Mario Party

Mario Party is one of the first games that try to tie real-life friends into the world of video gaming. The success usually depended upon whether or not the game's owners had any real-life friends. It's spawned a large amount of sequels, released mainly on home consoles, but there have also been GBA, DS and e-Reader entries for the series.

Debug Menu
Use the Gameshark code for USA version,  for Japan, and  for PAL. The game drops you right at the debug menu. (Disable it afterwards so you won't get stuck in here.) Note that the Donkey Kong render in the background is just a silhouette with a question mark in it, which may indicate the debug menu was created before Nintendo had obtained Rare's permission to use the Donkey Kong model.

This large list contains all of the game's mini-games, and then some. Selecting a mini-game with A goes to the character select screen. Press Left/Right to choose your character, A to confirm your character, and Start to start the mini-game. Also, pressing the R button changes the game mode.

Pressing Z on the game list opens the options menu, where you can set various player options.

Some special stuff is:

@MOTION CHECK (81)
This appears to be a test room. There is a large sunflower in the middle (from Coin Shower Flower), a slope at the top where you slide down, and a spinning thing that hurts everyone.

RANDOM PLAY (90)
This is a strange game mode. It works similar to the main game, but there is no board, instead random mini-games are played one after another. The tally screen displayed between the minigames doesn't otherwise appear anywhere within the game. It appears to use the same pictures that are used as the background in the debug menu, including the "missing" DK render. There are no explanation screens and no results screen. All kinds of games are selected; 4-player games, 2-vs-2 games, 1-vs-3 games and one-player games. The position of the players is determined at random, displayed on the screen using "MAIN" and "SUB". Pressing B changes the minigame which will be played, even allowing one to access the dummied out "All or Nothing" minigame detailed below. This was more than likely a debug test of the minigame randomiser which appears at the end of each turn.

Sequential Play
This doesn't seem to be available via Debug Mode, but can only be reached directly by GameShark. After one game is played, it seems to return to the game no matter what. Otherwise, except for the background being orange, it is really similar to the Random Play above.

To warp yourself to this mode, use the Gameshark cheat. It is recommended to enable this code from the debug menu or else every character will be Mario.

64DD support
Mario Party supports the 64DD for a possible game add-on. While the US version displays a black screen when there's a 64DD attached to the system, the Japanese and European versions ACTUALLY recognize the 64DD (as there's technically only two region versions with both JP/EU and US) and checks for the disk. If it's the wrong disk, an error will appear in either Japanese, English, French, or German depending on the selected language.

Unused Mini-Games
There are a few mini-games in the code that are never actually used.

All or Nothing
This mini-game is called いちかばちか (All or Nothing) and the explanation screen appears to be for an early version of Chance Time. Instead of various symbols to transfer stuff between players, however, according to the unused advice text, the blocks featured Mario and Bowser marks, and you had to get the Mario mark to win the game. This mini-game was likely removed because it depended too much on luck, although it can be accessed via the debug menu and Random Play. As can be expected, you are taken to the final version of Chance Time after leaving this screen, although due to the unusual means of access and the fact that the data processes it as a 1 player minigame when at least 2 characters will be featured on screen, it freezes in place after the blocks are hit. This minigame can be accessed with the GameShark code.

Tour de Mario
Called ツールドマリオ (Tour de Mario) in the game, this appears to have been a cycling mini-game. The preview icon, strangely, is a black image with the text "Now Printing!" on it. There's also large Japanese text overlaid across the explanation screen that says "under construction." It likely was simply not finished in time. Strangely, starting this minigame takes you to Bumper Ball Maze 1 as Wario. Use the GameShark code to access this minigame.

Bungee Jump
In the ROM, one can find the string "Bungee Jump". However, the explanation screen of this mini-game cannot be triggered; the game freezes before it appears. It was most likely cut in the early stages of development. It can be "accessed" through the GameShark code.

Same Game
q4MQog8DzRY This mini-game is actually fully functional, and can be played through the use of a GameShark code. It is a 1-player game which works just like the actual Same Game. The tiles are underneath your character, and you ground-pound to remove sections. If you manage to clear all of the tiles, you can grab the treasure chest underneath; otherwise, you must go through one of the doors, which nets you a single coin. To play this game in the North American version, use the Gameshark code.

An explanation screen doesn't exist for this mini-game, but a preview icon was created for it:

Yoshi's Tongue Meeting
rLpAx6JDR1o This mini-game is partly functional, but obviously still incomplete. Characters sit atop a Yoshi on the left side (unless you are Yoshi, in which case you're just standing in the same pose without a rider), with a baby Wiggler on their tongues. The tongue extends to the Wiggler's mother and you have to unite them by pressing A at the right moment. Too soon, and they won't reunite, too late and the baby will kick its mom into the bush. The music and sounds are all broken in this mini-game, and there's debug text which shows whether or not you succeeded. Also, as with Same Game, no explanation screen exists. To play this game in the North American version, use the Gameshark code.

No Game
The following GameShark code will enable a particularly weird feature never used anywhere in the game:

8004CF47 0003 8004CF4F 0003 8004CF57 0003

On the board, when a character's turn ends, their HUD will turn yellow (a color not normally used, only red, blue and green occur naturally). When the turn ends...



...a big "NO GAME" sign appears, and the game moves on to the next turn, without playing a mini-game.



If it's the last turn, a GAME OVER will appear on the screen. The board ending will then play as usual.

Region-Specific Unused Music
The track "Move to the Mambo" is used in the European and Japanese versions, but not in the American version. There are two mini-games which use the song, and their replacement songs are listed below.

Sound Effects
Two of the characters' voice clips have been replaced in the American and European versions due to religious references. These replacements are maintained in all versions of Mario Party 2.

Mini-Game Differences
In the Japanese version, the background that appears in the Face Lift mini-game reads "Super Koopa 64" while all other versions read "Super Bowser 64".