5 Unique Tweaks to Make Your Next Mario Party More Exciting

Mario Party has been a fixture of the Nintendo brand for nearly three decades, with the same core gameplay in each one. While new items and boards add variety to each new iteration, the central mechanic of traversing a board, winning minigames, and earning stars has remained consistent. A bit of variety can be a good thing, though, and some unique house rules can completely reinvent your experience in any iteration of Mario Party.

Each of the following five homegrown approaches alters the game experience, with suggestions from players across Reddit making for some very clever new takes on the game. While the game itself might not recognize these changes, these fun house rules can add a bit of variety and spark to your next Mario Party experience. Here are five unique ways to approach Mario Party and how they can completely change the core gameplay of the long-running franchise.

The Buddy System (1V1)

The “Buddy System” style of gameplay is a good way for two players to turn the standard four-person Mario Party game into a tense and unpredictable competition. In this style, each player chooses a CPU character as their “Buddy” at the beginning of the game. The underlying rule is that the player can only consider themselves the true winner of the game if their Buddy comes out on top over the other player’s CPU partner.

This gives players a more direct target for offensive items or during “Vs” mini-games, as they seek to ensure their “Buddy” gets the most wins or collects the most stars. It also adds a layer of unexpected strategy to the game, as sabotaging yourself and others becomes crucial to ensuring the right CPU gets an advantage. It’s an interesting mode that reimagines what teamwork in Mario Party can be.

Richest Player (Coins Only)

Most Mario Party games focus on players trying to collect the most Stars, typically through winning mini-games and using their coins to purchase the stars. However, in the “Richest Player” style of game, the only thing that matters is cold, hard cash. In this format, players disregard the Star count at the end of the game and instead determine the winner based on who has the most coins.

This approach puts extra emphasis on the importance of mini-games, which remain the primary ways that players can earn money in the game. It also makes the blue and red spaces that litter the board all the more vital, especially late-game when those spaces double their value or penalty. Especially for players frustrated by how star swaps and bonus stars can change game standings in an instant, this approach can be a blast.

Golf Style (Lowest Score Wins)

Similar to the way “Richest Player” subverts the typical gameplay of Mario Party, “Golf Style” completely flips the game on its head by requiring players to try and win the least amount of stars and coins. This approach comes with the caveat that players who pass Toad must purchase one if possible (and the same rule applies to players who reach Boo and can afford to steal a star). At the end of the game, the player with the fewest number of stars and coins is considered the winner.

This approach invites pure chaos into the Mario Party experience, as players will now go looking to land on red spaces, do everything they can to avoid stars, and actively try to self-sabotage themselves during mini-games. It also flips the Bowser space into one of the game’s most important locations, as the typically bad spot can become a game-changer in this mode. If you’re looking to really inject some chaos into the experience, then this is the mode to tackle.

The King (1v3)

A way to approach Mario Party as a team experience, “The King” mode sees three players unofficially group up as a team. Their mission is to earn more collective stars than the other player in the game. This player, designated “King,” gets to start the game with a number of free stars as a handicap, giving them an automatic leg up in the competition.

“The King” mode is a way to turn Mario Party into a more collaborative experience, encouraging teamwork in mini-games and a larger degree of strategy in positioning players. If a player wants to take over the role of the King, then it also presents a fun power dynamic where they can continue to use the chaos of the map to their advantage. “The King” is a clever way to encourage team dynamics in a game that largely operates on a “winner-take-all” ethos.

Season (Multiple Games)

The longest way to tweak any Mario Party experience is to make it more than just one game. Players could treat each board in a game as a different “round” instead of a separate game, keeping track of their overall stars and coins across multiple rounds. This “Season” approach would then eventually crown a winner based on their accumulated victories.

A Mario Party “Season” is a great way to combat how consistently luck will impact the outcome of a Mario Party game, forcing players to adjust to different board maps and unlucky turns. It also adds depth to the game in terms of temporary alliances, as players who have fallen behind might make deals to work together and unseat the leader — only to turn on them the second they can. This approach adds some longevity to the game and really gives players a chance to indulge in the wealth of options each Mario Party comes with.