This game honestly is one of the N64 Games that is so near and dear to my heart, the many memories I used to have playing with my family to the insane luck I'd used to have and everyone thought I was cheating, this is that game. It feels weird knowing that I grew up with this game and to thank it for everything it's given me I want to try and give it a really good swing at the review block and try my best to explain why I think this is possibly one of the best Mario Party games, however at the same time being a bit critical of what it did and analyzing it as a whole instead of just giving a flat out straight answer.

For this review I'll be doing the same as I did with the Mario Party review I did earlier in 2019 and giving you the good, bad, and ugly. But first here's a bit of history about this game to give a better look at what made it what it is.

Originally this game released nearly a year after it's previous entry, and ironically releasing only 9 months after it's initial launch in the US. It's crazy to think this is initially what would nip Hudson Soft in the ass after releasing game after game because for a while nobody really seemed to notice that.

One of the things that this game does is reuse a lot of Mini-games and Assets from the first game, while not entirely it does have a feeling of DejaVu and really starts to become apparent after you notice that a whopping 21 games were re-used from the first game either albeit not entirely or completely the same with a bit of minor tweaking. It's not inherently a bad thing to reuse assets but I'll explain a bit of my quarrel with it as I go into the actual review aspect.

This game would nearly go on to sell as much as the prior entry and in fans eyes see to be the definitive game on the N64. While now and days I believe 3 is the best of the N64 Trilogy (Which I know tons of people will argue about that on me.) I still do hold this game near and dear to my heart. With that, here's my full review of the 2nd Coming of Christ aka. Mario Party 2

Graphic

One of the things I will give credit to this game is that while still sticking to the per-rendered style for boards and 3D Backgrounds for things such as Minigames and Hub Areas of the sort, I think there was something done this time around that made the texture work look much nicer and when you compare it to 1 it can be a bit hard to notice.

There is one problem I have with this however because the same models from 1 are reused again for 2. Not a totally bad thing, plus the give them outfits for each of the boards they're in which I personally think is a feature that should actually come back one of these days, legitimately wasted potential. However that's besides the point, there is a lot of re-using of same assets in this game and it'll become more clear this was built completely entirely of the first game only having a year release. Other then that, I'm quite good with how everything looks personally.

Sound

I think it's a bit controversial of a statement but I absolutely think that 2 nails it in the park, even more so then 1. Not meaning to discredit the first game because I still love that game's OST but there's something much more nostalgic and charming about this OST.

Albeit it may be a bit of bias from my perspective. I played a absolute ton of 2 growing up and it's what I think of when I think of "Mario Party." It all comes down to perspective on this one. Weather you think MP1 has the better OST is really up to you, but 2 just nails it and is what I'd call the definitive OST for the most part. It's hard to literally critique any part of this review so personally I think that just means I have to move on and say it's probably going to get the highest regards from me.

Addictive

While Mario Party 1 tended to waver in it's addictiveness, I think 2's more streamlined approach really helps it out in this case. Sadly there's only 6 boards, one of them being unlockable by playing on all 5 boards, but I think this has to be the best lineup of them. All the boards including the ones I'm not too fond of have something going for them when I'd say really only half of the boards in the original Game could be what I called great.

Again, there's a single player mode for you to go into but this time there's way more to do which is helped by the fact that there are now Battle Minigames and Item Minigames. There's also Duel Minigames, however they aren't really the same as the other two as they're more in line with what the boards are. One of the bigger bummers is they did remove 1 Player Minigames, however I think it was for the better in the end. While some of them can be nice, a lot of them were just really easy and didn't really add much to the Gameplay. I'll talk more about how this kinda effects the Depth of the Gameplay in the end.

Story

Pffftttttttttttttt what? You're here for the "story" of Mario Party? Of all things you want you want to look at this section?

To be honest the story factor "did" get better in my opinion but it's literally the same as 1's except some small modifications that this isn't an actual event that's happening to them more so that this is just a play. I think it's pretty silly, but none the less there's literally nothing to talk about here.

Depth

This is where I get into the juicy bits of the gameplay. The changed quite a bit from their previous outing and I got to say it turned out for the better. The game now adds in Items for the first time in the series, though you can only hold one which a lot of people think is archaic in design though I think it was more they were testing the waters with the new system. I think it payed off in the end, but the later games have much better Item Systems overall and I'll be sure to take a look into that when we get to MP3.

There's now no Koopa at the start of the board, however the Boo and Bowser events are still there but they're altered quite differently. Instead of how Boo was in MP1, he now costs money to steal coins. Due to that, you can get much more out of a player which I think helps people think more about decision making. Bowser also changed, however in his place is one of the Koopa Kids from the original Mario Party which they'd take 5 of your coins. While it's a much less big of a threat, he can still change to Boswer with the use of a Bowser Bomb from Item Minigames which brings me into...

...That! They're basically small event games that usually change through each board like Duel Minigames, however unlike Duel Minigames you aren't really risking anything except maybe a turn at the worst. Usually a lot of these are based on Memory, Timing, or Precision. These are quite nice, though sometimes it's really easy to get an item from one of these. Usually thinking about the Pirate Land Item Game, they're practically so slow that it's hard to ever lose track of it. Unlike that of the Horror Land one which tests your eyes much more and I think it's way more rewarding that way.

Included with the Item Minigames are also the new Dueling Minigames which you can get by landing on the same space as somebody in the last 5 turns or using the new Dueling Glove. Basically each one of these tests one of your types of physical or mental reflexes and I think they all can be pretty alright, though a tad too short and later fixed in the later entries when they have actual Minigames to replace them. They can be a nice Distraction and even game changing, but you cannot earn any stars from them and only coins so there isn't too much a point in them unless you want the Coin Star at the end to be secured.

Now as I mentioned, the actual Minigames. I will give credit and say a lot of the Minigames they made specifically for this game are usually pretty great! There's only really a few Minigames in here I don't like out of the bunch which now leads me into the ones they copied from Mario Party 1. One of the things I'll say is that I don't think this really ruins the game, in fact none of the games anymore take coins from the players which is a plus, and they removed all traces of stick rotating Minigames which also gets a thumbs up from me, but it's apparent that this game really did take liberties in this department only being released 9 months after the first one. It is a shame since I actually like quite a few of the reused Minigames but I do wish the came up with some original ones instead.

I won't go on too much longer with this section. While there are a ton of really great aspects there are a few of them that keep this game from being absolutely perfect in it's depth which isn't really a fault of the game itself but more due to the time constricts they put themselves under while making this game which I gotta respect must of been a massive undertaking.

Difficulty

I think I don't really need to repeat what I said in the last review, but I will mention they did add a higher difficulty to the game for CPUs if that fancies you. Usually I don't really like to mention the CPU difficulties as they can be anything from Easy to something extremely ridiculous and it's really up to the player to weather or not it really changes how they see it.

Final Verdict

Once again I'm at the end of a review for one of my favorite franchises and I can easily see why people adore this game and I'm in that same boat with a bit of minor disregards to some of the games qualities. Would I say this is the best in the series by far? Maybe, but I wouldn't say it's efforts are in vain. Growing up in the early 2000's as a kid who used to have a pretty tight knit family only really makes the memories of this game all the more heartfelt for me and which I still wish we could recreate, but as I grow older I still hold this game to be one of the greats of the N64 and well worth the party.

Slyshiyoshi : Great review! I have always loved the 1st 2 games myself since no one had ever really seen games like that before. Often imitated,never duplicated.