their write-ups are kept exactly as they were sent in:

• Review by SuperPhillip

Played it? If you’d like to add your own review, please get in touch.

Every fact on this page was checked against the 16 sources listed here.