History ThatOneLevel / MarioParty

* Mecha Marathon, when playing against the computers. It seems like a pretty simple button-mashing minigame, but here's the catch -- the AI is inhumanly fast at this minigame. You'll be struggling to make it past 20 meters while the AI has fun breaking 30 meter records on ''easy mode''. What make it even worse is the fact that you have to be press two buttons at te same time repeatedly, and if you don't, you will not have any hopes of making it.

Nothing here yet!

** It got worse when you consider that the analog stick on N64 controllers could injure one's hands. Nintendo offered free pairs of gloves to some of those afflicted and stopped using rotating the control stick as a control method in any future minigames. According to The Runaway Guys, this is the reason ''Mario Party 1'' has never been released on the Wii's Virtual Console.

* Bowser Jr. Breakdown, the midboss of Bowser Station. Many people have accused this mini-game of being ''completely'' luck based, as all you do is roll a Dice Block and hope you're lucky (Bombard King Bob-omb, Whomp Stomp, and Bowser's Block Battle are also luck-based, but at least '''THEY'' had some element of strategy to them, when playing with human players at the least.

* Peach's Birthday Cake. Want to get to the star? First, you have to fork over 10 coins to Goomba, and then he mixes up four seeds in a "flower lottery" to determine whether you get to move forward. The bad thing is you have a one-in-four chance of picking a Bowser Seed, which drags you over to Bowser's cake. Here, when you make a full revolution, you have to pay 20 coins to Bowser, and then you're forced to play the flower lottery again. The star never moves from its spot on this board, so if you're down on your luck, you could potentially be visiting Bowser's cake for most of the game, starless and most likely coinless. To add insult to injury, you can set up Piranha Plant traps via Happening Spaces, and when an opposing player steps on it, you automatically steal his star. Since the star technically costs 30 coins to obtain on this board, most players will very likely find themselves planting Piranha Plants and fighting over one or two stars.

* Pyramid Park. Do I really need a description here? Nope. Because it follows the exact same rules as Snowflake Lake.
* Pagoda Peak played in solo mode. You only need one star, except that it costs an outrageous '''''100 FREAKIN' COINS'''''! Good luck trying to get that much, since this board is a one way path up to the star. There's even a happening space at the two moves away from the star that will make a dragon chomp you and spit you out... back to the start!

* Bowser Station played on Story mode. Having two AI opponents and requiring 1st place is steep, but fits the difficulty curve up to that point. Even having the two [[GangUpOnTheHuman collaborate]] is frustrating, but makes narrative sense. Things go a step too far when the AI '''blatantly''' [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheats]], always getting ideal dice rolls for themselves and quite possibly fudging yours too, resulting in mini-star gains that simply cannot be offset by minigame skill. Adding insult to injury, the board's miniboss is completely die roll based (and vulnerable to the same AI cheats), and even the final boss is luck-sensitive. Pretty much the only way to get a victory not based on trying over and over until the AI lets up is exploiting the "Wager half of everyone's stars" Bowser event to put that insurmountable lead right back in your pocket at the last moment, but getting that is - you guessed it - luck-based.
* Bowser Jr. Breakdown, the midboss of the final board. Many people have accused this mini-game of being ''completely'' luck based, as all you do is roll a Dice Block and hope you're lucky (Bombard King Bob-omb, Whomp Stomp, and Bowser's Block Battle are also luck-based, but at least '''THEY'' had some element of strategy to them, when playing with human players at the least.

* Pirate Land. The board was two landmasses separated by a bridge, and nine times out of ten, the star would be on the other side of the bridge. This bridge had three happening spaces on it, and if anyone landed on one, the entire bridge would go down, taking all the players on the bridge back to the start. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, there were Whomps on the other side that fined one coin or higher for the first player, and if the first player gave them more than one coin, the amount the next player would have to pay would be the same amount the first player paid. If the first player had somehow obtained 30 coins, he or she (or it, as the AI for computer players favored this strategy) could pay the Whomp ten coins and still have 20 left over for the star, putting the amount at 10 coins for the rest of the game. This put the three other players in a world of hurt.

* The final board, played on Story mode. Having two AI opponents and requiring 1st place is steep, but fits the difficulty curve up to that point. Even having the two [[GangUpOnTheHuman collaborate]] is frustrating, but makes narrative sense. Things go a step too far when the AI '''blatantly''' [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheats]], always getting ideal dice rolls for themselves and quite possibly fudging yours too, resulting in mini-star gains that simply cannot be offset by minigame skill. Adding insult to injury, the board's miniboss is completely die roll based (and vulnerable to the same AI cheats), and even the final boss is luck-sensitive. Pretty much the only way to get a victory not based on trying over and over until the AI lets up is exploiting the "Wager half of everyone's stars" Bowser event to put that insurmountable lead right back in your pocket at the last moment, but getting that is - you guessed it - luck-based.

* Slot Car Derby. It's a racing minigame, but instead of turning with the stick, you use it to speed up and slow down. If you go too fast, you spin out when you reach the corners. This minigame wouldn't be so bad, except the computer players play it ''perfectly,'' and you, on the other hand, are either be frantically slowing down around every corner (allowing them to gain more ground) or ending up spinning out trying to catch up. It was also made worse in ''Mario Party 2,'' where Nintendo added about ''three to four more corners'' to the tracks.

* Pipe Maze. Not too bad when on the trio side, but somewhat hard when being the solo. The solo player has to try to get the treasure chest down to therself. It starts at the bottom, and then rises to the top. There are forks in the pipes. Easy trying to follow it, right? Nope, because the screen scrolls up ''too fast''. So good luck.

* Pirate Land. The board was two landmasses separated by a bridge, and nine times out of ten, the star* would be on the other side of the bridge. This bridge had three happening spaces on it, and if anyone landed on one, the entire bridge would go down, taking all the players on the bridge back to the start. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, there were Whomps on the other side that fined one coin or higher for the first player, and if the first player gave them more than one coin, the amount the next player would have to pay would be the same amount the first player paid. If the first player had somehow obtained 30 coins, he or she (or it, as the AI for computer players favored this strategy) could pay the Whomp ten coins and still have 20 left over for the star, putting the amount at 10 coins for the rest of the game. This put the three other players in a world of hurt.

* Pagoda Peak played in solo mode. You only need one star expect that it costs and outrageous '''''100 FREAKIN' COINS'''''! It's good luck trying to get that much, since this board is a one way path up to the star. There's even a happening space at the two moves away from the star that will make a dragon chomp you and spit you out... back to the start!

* King Boo's Haunted Hideaway. First off, the board is randomized every time someone gets the star, making more like a complete luck board. Next, the parts of the mansion won't show up on the map until someone goes through the path. Oh, and there are 3 throne rooms, but only one of them holds the star... the other two are just big you-just-screwed-up pits that will send you back to the start. What makes this board worse is that if someone reaches the throne room with the star, but they either don't want the star (CP Us never do this) or can't afford it (the price for a star on this board is 10 coins; players can't afford the star if they have 9 or less coins), then they fall into a random pit and back to the start. But that not's the worst part of that incident. The worst part? The throne room with the star is marked with a star after an incident like this, and if someone looks at the map, they'll know EXACTLY where to go to get the star, and they'll go down the path to the star (at least if they have enough coins to buy it).

* Goomba's Booty Boardwalk and Shy Guy's Perplex Express played in solo mode. It follows the exact same rules as Pagoda Peak in solo mode, except the price is toned down to 50 coins instead of 100. Goomba's Booty Boardwalk plays more like Pagoda Peak, though, because it's also a one-way path to the star (worse yet is that there are dolphins which can take you farther to the star, which can be advantedgeous to AI players; similar to those bottle rockets from Pagoda Peak).

* The 1 vs. 3 mini-game Mob Sleds. It is isn't so bad in it's normal version, but when played in Perspective Mode, this mini-game is ''hell''. First off, you're ALWAYS the solo player. What makes this challenge dreadful is that camera is zoomed ''right in to you''. And just because of that, you are unable to see your opponents coming through. Also the fact that the ice is slippery, and you're gonna be sliding ''everywhere''. This is basically just pure luck. Good luck.
* The final board, played on Story mode. Having two AI opponent and requiring 1st place is steep, but fits the difficulty curve up to that point. Even having the two collaborate is frustrating, but makes narrative sense. Things go a step too far when the AI '''blatantly''' cheats, always getting ideal dice rolls for themselves and quite possibly fudging yours too, resulting in mini-star gains that simply cannot be offset by minigame skill. Adding insult to injury, the board's miniboss is completely die roll based (and vulnerable to the same AI cheats), and even the final boss is luck-sensitive. Pretty much the only way to get a victory not based on trying over and over until the AI lets up is exploiting the "Wager half of everyone's stars" Bowser event to put that insurmountable lead right back in your pocket at the last moment, but getting that is - you guessed it - luck-based.
* Bowser Jr. Breakdown, the midboss of the final board. Many people have accused this mini-game for being ''completely'' luck based, as all you do is roll a Dice Block and hope you're lucky (Bombard King Bob-omb, Whomp Stomp, and Bowser's Block Battle are also luck-based, but at least '''THEY'' had some element strategy to them, [[hottip:*:When playing with human players at the least.]]

* Waluigi's Island. One area of the board, right near the start, is a circle, with several happening spaces (as well as blue spaces) and a counter starting at 5. Every time someone lands on a happening space in this circle, the counter decreases by 1. Once it reaches 0, everyone in the circle loses all their coins and it resets to 5. The worst thing about this is that there is no way to leave this circle (unless you have a Warp Block or a Magic Lamp), except for a directional roulette to the north, which has three different speeds: moderate, fast, and extremely fast, that change each time it's used. Unfortunately, the roulette seems to be rigged for human players, especially at higher speeds; whereas computer players usually get out of the circle, the roulette frequently sends human players back into the circle unless it's at the slowest speed. Aside from that, another part of the board has two passages, one of which contains a trap that sends you back to the start.

* Waluigi's Island. One area of the board, right near the start, is a circle, with several happening spaces (as well as blue spaces) and a counter starting at 5. Every time someone lands on a happening space in this circle, the counter decreases by 1. Once it reaches 0, everyone in the circle loses all their coins and it resets to 5. The worst thing about this is that there is no way to leave this circle (unless you have a Warp Block or a Magic Lamp), except for a directional roulette to the north. Unfortunately, the roulette seems to be rigged for human players; whereas computer players usually get out of the circle, the roulette frequently sends human players back into the circle. Aside from that, another part of the board has two passages, one of which contains a trap that sends you back to the start.

* Any of the Bowser mini-games. '''ANY'''. '''ONE'''. '''OF'''. '''THEM'''. But special mention goes to Darts of Doom, an very hard mini-game involving, you guessed it, darts. You throw darts trying to get the highest score as possible. Actually, that's wrong. After everyone throws their darts, whoever gets the lowest score must pay up. But if someone throws a dart at the bullseye, they automatically lose.

* Any of the Bowser mini-games. '''ANY'''. '''ONE'''. '''OF'''. '''THEM'''. But special mention goes to Darts of Doom, an very hard mini-game involving, you guessed it, darts. You throw darts trying to get the highest score as possible. Actually, that's wrong. After everyone throws their darts, however got the lowest score must pay up. But if someone throws a dart at the bullseye, they automatically lose.

Nothing here yet!

* Waluigi's Island. One area of the board, right near the start, is a circle, with several ? spaces (as well as blue spaces) and a counter starting at 5. Every time someone lands on a ? space in this circle, the counter decreases by 1. Once it reaches 0, everyone in the circle loses all their coins and it resets to 5. The worst thing about this is that there is no way to leave this circle (unless you have a Warp Block or a Magic Lamp), except for a directional roulette to the north. Unfortunately, the roulette seems to be rigged for human players; whereas computer players usually get out of the circle, the roulette frequently sends human players back into the circle. Aside from that, another part of the board has two passages, one of which contains a trap that sends you back to the start.

* Waluigi's Island. One area of the board, right near the start, is a circle, with several ? spaces and a counter starting at 5. Every time someone lands on a ? space in this circle, the counter decreases by 1. Once it reaches 0, everyone in the circle loses all their coins and it resets to 5. The worst thing about this is that there is no way to leave this circle (unless you have a Warp Block or a Magic Lamp), except for a directional roulette to the north. Unfortunately, the roulette seems to be rigged for human players; whereas computer players usually get out of the circle, the roulette frequently sends human players back into the circle. Aside from that, another part of the board has two passages, one of which contains a trap that sends you back to the start.

Nothing here yet!

* The coin mini-game Grab Bag. Everyone has bags containing their current amount of coins. To earn coins, you have to rape your opponent from behind. Except it's hard because of course your opponents are trying to rape you, too. Cue the fact that sometimes there's only 1 coin, and sometimes there's a bag of 5 coins.

* Magma Mine. It's all fine on the board... up until after the players destroy the mid-boss. The magma will rise, and if it reaches the vehicle high enough, the current captain will lose half of his Mini-Stars. Worse, there are spaces that causes the magma to rise more than it should. You've also got fork paths, as usual. The captain decides which direction they'll go, right? Wrong. Instead, the direction is decided by this thing called the "Which Way Wheel". Everyone has to choose the direction he wants to go, and the wheel will spin. Once it lands on a character, the vehicle will go the direction that player wants to go. At least it's all nice and easy at the top, until you consider the wrath of Bowser at the "Almost There!" flag...

* This game is unbelievably infamous for having minigames that required you to rotate the control stick really fast. The worst of these games was Pedal Power, in which you had to use a bike to power up a light bulb to light the room before a boo grabbed you. Even the computer players couldn't beat it. There's also Tug o' War and Cast Aways, which are also undoubtably hard.
** It got worse when you consider that the analog stick on N64 controllers could injure one's hands. Nintendo offered free pairs of gloves to some of those afflicted and stopped using rotating the control stick as a control method in any future minigames. According to The Runaway Guys, this is the reason Mario Party 1 has never been released on the Wii's Virtual Console.

* Peach's Birthday Cake. Want to get to the star? First, you have to fork over ten coins to Goomba, and then he mixes up four seeds in a "flower lottery" to determine if you get to move forward. The bad thing is you have a one-in-four chance of picking a Bowser Seed, which drags you over to Bowser's cake. Here, when you make a full revolution, you have to pay 20 coins to Bowser, and then you're forced to play the flower lottery again. The star never moves from its spot on this board, so if you're down on your luck, you could potentially be visiting Bowser's cake for most of the game, starless and most likely coinless. To add insult to injury, you can set up Piranha Plant traps via Happening Spaces, and when a player steps on it, you automatically steal their star. Since the star technically costs 30 coins to obtain on this board, most players will more than likely find themselves planting Piranha Plants and fighting over one or two stars.

* Pushy Penguins. You don't know the mini-game? It's just basically about you and your opponents on an iceberg with penguins trying to kick you off. It's like a maze, only you have literally 3 seconds to even get past it before you're out. That is all.

* The Snowflake Lake board takes this game to it's finest [[ThatOneLevel level]]. This isn't like other board; instead of collecting stars for random prices, you have to ''steal'' stars from your opponents. It goes that far.

* Magma Mine. It's all fine on the board... up until after destroying the mid-boss. The magma will rise, and if it reaches the vehicle high enough, the current captain will lose half of their Mini-Stars. Worse, there are spaces that causes the magma to rise more than it should. You've also got fork paths, as usual. The captain decides which direction they'll go, right? Wrong. Instead, the direction is decided by this thing called the "Which Way Wheel". Everyone has to choose the direction they want to go, and the wheel will spin. Once it lands on a character, the vehicle will go the direction that player wants to go. At least it's all nice and easy at the top, until you consider the wrath of Bowser at the "Almost There!" flag...
[[/folder]]

** It got worse when you consider that the analog stick on N64 controllers could injure one's hands. Nintendo offered free pairs of gloves to some of those afflicted and stopped using rotating the control stick as a control method in any future minigames.
According to The Runaway Guys, this is the reason Mario Party 1 has never been released on the Wii's Virtual Console.
** However, the GameCube and Classic Controller control sticks are much, much better than the N64 sticks, so hopefully Nintendo will reconsider if the above statement is true.

[[folder:Mario Party 7]]
* How about that freaking 2 vs. 2 mini-game Battery Ram? This mini-game requires you and your partner to carry a battery to the goal. Unfortunately, it doesn't look easy as it sounds. It's pretty much like a perplexing maze, and the thing you and your partner are holding that carries the battery is pretty long, meaning it can only make 135 degree turns (or 90 degrees in one area). Really frustrating and hard.
* Any of the multiplayer Bowser mini-games, with the worst being Funderwall, which is saying something. Basically, you and your opponents are climbing a wall trying to avoid gunshots from Koopa Kids. If you even touch one gunshot, you're out. And to jam up the difficulty, there are spinners that will make you out, too. Your opponents will rarely beat it.
** Magmagical Journey is pretty bad, too, because the platforms seem to be too spaced out, plus the addition of more gunshots from more Koopa Kids.