Mario Party 2 / YMMV

Best Level Ever:
- Horror Land. It has an extensive day/night feature, and Big Boo who can put you miles ahead of the rest. He'll let you steal coins from all three of the other players if you have 15 coins, and one star from each of the other players, up to three stars, if you have 150 coins. Although trying to reach him is risky, as he's behind a locked door which requires a Skeleton Key, and he'll only appear if you pass by him at night. Better yet, this board returns in Superstars, and its unique day/night concept also inspired a whole premise for a later game in the series.
- Bowser Land is a pretty neat board for a variety of reasons:
  - The ? Spaces do many different things depending on what's close to it, which was the second time this happened in a Mario Party game^note.
  - The Banks loaned out money, instead of making players deposit them whenever they passed by, meaning that you had to avoid a huge payload instead of trying to get a jackpot. Every time someone gets a loan, it's 5 coins, and that number is added to a "principle and interest" total. Landing on the Bank Space directly in this board forces that player to pay back said principle and interest from their coin total. If they do not have enough coins to cover the total, the Bank will take all the coins they have and scold them. If they had zero coins, the bank will take a Star from them as payment. Lastly, if the player has absolutely no stars or coins? The bank teller will get furious and futilely threaten to sue them (nothing will come of it), but the balance is still reset to zero.
  - There are two Item Shops rather than one. The one in the southwest corner is a regular Item Shop, but the one in the northeast corner is a Bowser Item Shop that will forcibly sell a player a random item for a few more coins than it's normally worth, plus they can sell Bowser Bombs to bring Bowser onto the board. If a player already has an item, they won't bother him/her.
  - The Bowser Parade. For this last one, there are three castle offices in the west, north, and east where one can pay to change the direction of Bowser footprints in the actual board (the path set up at the start of the game takes it straight down the middle and then turns east towards the Start area). A Bowser Parade will kick off the start of every 5th turn provided there is a player in the final path, and anyone who is in the way of the parade will be chased back to the Start area and lose 2 coins for every space they pass over on the way back. This special event predates the Bowser Time concept from Mario Party 7.
  - Its amazing soundrack, which evokes a sense of excitement and intimidation.
Demographically Inappropriate Humour: "Bobsled Run" is a minigame where the sleds, resembling penguins, have visbile recta (represented by an X).
Even Better Sequel: The first game was well received and still seen as fun, but the sequel is widely agreed to have taken everything good about it and made it much better while either cutting or greatly improving its weaker elements.
Growing the Beard: 2 took the best parts of the first game and refined them while adding many new elements that are still present even in the later games such as items, duels, battle mini-games, and more dynamic boards. Some fans will even argue that this game is the pinnacle of the series.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- The minigame "Filet Relay" has the characters dress up as penguins as they deliver a fish to a group of little penguins. Several years later, New Super Mario Bros. Wii introduced the Penguin Suit.
- In "Western Land", every player gets to dress up as cowboys. Cue Princess Peach: Showtime! and one of Princess Peach's outfits is Cowgirl Peach.
Improved Second Attempt: The game is seen by some as less of a sequel and more of a second attempt at the first game due it staying relatively close to the first game and even reusing many of the minigames from the first. The end result is one of the most popular picks for the best game in the series.
It's Short, So It Sucks!: The minigame "Dizzy Dancing" was initially criticized for being too short because it ended instantly the moment anyone grabs the single clef, making it anti-climactic despite the Interface Screw mechanic it features. The Top 100 and Superstars rectified this and extended its length by adding more clefs to collect and overhauling its functionality, so that whoever grabs the most clefs when time runs out wins.
Memetic Mutation: The Boat Toad Dance in looks like he's humping something. Ted of BrainScratch Commentaries can be thanked for this one.
Ted: Hump Hump Hump Hump Hump Hump Hump Hump…
Nintendo Hard: Minigame Coaster on Hard. It forces you to perform and win every minigame in a predetermined order on Hard mode. You have a very limited amount of lives, much like the earlier platformer games, lose one every time you failed a minigame, and you only earn 1UPs from invoking Law of 100 with the coins you win from cleared minigames. If you lose all your lives in any world, you must start all over from your last savepoint (which is at the start of each world), and the last couple of worlds both have 6 stages in them. The final few stages have mostly button-mashing minigames, and the computer is usually very good at these types of games. The absolute final stage only has one repeat of a Mini-game played higher up in the coaster, but the "Toad" in front of it asks you a trick question about whether or not you want to start the entire coaster over. The actual Mini-game is a second round of "Shell-Shocked", but it counts as a one-vs-three match because you're up against three Koopa Kid tanks who will try to gang up on you.
Paranoia Fuel:
- The Bowser Bomb is a horrible item that could potentially undo all of your hard work. If one gets the Bomb (which can only be "won" while playing an Item game), then at the end of the turn, the bomb is activated into Bowser, who hits his own number blocks, wanders around the level, and steals all the coins of whomever he encounters ^note. Also, after receiving the item during the game, the announcer says in a worried tone of voice "Got Item?" as the music crawls to a scary stop and the player realizes that they're hosed. Worse, it can happen easier than you think, like if you're being careless...^note
- In Bowser Land, there's his own special parade, which depending on how far away you are from start or the number of coins you have, if you're in the route, it will chase you back to the beginning and potentially take all your money. Also, if you run out of money, still have a star in that land, and land on a bank space and money is owed, then Baby Bowser will take your star as payment, all set to a rather creepy, distorted tune.
- The Multiplying Toads. Granted, this occurrence is particularly rare, but it still puts into perspective the unpredictability of the game and that Baby Bowser is more troublesome than he looks. There's no real way to tell which Toad is the legit one without the Magic Lamp and if after forking over 20 coins he says "OK, here's your Shining Star", you know you've just been had.
Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: "Handcar Havoc" from the first game was an infamous minigame that had buggy mechanics and was considered very difficult to win against the AI, namely in how easy it was to fall off the track. The second game's version made it impossible to lose by fixing the controls and the design of the level, making it a fan favorite where it replaced the original version in the Top 100 games.
Sequel Difficulty Spike: The Minigame Coaster is much more difficult than its predecessor, Minigame Island in 1. Firstly, you no longer win extra lives by simply winning a minigame; instead, the amount of coins you earn is multiplied by your consecutive wins. You can't go backwards or replay beaten minigames anymore, meaning you can no longer grind up coins from a game you're good at, or even save your progress until you get to the next save space. There are also no branching paths, meaning you have to win every minigame in order whether you want to or not. Also, if you want to get the rewards from it, you have to beat it on Normal first (which stops after the sixth world) and then beat it on Hard. Also, the final minigame is brutal compared to the first game — in the original, you raced Toad in Slot Car Derby, who was simply a really good NPC. On Minigame Coaster, you have to face three Koopa Kids on Shell Shocked (normally a free-for-all) where they actively team up against you. Considering the second game axed control stick spinning, it's pretty telling that Minigame Island hardly compares.
Scrappy Mechanic: You can only hold one item, and said item cannot be discarded freely. You have to use it to open up the slot and be able to receive a new item. Getting burdened with a Skeleton Key in particular can be incredibly irritating, as they can only be used at doors in specific parts of each board.
Special Effect Failure: While understandable due to the N64 hardware limitations, the two players on each side in Dungeon Dash are meant to be holding ropes attached to the skis, but because no ropes are visible, it makes them look like they're performing a Zombie Gait.
Woolseyism: While swapping out the Revolvers in Western Land's ending cut-scene for Family-Friendly Firearms was clearly to keep the age rating down. It fits the premise of the game being a play performed by the cast and adds extra humor with Bowser's shot blatantly flying over the winner's head and his over the top reaction to getting hit with a cork.

YMMV / Mario Party 2

Edit Locked