Level 42 - Partying Like It's 1998

Welcome to Remember 64, where this week we're going to party like it's 1998. Welcome to the show, everyone. Welcome to Remember 64. Whether this is your first time here or you are a returning listener or watcher on our YouTube channel at Remember 64. My name is David Pitrangelo and I don't roll dice when I play tabletop games. No, I smash them with my head. That's right, don't mess with this guy. He's got a head of steel ready

to steal your stars. Wait, a game of chance That just screwed me over at the end of the game? Curse you, Millennium Star. Who is that guy? Donkey Kong? Donkey Kong? Who is the one saving all of us? Us defending the truth is looking like a Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong Star Warrior Donkey Kong kicking ass with dismiss Star warrior. Donkey Kong saving you ever. He's afraid to give his life. He don't want to go run from a fight. He's always brave from one. Hello for God.

He's the warrior of the stars. He's afraid to give his life. He don't want to go run from a fight. He's always brave from one. Hello for God. He's the warrior of the stars. Star stars. Wait, who is this gracing this wonderful podcast? Star Warrior. Donkey Kong Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Ready. Well, if that made any sense to you at all. Anybody. If you've guessed at all that we are playing all three of the Mario Party titles on the Nintendo 64, yes, we are going

to tackle all three titles. We'll be dipping around between the games and the different mini games and the different aspects of it and their differences and everything. But we are recording this just days or hours really before the clock hits midnight into 2024. So we thought we would party it up. It's time to chat some Mario Party jiggy look back slash Donkey Kong. Star Warrior Donkey. Star Warrior Donkey Kong.

Title. It's like the title of Doctor, like people have worked for that, so you gotta give them the respect. Right, I agree. I agree you absolutely. Donkey Kong worked for that title. Yep, he did. He did. As we're recording this, if you are not seen the recording on YouTube, we are also showing the Mario Party three-game that we played just a few moments ago before we hit record to record this episode.

So if you want to see us play full 35 turns of Mario Party 3 on whatever the desert board is called, I can't remember. It was an epic battle between Wario, Luigi, Daisy and Donkey Kong and it's it was pretty interesting and pretty rattling at times too, I think, don't you think? Oh yeah, for sure. And ironically, I was not Donkey Kong, I was actually Daisy. Because we did Random. We closed our eyes and selected our characters. And yeah, so it's very, it's very infuriating.

It's, it's. Yeah, every time I play Mario Party, I always. I'm in love with the idea of Mario Party. Sure. And then I actually play Mario Party with my friends, and then I just end up being mad at them. That's what happens. That is, that is the definition or one of the definitions of this series or this franchise in general. I think. I think that's very common that

that's the. Feeling and the one, the only other game I've ever played that makes me feel the same as Mario Party is the game Munchkin, and it's actually a board game. Oh, that's a great game. That is a good game.

Love that game. But at the same time it I affectionately refer to it as the game that ruins friendships because I you just get so I don't know about you but when I'm playing a board game with my friends I sit there and we really read into the cards and what they do It's it's it's a thing we argue about it We're like no, it doesn't say that. It doesn't say you can you can take away armor it says you can hit. So if I have armor, I'm protect.

You know, it's like things like that and Mario Party. It's not technical like that. It's more like the bonus stars. And OK, so for example, here's, here's the thing. Here's the perfect example of encapsulating the bull crap that is Mario Party. OK you play. I'm playing this game. I'm streaming it, right. I'm playing Mario Party. I I think it was three. I think it was 3 on stream. I did two and three recently,

right. Join my community By the way if you ever want to live stream Dave's, Dave's, come on. We've played some games. It's fun. We do like community game nights. So anytime we want to do that anyways, we're playing and one of my community members, I got a three on the first turn. OK, I'm real like 3 peasant, you know? And he walks three steps hidden block star. He gets a star on his first turn with a crappy roll and that was

bull crap. I literally got out of my chair, walked behind and paced back and forth, flailing my arms like this game is bull crap. Man, something like that. That we still had fun. Oh yeah, And and that. That's the crazy thing, right? It's like, is ridiculous. Things happen like that, but you still have fun with it. So Oh yeah, it's it's that weird. It's that weird sort of mix between all that. Like, it's hard not to have fun while the craziness is happening. But I can understand why it's

also rattling as well, right? Like there's something about it. And, you know, there's something about the fact that they introduced a lot of that luck stuff later on which I didn't realize. I kind of didn't really remember that A lot of the luck and the randomness kind of came into play in three, which is the one that I played the most and the one that I owned growing up. So, Jiggy, get that. Get that sound board ready. Because you know what time it is, Sir. You know what time it is.

Let's bust out the history books, everyone. We're heading back to 199899 and 2001 for all three of these games. Yes, let's talk about Mario Party. When it comes to the sort of the, the development and the history of them, it is we're we're pretty much going to talk about the first one because that gets kind of how things, you know, were iterated on. That's where it began and everything. Hudson Soft is the development team.

When I was looking up research. You know, this is one of those logos and those companies that you saw all around Nintendo at this time, especially for this series. This is kind of interesting because they used to hold what were called caravan tours, where consoles and games would get set up in like temporary places and they would hold mini

competitions for kids. And if you don't know what a Caravan tour is for anyone that's younger than us and just trying to be like, wait, what do you mean caravan? Like the unlike a horse and buggy kind of thing. Think of a pop up shop but for gaming. That's essentially what it was. Did you ever you're you're, it does, right? You're you're younger than me. But did any of these things ever pop up when you were Yeah I see pop up when you were younger. Did you ever experience anything

like these caravan tour things? Not even specifically for this game, but just in general? No, I I don't think so. I I feel like I would. I would remember this. No, I did not. No, I did not. That sounds awesome, though. I mean, I definitely was alive at that time and was playing N64. So yeah, yeah, I don't know. It was. It really got popularized when it was like the Nintendo versus Sega with Genesis and SNES. Like that was oh, sure, they were pumping them out there all the time.

It was a very big thing for Sega to pull off around that time. And I think as technology went on and and you know, more consoles were out there and everything, it became less and less of a thing. And they were just in stores a lot more than they were before. So I think by the time 2000, by the time 98 came around, like all that kind of stuff, it was at the tail end of when these things were popular.

But that's what they did. That's that was one of the reasons why Nintendo picked them to do this is because they said, oh, you have an idea for like a way to to make games, a party or a competition. Let's use you as the company that's going to create a Super Mario board game, essentially is what it was. And that's basically what the idea was. What an interesting concept, I know. I think because if you think about it like we take Mario Party for granted because it's

that silly party game. Everyone's like let's play Mario Party and the concept of it, it's essentially trying to think of board games that are like this. It's it's like Candyland or or you know something you you you roll, you go spaces something happens. You know, not necessarily a card, but. You know, like trouble. Sorry. Sorry is a good one. Yeah. Sorry is a good one. Yeah. But yeah, I just think what an interesting concept translating

a a game into a board game. I I I was half listening. Did was there any concept of a board game before Mario characters? Like was it there? So yeah, so Hudsonsoft and Nintendo, they went to Hudsonsoft and asked, can you make a game like this? Because we want to make a family friendly game that includes 4 players for this console that's going to be coming out or that

just released. And we want to find a way to make a type of game that will involve 4 players, kids can play and we want to feel like a board game. So the idea was to have a feel like a board game but not necessarily specifically a top down board game type thing and then they wanted to incorporate many games. So the idea was kind of already there. It was just a matter of like, how do we make it happen essentially and they and they. Found always intended.

It was always intended to have Mario. It was always intended to be Mario characters. Yeah. So Hudson Soft had, I think they what from what I saw, they had a a plan to make a party board game. But then Nintendo said hey let's use, let's use you, your developers, let's use your skill and let's make it a Mario one. And they kind of went from there. So it sounds like it was sort of a they were kind of on the same page and they just sort of like work together, kind of make it happen.

It really doesn't seem like there was some, you know, tough time to make it happen. It was like, hey, you have good ideas, You've been doing cool things that are very, you know, group and competition oriented. Let's turn this idea into an actual series or at least into a single game at this point. Yeah. So one of the things I found that was interesting, I'm going to say these names wrong. So forgive me, but Shishiro Nishaya is how I heard it

pronounced online. I don't know if that's true, but anyways, this guy works at Nintendo and has been part of the Mario Party series since the first one still works there. It's there from the since the first one, yeah, which is awesome. So that's 25 years at this point, almost 26. And in a WADA Asks interview, he says we always wanted to make a game like Mario Party the whole family could could enjoy during the holidays. So we needed rules that would be easy for anyone to understand.

So they were looking for a particular type of game for a particular kind of year when you know, families would get together more than the average, you know, time of year. So we're at the tail end of 2023 as we record this, we are technically still in the holiday season. We've, you know, most people or a lot of people have seen family. This would be one of those games that they wanted to make sure that everybody was playing. And I think that's exactly what these things were.

Right, at least for me. I don't know. But for you. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, not I I played through one quite a bit growing up. I definitely was. You know that kid I I did play by myself. Me too. I did enjoy it. I I would find myself trying to unlock all the mini games so that when my friends came over, we had all the mini games or we could see all the mini games in the multiplayer kind of scope it out. But yeah, oops, you know, it's fun.

I did read an interesting fact because when we were playing earlier, I mentioned Sonic Shuffle, which is a Dreamcast game, which is a Sonic equivalent of Mario Party. Sort of. It's it's different, it's it's similar. And if you looked at the cover without playing it, you'd be like, oh that's Mario Party but with Sonic. And yes, but it's got more of a gimmick with like card a card like trading card system. Oh, interesting. OK. Yeah, it's it's weird. It's weird.

It's not as good as Mario Party. It's not as it's not as easy to understand and just get into. It's not bad. It's just not great. But I did find that Hudson Soft did in fact make Sonic Shuffle as well. Oh, cool. OK, which? That was a a cool little call back because you're, you know, you make that connection, you don't realize oh it is the same company. Right. OK. Interesting. And that would have been, you know?

Moved over to the competition. Yeah, well, cause 'cause Mario Party Three came out in 2001, like we've discussed before, we hit record. That's a very late release. Mario Party Three came out in the spring of 2001. The GameCube was out like less than six months later so or about six months later. So it was a late release for me.

Mario Party three I know I owned, I think I rented one and two a decent amount, but I obviously I never had a GameCube. So I played three into with with into the life cycle of the GameCube like that that I play Mario Party three more than any of the other ones and that's the one that we played together and like that's where they introduced a lot of the chance and everything. So Miyuki Hirose is again probably screwed that up. But she worked on. Yeah yeah, she worked on three

and talked about. I found another quote from an Askawata interview that said if someone like me who is not very good at playing video games kept losing, that wouldn't be very fun. But even when I can win, sometimes that's fun. So that's one of the ideas as to why they introduced all the chance stuff in it. Oh. OK. Yeah, it was more just to sort of like balance the scales a little bit. So it wasn't just on skill and. You know, this is the problem with games today, OK?

In, in my day, when you were bad at the game, you were bad. We didn't, we didn't cater to that. You know, that's the problem with things, Mario. Kart. Has this now? Smash Bros, like, the whole premise of Ultimate was to make Smash Bros Ultimate. Like, they cater to beginner players. So anyone could come in, pick it up and play it and, you know, get good. It's like, yes, there's a place for that.

There's a place for that, of course, But I also think there should be a hardcore mode where you have to be good and have to have skill. OK, Because that's the mode I would play because the whole Chance thing like, I'm sorry, I'm not doing it. So, yeah, so it's not you, you. OK, so we we played a full game of three. Obviously, you played it a bit when you were growing up and stuff. Would you prefer us to not have

had that? Like, we just stopped playing like half an hour ago or something? Right. Would you have preferred that that just didn't exist at all or like maybe there was less of it or something? Because I'm with you, like you say back in my day I didn't have, you know, you had to get good. What about back in my day, man? What about like even, you know, 5678 years prior to that? There was no mercy whatsoever, right?

Right. You know, but you, you feel a sense of accomplishment, you know, and I'm, I'm not saying that Mario Party is that game in particular, but I like bonus stars. I think that's a cool thing and it can shake up the game and I think that's as far as the chance element goes for me, OK? I think hidden blocks are bull crap because someone could just randomly land on a space and the game decides, oh you get a star. Yeah, which I got and it's I got

nerd, yeah, yeah. Well, like the again, going back to the three space role that the one guy had and he landed and got a star on his first turn. I'm like, how can you, how can you compete with that? If the game's catering to it? And I really feel like the game caters to the CPU and like if if it's four players like it feels more balanced. But if it's CPU, the CPU's feel like some mini games, especially if they're like guessing mini games or.

Yeah, how you supposed to like? Yeah, you can't. You can't compete. You just have to. You have to chance it. Well, I think you know, because they're so fast, even on normal difficulty. Yeah, yeah, I I think, yeah, we played on normal difficulty. I think if we played hard we would have got our butt. Our butts whooped probably. At least I. Would. Oh, definitely. Yeah. I would not dare to go hard. Yeah, yeah. The The thing is, is like, there's still skill in those mini games, right?

It's still there, but when you get those like hidden blocks, like you said, like something like that feels feels cheap, whether it's at the beginning or at the end. Either way, and I think why it's annoying is because it's games like, let's say Mario Kart, let's call it a Mario Kart, a lot of racing games from this era and especially earlier than this. There's the rubber banding, right? Like they find a way for those carts and those racers as as a perfect example as to why.

They just try to tighten up the lead a little bit so things are more exciting and I understand why they do that. But that works better in a racing game, even if it's not great. I don't love that feeling, but it makes more sense because that's in constant motion, in constant action. Whereas with this you're stopping and going, stopping and going, oh, it's chance because you landed on something or you just happened to get a three instead of A7 when you needed the seven.

Like things like that. Like there's much more variability in this that you know you'll never have control over. And I I I guess it makes things a little bit more exciting but it also is adds to the potential frustration of it right. Like that's that's the problem and I'm OK. But like like with someone like closing in on your lead and getting more coins or an extra star towards those last ten turns. I I I find that fun. That's interesting. Why? Why have a blowout win at all

times? I don't think that's that's very fun. But once you have that CPU involved, you're right. Once you have Warrior and Luigi that we were playing against, it's like, well, why? Why all of a sudden does does Luigi have almost 200 coins in the last like five turns? Yeah, and I I can't help but always feel targeted by CPUs because they'll get all the sudden booze or something that can steal my coins, and they'll

steal all my coins. They'll get a battle mode where my 80 coins that I've worked so hard to collect, all of a sudden they get all of them in one foul swoop and it's it just feels wrong. And I think looking at it from a rubber banding perspective sort of makes sense. But at the same time, if you're looking at Mario Kart, which also has a similar thing, if you're in last place, you get

the better items. Yeah, if you're in first place, you're just getting coins or or maybe a banana or something, something basic that can only help you a tiny bit, maybe not at all. That makes sense to me. But at the same time, there's that element of skill, because you're in first place, you're not getting the good items. How are you still in first place if they're getting good items?

Because you're right. You know the game you're really, you know you're pushing the mechanics to the limit, whereas Mario Party, the mechanics aren't there necessarily. You could win like for example I got the mini game star when we played. Yeah yeah I. So that demonstrates to me that I had the most skill as far as the mini games went. But there are so many games that are complete chance that I would lose, you know?

And it's it. It kind of sucks when they're all complete chance because you have for every great mini game, I feel like there's like you'll have two or three great mini games and then you have like 5 bad mini games. Like a good handful that are bullshit, yeah. Yeah, it's just and it's not even that they're not fun. Like they can be fun if you mix it up and put, you know, just lesson streamlined it a little bit. We were kind of talking about about this one, two and three.

One I played the most, three he played the most. And I found that out of playing all of those, two to me feels the best because it feels everything about the first one streamlined a little bit more. I I don't know what the mini game count is, if it's different, if they, I'm sure they just added a couple, I'm sure that's all it is. And plus they have costumes, which is the Segway to. I don't know if you mentioned it because I didn't hear if you mentioned it. We hinted at it.

We're dressed up. For no reason. It's just a party. I got I got my Mario hat that is squeezing my head and making my the top of my head sweat like a like a like Donkey Kong would be sweating in the desert right now and and if anyone is not watching you have to see the the Donkey Kong onesie that my friend here has. Yes, I'm wearing a full Donkey Kong onesie right now. It is excellent. It is excellent.

My my stupid hat that I bought, I want to say a decade ago for a Halloween party that happened on like November 3rd or something. So I got it for like 4 bucks, you know, like super discount kind of thing. That's what I'm wearing. So is it the same? I would say no. I would say no, but. This onesie is very comfortable, though it would say it's like so comfy. I I am the opposite of comfortable. It's not a Velcro tie. I don't have a tie. I have a sweaty head and that's about it.

Oh man. I may. Honestly, I may have to. Think like sweaty head. I may have to take this thing off, like my head cannot breathe. It's so my the elastic is so tight on my tight head and I got headphones on and I'm just like, Oh my God, my head. Yeah, makes it even tighter. My head is too big. It's like The Simpsons episode where Homer gets, like, really large. It's like you. Your fingers are too fat for this dial tone. This hat is too small for my fathead. That's what this is.

Oh man, it is. It's brutal. Mario Party. Yeah. So by the way, what were we talking about? I so I'm. I'm looking through some of like, we're talking about the mini games and stuff like that. I'm looking through some of the just like screenshots to remind myself of some of the games that maybe we didn't play or ones you know, that I didn't get to play when I I played one. Do you have a favorite mini game? So I wanted to get to that. Yeah.

I think honestly, as I'm looking through the screenshots and everything, as much as I have the most nostalgia for three for Mario Party 3, because I owned it, like I said, I played it the most. I think a lot of the games in one and two are the ones that I like the most because, you know, I I really like the ones where where's the one here? I'm trying to find it. I think it is. I gotta. I gotta find it. If you have one, go for it. I'm going to find the name of the. One that I have.

Two I have. Two that I feel like are I mean. We we can pick a top three. 1. We can pick a top three if you want, OK? OK, I do have a top three. I do have a top three. And so number one for me I think is Crazy Cutters, which is where you ride the little jackhammer and you do the out. I'm doing the motion and you do the outline. I love, I love where everyone

can hear it, but they can't. Like if they're not watching, they can't see it. I'm watching I. Understand. Yeah, you you cut the outline of a character, usually an enemy like a Boo or something, and just whoever gets like the best stencil wins. And I've just always really enjoyed that.

It's fun #2 I don't know what it's called, but it's it's a Bowser face and it makes a weird face and contorts and then you have to try and like Mario 64 like that opening with the Mario face, how you adjust the the segments and areas of his face. You have to do that and make it stick and just make it morph into the contorted face in the middle of the screen. That one's also a lot of fun. And then the third one could probably flip around a little bit.

But the one that came to mind was there's a there's a skateboard one in the I know it's in the first one for sure. And you like, ride the skate the end, and you have to like keep keep speeding up and jumping over blocks. And stuff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, escape from a lava. I'm looking at the one right now that might be in the second one, but I know what's exactly I'm. Positive. It's in the first one.

In the first, OK. Yeah, it's like it's like ramp, like ramp something or. Oh, platform peril, here you go. That's what it is. It's cool. Yeah, that is a good one. No, that's not with the skateboard. That's just jumping. No, a platform is jumping. Yeah, it's like the sky. It's a skateboard. I'm gonna look it up right now because. Okay. So while you do that, I'll tell you what mine is. My favorite is the one that you mentioned. It's called facelift. It's the one where you basically

contort the face of the picture. Yeah. That's cool. One, it's fun because at this point almost everybody played Mario 64 and spent like an hour just messing with Mario's face. So that's basically what this is. It also adds a lot of variability because you you can be pretty far off or think you've got it, but someone just has that slight percentage sort of advantage to you. So I like this one. It's not super stressful, but it also takes some skill for sure.

So I like that we played in Mario Party Three. We played this, the Rock and Raceway, the the horses. We rock back and forth and you're kind of going around the track or whatever. Yeah, that one's up there for me. I really like it. Yeah, I really like it. I I like, I like the the fact that you have to manage your ABAB and your energy and stuff before you spin out. And I kind of like the fact that everyone's, you know, I just, I like the aesthetic of it and

stuff. There's that, and then back. You beat me in that every single time, so maybe that's what it is, yeah. And then we have another shared one, The crazy cutter one is great. The sort of tracing around it, it's so simple, but it's it's a lot of fun. And again, it's it's similar to the facelift one where you could feel like, oh, I got this 100%,

I got this. But that tiny little extra Polygon or pixel that you may have missed could make the difference between that and I think that is great and the fact that Mario Party won and I think a couple of these are also in two. The fact that that is in the first game, those two games that we both share between those two shows that the simplicity of the first one and the ideas that they came up with just on the first one and kind of dropped a couple games later are actually pretty damn good.

And that I I think that's that's impressive. I find that pretty impressive. I I I enjoy that. So that that's that's a big kudos point there. So the the mini game I was talking about, it's called Skateboard Scamper. It is in Mario Party One. It's also in Mario Party 2. I did not see it and it probably isn't 3, but we didn't see it when we played. Oh, there it is. It's cool.

It's cool, 'cause you do run from from lava and like the platforms, like falling or the bricks falling underneath you and you're trying to jump over swamps. Is that what they're called? I can't remember, but there's also a variant of it where you're running from a giant. Boo, which is cool, and I like that aesthetic. I think there's also a mini game that you have to carry, like a light bulb or something. Yeah, at the end, yeah, I think that's I like. That one as well.

That one's fun. I also like the one where I think it is, what's the guy's, what's the the the chain chomp or whatever? The black guy? That one where it's sleeping and when it wakes up you have to hide back into the barrel. I think that's in the that's in. Oh yeah, I suck at that one, but yeah. It's I do too, but I kind of like it. It's kind of fun. You have to like sneak forward and then sneak backwards and then it can catch you or not catch you. I I find that kind of cool.

You know what's not as appreciated, but I I like them. There's the the the two V2 ones, right? Yes, yes. And so 'cause there's different mini games, there's the there's like 1V3, there's one V1, there's 2V2, there's 3V1. Did I? I said one V3 but a three. V1 Yeah. Yeah, a 3V1, depending on what side you're on, But there's like the mine carts where two of you are working together and you're trying to go like up and down and go really fast.

There's the bobsled races. That one's sick, love that one. There's just like a bunch of different variations. And I played a in Mario Party three. I never played this one before because you don't often do the One V ones when they happen, they're like intense. I was facing Wario and we're running in a field with fences and we had to capture a chicken. And it was.

It was so funny because it obscures your vision like it splits your screen and it says you might not be able to see where the chicken went, but you can follow its footprints. And Wario was all over the place, but I was trapping this chicken like a Bloodhound. I was on it. I got it. I won. Suck it. Check 50 coins? Yeah. Oh yeah, that's right. It was like a huge, it was like a huge get.

Or you could get to the last game that you played against Luigi, where he wagered 3. Yeah, that was bull crap. It's like, why even bother? Just throw it.

So I I think that like 2V2 and four player games are you know a little bit better I would say maybe not better but they seem more streamlined and and and simpler in a good way in one and two but in three I think those dual games, those one player or two V2 games like I I think the battle ones where you have to where you wager the coins and stuff.

I think those ones are a little bit more inventive and a little bit better like we had the one where you have to run around the eyeball and every time you run around it shrinks and stuff and some fireballs fall from the from the sky and stuff. I think that's kind of fun, you know that that that's kind of cool and and depending on what place you come in, you might get more coins. You know, it adds a little bit of intensity to it because of that.

Like, I like those. But yeah, the more, the more we talk about these mini games, the more I realize, Oh yeah, the four player ones in the first two are probably better. Yeah. And that's just and. How it is? I I think, I think it's 33 has a lot of them. I'm pretty sure it has doesn't have a lot from 1:00 and 2:00 if not all of them and then they just added a lot more. But the problem is a lot of them that they added are padding. Yeah, that.

So that's what it is, Most of the ones you run into and and it says 70 new games, but it doesn't have all of the ones from one and two, yeah, it just has some so. Yeah, in my mind that's the natural progression. Every sequel should just add more, but they should be quality over quantity, like just add 1010 to 20. Yeah, no one. 'S and, Yeah, and a new character, which two did not add. A new character 3 did add Waluigi and Daisy, so it's got that. Yeah.

So it's got that. Yeah, I I had a point to bring up and I think it was about 1:00, but I don't remember what it was. Well, I will. Maybe it'll come back. I will sidetrack you then and talk about the mini games and give you a little bit of AI. Don't know, maybe you looked at it in the dock, maybe didn't. I don't know. But I did not. I have a spoiler. I had a spoiler. You didn't. OK, great.

This is definitely something we have to talk about. 1:00 because I have a pop quiz for you, Hotshot. OK, take that. Pop quiz, Hotshot. That. And also the fact that this goes into something that is sort of like this, like not myth, but it's actually true about the game. Does it look like Does it look like Donkey Kong's My face? It does look like Donkey Kong is your face. I don't even know where my podcasting partner went. Where did you go? OK, pop quiz Hotshot.

What peripheral did Nintendo release for the early games in this franchise? Any guesses? I think I know the answer to this if, well, it's not really a peripheral, but I'm going to, I'm going to say what I think it is because I know the controversy of the first game. Is it a sports glove? Yes, it is peripherals. Yeah, peripheral is a bit of a cheat. I just couldn't find another word to sort of use for.

It gotcha, but I was really. It got me thinking because I know this story, but I was like a peripheral, like did they have like a weird, like like a fishing rod or something weird? That'd be awesome. I was really thinking. A Dreamcast fishing rod like that thing that would have. Been awesome. Yeah, yeah, that exists. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So what is the controversy? Why don't you go for it, since you knew pretty much almost

right away? Yeah. So the fact that the first game required you to spin the joystick, rotate the joystick in a direction, people were finding that to do it really quickly and to win, you would put the joystick in your palm and rotate as fast as possible. I did it, we all did it, everyone did it. It's the technique right? The problem being the 64 joystick is hard plastic essentially and it was injuring people's hands and some people were actually breaking their

joysticks I guess. And I have heard from people that they have broken their N64 joysticks doing that or playing games and just like talking about how crap the N64 joystick is. I have never broken a single joystick on my N64 and I did that with every single controller I owned. I played Mario. I never, It was never even a thought with me. No, I I never even got scared by that, you know, like that was

never going. To possibly my hand got a little raw, but I, you know was so it didn't matter. I was going to do whatever it took to win. OK, that's the reality. But yeah, so that controversy, like people complained and I don't know if there was a lawsuit, was there was a. Lawsuit. There was a lawsuit. There was a lawsuit from like a small group of families or parents or something like that. It was very few. It was like a couple dozen or something like oh. Little Billy's hands.

Yeah, and they were asking for like, Gonna. Be able to write again. Yeah, well, don't worry. In 20 years, writing won't matter. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So there was like a bit of a lawsuit. I think they, I think they released, quote UN quote released this glove. It was like an actual like sports glove from like a company that makes gloves for like weightlifting and stuff essentially is what it was and

for bikers and stuff. And it's just, it basically just has padding on your palms because when you lift weights sometimes depending on the weight or whatever, I guess that's I, I don't know, I don't lift super heavyweight. So I have no. Idea. Listen here, OK? If I was ever at a party or at a friends house and they were like, you want to play Mario Party and they whipped out just a single glove and like put it on, I feel like this person means business.

This is like. You know what it reminds me of? Because it's also a glove. Did you ever see the Wizard when they when he goes to the kid? The movie The Wizard, where the kid? Basically they. I've never seen it. No, They travel across the USI don't know exactly what the story is, I can't remember. But they travel across the US like I, I, an older brother, a younger kid and like one of their friends.

And they're traveling across the US to go to a Super Mario Brothers 3 competition on like a stage to win money and all that kind of stuff. They're going from, like, I don't know, Chicago to California or New York to California, something like that. And along the way they meet, I don't remember the circumstance, They meet a kid that has the Power Glove and he's got like a leather jacket and the spiky hair he puts on the Power Glove and he's like, yeah, I'm a

serious gamer. Like that's what it reminds me of. Oh man, yeah. You gotta you gotta look up that you. Gotta look at that movie. I was a mad gamer, but for me, that culture of like coolness when I went somewhere, yeah, that revolves around Beyblades. That was the thing. God, you're so much younger than me. It's crazy. It was well, OK. I'm not that much younger than you. Beyblades I'm gonna is not even on my radar unless someone brings it up, OK? Not even OK Wait, Wait.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. OK, so wait, you're what, 35? 6. 36 OK, so I'm six years younger. Yeah. That's less than the difference between me and my younger brother. OK, but OK yeah. So it is. It is a gap, but it's not. It's. Not crazy. It's not crazy. It's not that. Dramatic. It's not a decade. A decade would be a. Lot the reason why I'm clarifying this is because I look perpetually 16 and I am going to be 30 this year.

So it's like please like I don't need to be acknowledged as you know older. I just, I'm not 16, you know, like, come on, I'm at least 17. At. Least. You're at least getting close to 20 at least. But. But my dream as a child was to be the Beyblade Champion. Gotcha. OK And I would walk around. I would carry around my Beyblade and my Launcher like just in case. Because you never know when you're going to have a Bay Battle is. That what they were called, Bay Battles.

They're called B battles. That's what they were. And you'd hold the launcher out and you'd go let it rip. And like, everyone knew. Everyone knew OK And there was an epic, like RPG Game Boy, Game of Beyblade. I do remember that. I do remember that. I never played it, but I know of it, yeah. Yeah, it's like Pokémon. You go around, you talk to people and they'd be like, let's have a Bay battle and then you'd like customize your Beyblade and fight and it was awesome.

I mean, that sounds cool. That sounds. I mean it. Was cool at least at least. It's an active toy. Like, you can do you do something with it. You know, like that's, Oh yeah, that's cool. And we would, we would like rip our fingers apart and stuff because they were like saw blades. You didn't. You didn't have a glove. You didn't have a glove for it? No. Glove. That would be cool. And I would always launch it because I watched the TV show too and you'd like flip it

upside down. OK, this was the Tyson launch. You flip it upside down and then you do like A twist and you slam it into the arena so it get like an angle and like spin really fast. But it basically would be like, you just like chucking this, like, bladed thing into this plastic stadium. It would smash into another one. One of them is bound to fly out, of course. And just like, I mean my, my friends and I, my cousins, like we'd all like, we'd have bloodied nails and stuff.

It was like, it was the real thing. I got totally sidetracked. But yeah, Mario Party. I love it, man. Hey, you had that. At least it was active. We collected POGS, which was supposed to be a game, but we never treated it as a game. It was more like instead of getting cards, we got Pogs like instead of sports cards or cards that were like, you know, the Marvel cards that they that they have.

Instead of that it was it was Pogs, which are just little plastic or not plastic like cardboard circles. That's all they were. Well, that's the difference between someone born in the 80s and someone born in the 90s. 100%, man. Hey, that 567 year difference, like that gap is just enough for those things, for those things to be different. My, my active toy was the original Pokémon on my original Game Boy. That was my active toy. How about that? Yeah, Pokémon Blue Man, Pokémon Blue Baby.

OK, so I we we were talking as we were finishing playing Mario Party Three. You're like, I don't really like this Millennium Star guy. Like I don't. He's sort of like the overarching, like, Ruler of Mario Party Three, He kind. Of like runs the. Games, I guess. Not my ruler. Not, not, not my, not my. None of my watch. Not my star. Yeah, not my star. So because as we're sitting here only a few months ago we played another game with a lot of stars. Did we not? I think Oh yeah, yeah.

So Paper Mario if you have anyone hasn't listened to that episode, go back and listen to it. One incredible game I 2023 has been an amazing game or amazing year for games. Paper Mario is still one of the best games I played this year, even though it's almost 2025 years old. Like the? Original Paper Mario. The original Paper Mario is awesome, so listen to that episode on your feed.

But that is about collecting and saving all the stars, you know, That's sort of like your your main goal and everything. I think the idea of the Millennium Star came from that game. They came out around the same time Mario Party actually came out a couple months later in North America. At least I think that's that's

where they got that from. The Millennium Star specifically isn't in Paper Mario, but there are a couple that kind of look like it. You know, they have the mustache and they're kind of different colors and stuff. And also Mario Party Three has a decent amount of like set dressing that looks like Paper as well. So I think that's what this is about and that's where it was coming from. Whether he's a good, you know, character to run the game kind of thing.

I'm there's an argument to be made there for sure, but I think that's where the idea come came from. And I honestly don't think I would have realized that unless we played Paper Mario earlier this year. Yeah, I mean, you can definitely look at this game and see the aesthetic influences that Paper Mario had on it. Because if you look at Mario Party, like just just graphically, let's just talk about the graphics for a second, because they're not great. They're not great, right?

They're pretty chunky. The first game, the first game, if you looked at the model, I'll just use Donkey Kong as the example. If you look at the model from Mario Party versus Donkey Kong 64, you'd be like, is this running on the same system? Because they look completely different? Mario kind of is. I will say Mario 64 does not like Mario's model, does not look that great, but I give that a pass because it was the launch title. It was so early on and Mario Party came out. What was that 9?

9898 first one was 90. 898, so the first one came out 98, so that's two years that they could have you know and Mario, that model doesn't really look that much better to be. Honest, it it it almost looks, he looks a little. He looks more awkward like he looks, yeah.

It's almost like the the shape of Mario became more human, but the textures are in inferior I guess maybe that's maybe that's what I'd say and it's kind of generally all around with all of the characters I was playing with Daisy and Daisy contorted in some weird ways throughout the the playthrough I. I think the difference with something like Daisy and Peach, for example, is because they're in dresses, the legs you can't see so it doesn't look, yeah, they're quite as weird and

awkward. Everyone else, it feels like unless you're Donkey Kong or or the OR the two female characters, the legs almost feel like they're they're all puppets, You know, it kind of looks, they kind of move a little bit awkward. Yes, that is it. They look like puppets. Yeah, they look like puppets. They have the humanoid shape, but then everything else is just kind of meh. Yeah. And I and I did notice too that Donkey Kong at certain points, and I mean this is like a ram issue.

This is like this, the 64 cartridge, whatever, is that every once in a while he would like, you know, do his victory pose or look at the camera or whatever, and his eyes would just be completely black, like he would just die inside. I don't know what was going on with him, but it would be like, wait, where did his soul just go?

I don't know. Yeah, I. I think I think the the boards are OK though I don't know what do you think about like some of like the setups of the way like in all the games, not even just three. Like, do you like the variability in boards, or do you prefer something that's a little bit more like uniform? OK, so I have a few thoughts on that and that was where that

was. What I was going to bring up earlier was the boards, because in the first game I feel like I remember a lot of the boards, like Yoshi's Island and things. The cake. There aren't many, but I like the I like the boards from one on two. I know there's the there's the space, the space one, because that's star Warrior Donkey Kong, and there is the jungle one and there is the spooky one. It's got some cool boards too. I like those 3. What I've played the boards like

the aesthetics are fine. I think. I just don't. I don't like the the random. OK, so this board in particular that we played tonight put a really bad taste in my mouth because it was, it had like 20 event switches around circles and you would have to get at least like a five or six on your roll to get past them and it's. Quicksand. You hit this, It was quicksand. We were triggering this quicksand like every three seconds. It would play like a two-minute

cutscene. I mean, I exaggeration on all counts, but it still would like it was a solid 22nd cutscene. OK, it's exhausting and when it plays, when it plays four times in a row in a in a round, it's very annoying. I would love to have the option to skip it, but personally looking at the boards I think I don't know they they feel pretty

lazy. Really. OK. Just in general I I would say not like as far as layout goes or as far as what they do just aesthetic like how they look like graphically like they they did minimal effort for boards and that's from the beginning they it's just P and GS basically.

I will say I do appreciate that three actually has characters modeled out because I know in one and two there's actually like Toad could be like a flat PNG image, just like the top half is separated from the bottom half, so he's like moving side to side. Three, it seems like everything is modeled as far as characters. Yeah, anyone that's like the bank and all those types of everyone's, everyone's moving a little bit more and more like more engaged, yeah.

Yeah, I like that, but I just don't like that it's a flat to. It's a flat PNG image or JPG or whatever. It could be whatever file format I just. Whatever existed at that time, I. Don't know. PNG is my favorite format. OK, but it just they're kind of blurry. They're not. They're not polished. They feel just like a background element, which is what they're supposed to be. You can get away with it. I'm not like super complaining. It doesn't break the game by any

means. It's just something that you notice and you think man, if if if it had a little bit more time and effort put into it because they were chugging these games out, they made one, they made two, they made three within three years. So they literally just took the game and they're like oh OK, three with the mini games here, like you can see we're playing right now a log cutting if you're watching it and the environment is totally it's nice. It looks cool.

It looks, I like it a lot. It's very cute. It's very cartoony, it's very Paper Mario Y, but at the same time, it's got more of that 3D model aspect. Yep. Yeah. It's just they could have done that with the whole game and it just feels like they didn't. Yeah, yeah. Because they were. They were waiting. They were just taking the easy Rd. out. There you go, Donkey. Kong's dead in the eyes. You can see it. Oh, yeah, totally. It's just closing his eyes. I I think, yeah, he's he's

tired. He's been working, you know, We're on. We're on turn like 20 at this point. He's tired. He's tired. I I think you're right. I think. I think 3 gets away with it a little bit because it has that sort of paper aspect to it. I think that probably is more forgivable. But yeah, for the most part you're right. I think. I think I kind of don't mind it because like you said, all those characters or at least a lot of the characters, a little bit more animated and involved and

all those types of things. So I I'm OK with it. It it's it. You're right. It doesn't make or break the game, but it's something to to point out for sure so. Yeah, I will say that three has the best items. I love items. Yes, they're they're more fun, yeah. And they feel like you could have some legitimate strategy with them. Although I don't see why you wouldn't just save up and get the magic lamp every time or or

the Boo bell. Those are like the two standard items for me. But but even the less useful items like the dual glove, the the mushrooms, the different kinds of mushrooms, the the phone to call the item shop and things like that and the Bowser suit, that's a cool, that's a cool item. I like that. And Bowser himself, let's talk about the spaces like what they do, because I think that's an interesting aspect. They have the the regular blue and red spaces.

Blue gives you coins, 3 coins, red -3 coins, and then those influence if you're playing on a team or by yourself at the end if you're red or blue. If there's two Reds, you'll be two Reds against two Blues. If there's three Blues, one red, you might be 1 red against three Blues, or it could just make you blue it. It's kind of random, but it's cool. And then you got your other spaces, like item spaces, dual spaces, the bank, yeah, the

badge. I'm trying to think of what else there is, like the Boo we. Didn't we didn't run into the shy guy spot? I'm not sure what that did, at least not on the board we were on. I actually don't know what that did. I I think it's in. It's like a a chance mini game, I believe. Kind of. Yeah. It's it's like shy guy will get you to do something ridiculous. Oh, it's another game, yeah. Like climb up, climb up, do the slot machine or something or yeah. He has a couple of like of of

his own games, essentially. Yeah, and they're unfair. Yeah, which makes sense. It's Shy Guy. They're. Kind of a high risk, high reward games, right? But they kind of suck. If you land on his, you're like, Oh no crap. But the Bowser spaces are classic. I I have a story to tell. Yes, let's do it. So my friend and I, we would, I would just go over and we just play Mario Party specifically, we played Mario Party one and

two. We rarely played three because we even back then I don't know what it was about two that we were just like 2 is the best. I think it's the costumes. The costumes, man, I wrote it in the notes. Actually, it's one of your favorite things. The costumes, it's great. It is. I I don't know why they wouldn't, why they got rid of that because it was so cool. And they would. It would, in my mind, it creates a little story to each map, right? And they did with Bowser.

They're like, oh, the superstar. You need to get the star so you can defeat Bowser. And it's like you could be a wizard or the star warrior or, you know, it's just cool. That's actually where we I was playing as Donkey Kong and we played the space map. This is not my story. I'm segueing off my story with the same story and and we play,

we played the star map, right? And I was Donkey Kong and I just came up with the, the lyrics there and that was like, I don't know, it had to have been like five years ago, at least maybe 10 years ago. It was like we were old, we were older, but we have been doing this for years, right? OK. And so it was just like the last one of the last times we did it. And we were like, I was just singing this, the space world theme, and I was adding my own

lyrics. So I just came up with that star warrior Donkey Kong kicking ass with his fists because he's, you know, he runs it all for us. I thought that was a funny, funny, goofy thing. Anyways, I digress. We were playing the Yoshi Island map. I think we were actually playing one at this moment. And we landed on the Bowser space, OK, And Bowser taunts you with the different things. You could get the Bowser. Give 10 coins to Bowser. Give 20 coins to Bowser, Bowser,

give Bowser a star. All these negative things. And then there's that one thing that says 10,000 stars. Yeah, or like I've. Never 100,000. Points or whatever, yeah. Yeah, I think this was 10,000 star present. Yeah. And up to this point, I had never seen it acquired. Ever. I've never gotten it out of all the times I play Mario Party, never seen it. And we were sitting there and this roulette lands on the 10,000 star and and we were like, I didn't freeze.

I just, I just like this just dramatic effect. We were, we were just we were blown away. We're like, what is about to happen, right? And like, I swear I might have pooped myself a little bit because it was that big of a deal. Yeah. OK. And I was like, holy crap, I couldn't. I don't. I don't think it was me. I think it was my friend that got it. I was like, I'm not even going to be mad if you get 2000 stars. Like, that's the most amazing thing.

Yeah, you got to take it. It was like winning the lottery. And then Bowser proceeded to look at the screen for a second and turn around and just run and he just disappears. Come on. And then we were laughing for like a solid 2 1/2, three minutes because I don't know what we expected. I really thought we were going to get 10,000 stars and it was like this God tier, like move in Mario Party, but it just didn't happen. It just didn't work out. I didn't. Even know it was funny. That is so.

I've never seen it before, at least not that I can remember, cuz it's in every game. It's in all, at least these three, at least in these three it's in, right? I thought it was just there just for a placeholder, you know, like just to mess with you. It's never gonna run out. And that's fine, right? That's part of the joke. That's why it's funny. That's what I thought too. Yeah. And then it happened. And I was like, I didn't know it could actually happen.

Dude, that's amazing. That's amazing. That's so. But he. Just looks at you and runs away. It's so. Funny. Oh my God, 'cause they could easily go like. They could go like, oh, sorry, I don't have 10,000. Here, take one, you know? OK, cool. You got one. It's just like. Runs. That's so, dude, That's. Amazing. I love the fact that that's even real, that you can actually land on it. Yeah, I. Wonder, I wonder what the odds are. They're probably some ridiculous amount, you know.

It's probably some stupid. It's gotta I. It's gotta be like something like one in 1000 or something. Yeah, which would be a lot, right. So yeah. Oh my God. Yeah 'cause out of all the times I've played it, it almost always is. Just give Bowser like 1020 coins. That's it. Always screws me over. Yeah, I'm gonna try, I'm gonna try and find, I'm gonna try and find how like how often this

happens. Like when I look it up, like there's screenshots of people like that have like screenshot after it happened, 10,000 coin present and like there's a screenshot that just says Bowser ran, that's it. Yeah. So that's obviously after after he takes off. I I believe I actually got it in a live stream. Oh my God. In one of my live streams in the I did a Mario Party 2 stream and a Mario Party 3 stream, and in one of those it might have been the three stream. I did get the Bowser thing.

Wow. OK, so the so we. Were like, whoa. Yeah, so it even exists in the new ones too. It's still there. The 100 star thing is in the new one. It says here's 100 coins, don't mention it. Literally don't mention it to anyone. And then? And then he runs away and it says Bowser hightailed it. That's funny. So it's it's possible. It's. I just honestly, I I never, I never knew. I never knew that it was possible. I honestly didn't know. It's cool. That's amazing. So what happens?

Yeah, so coins and stars are capped at 999 and 99, and when you receive 1000 coins or 100 stars, it's literally impossible cause a game isn't even programmed to get to that number. Dang, it should just Max you out. Yeah, like it. It would actually like technically, quote, UN quote, break the game if you got to that number. So that'd be cool. OK, so I want to get to this. Before we wrap things up, I want to mention the the social media

posts that I put out there. A nerd question of the day, which I've done every once in a while, which is just a random question based on the games or game that we're playing. I said if you could party with one character from the Mushroom Kingdom, who would it be? And we got a pretty big range of answers. I think, you know I I put it on on Twitter threads Instagram. I I I tossed it out on on everything. Let's see.

We got. I'll start off on Twitter because I had that pulled up first Random Gamers podcast. What's that? It's X now. No, it's not. A random gamers podcast said. It's got to be my boy Luigi going to have a bunch of pizza with a whole lot of movies playing at the same time. I think that's that sounds pretty good. I mean, hey, it's New Year's, right? You can do whatever you want in a chill. You're going to play Mario Party, maybe have some pizza,

watch movies, why not, right? A novel console, says Donkey Kong. New Year's. Yeah, a novel console, says Donkey Kong. But Seth Rogen's version? I'm sure he'd be able to keep up with me, drink for drink. Oh yeah, that's probably true. Probably destroy you actually, when I really come down to it. I don't think. I don't think drinking wise. I think if he did anything else, he would, yeah. Right last one here on this is from Gaming Together podcast.

I've been on their show before, so take a listen to them. Pauline, which is the the singer, the main sort of the, yeah, the one that sings the theme song for for. Why is it escaping me now? I'm out of. Odyssey. That's it. My God. I'm. I'm. Tired, I'm to jump up in the air. Good tune. All right, I'll be. Your one up, girl. There's my singing. It's it's beautiful.

It's beautiful on on threads we have retro play 224 seven or two 47, says Donkey Kong. He seems like a fun guy to be around with which I I think we can agree. I think we can agree, I think. That's that's Donkey Kong's cool. Yeah, my other podcast on Instagram, which I think one of my buddies probably logged in and put this answer in. So back in my day, says Waluigi Parties. That's it. Simple as that. Yep. Bits of bits of time. Media says it's got to be Yoshi.

The places we'd go and the things we'd eat. Blissful. Yeah, that's that's a good point. I I might go for Yoshi too. That sounds pretty good. You could ride on Yoshi too. Yeah, you could. You could go to any. Part of that, you could ride on Yoshi that sounds awesome and just go get a bunch of fresh fruit. Yeah. He knows where it is. He he just, he'll just sniff it out, right? He'll sniff and he'll eat it for you. You can eat. You can eat the junk food. He'll eat the fruit. That's fine.

You. Know. Yeah, exactly. There you go. Soshi, the Yoshi obvious answer. I wonder who mine would be. That's all they want. So, yeah, of. Course noob 1 to 10, which is someone who's on your discord on on the jiggy look back Discord, which is great, they wrote Toad. I think Toad could be kind of fun. I mean he seems like a really friendly character so and he he's one of the one of the characters at least in the first couple that throws the parties at Mario Party, so.

I think that. He does, yeah. He's got hookups, right? He's got hookups. So and then what else we got? Oh, you sent me one. Where is it? Here. I got to pull. It up, you know, that was only good games. Only good. Games for my Discord. Yeah, says Mario. I've heard he knows how to throw a few parties and that is true. That's fun. So yeah, so I would say for me just to sort of round it out, I'm gonna go with you know what,

actually talking it through. I think Toad is the go to because he throws, he threw two out of the three parties on this console and they're pretty good games and like we've discussed the mini games are a lot of fun. So I think I'm gonna back, I'm gonna back Noob on this so I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Toad. I'm gonna go Toad. You know what? I changed my mind though, because I I instantly thought I'm like, ah, no, I'm going for Peach because a few reasons. OK A She's a Babe 2. She's a babe.

She's rich. No, she's rich And three. She's got a castle. Yes, the. Castle and a. Kingdom for that matter. Dude, that party would be sick. And she bakes cakes. If you needed a fourth reason, Yep. I I think I think that's pretty solid. I think like you would you'd have you'd you'd you'd luck out like I don't think I think it would be pretty easy to to to find your way to a good party. I think that's, yeah, exactly. It's going to happen whether you like it or not, so.

Yeah. And her house is a party because you go through that castle, you can like the paintings, You can just walk through the paintings and you go in a whole world. Oh my God, man. And. Then you come back out and the party's still going. You could throw, yeah. It's like. You can throw Penguins and she's. Got. She's got a giant slide in her house. Oh. My God, dude. Oh my God. That slide looks so much fun, even though it also looks super

dangerous. It's It's probably the most ridiculously dangerous thing you'll ever do. But you know what? I would totally do it a. 100% I would do it I. I and I'd do it on my belly too. You got it. You got it. I'd run and go lying on my belly. Is that the sound? Is that what happens when you go on your stomach and makes a fart? Fart noise. Is that how? It works. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Somebody punched me in the stomach. I bet I would just do like.

I will say this, my dog did a really big stretch before and as she gets older she farts more and more. And it was it was right in my face. It was it was a mouthful of of dog fart. It was. My dog is on the opposite spectrum because she's a baby. She's just four months old, but she also farts a lot and it smells really bad. She's a golden retriever, but she'll just be sitting there sleeping and all of a sudden she'll be like and you're like and then it just it's like. Get out of here.

I got to get out of here. So Wario's out. We don't like farts. Yeah, Wario's out of here for sure. He was also screwing you over in the game that we played, so screw him. I hate. Hate Wario hate. Wario Yeah. OK, so that's Mario Party 1-2 and three dog Farts, Beyblades and I guess mini games. I don't know. The other stuff was more. Important. Wait, wait. There's one. There's there's an important thing we need to just lay out here. Yeah, we have to. OK, let's do it.

The tier list of Mario Party 1-2 and three. Oh yeah, What's the order? OK, what's the order? What's the? What's the the top to the bottom? OK, I'm. I'm gonna talk myself through it. I'm gonna talk myself through it a little bit personally, but I think I do have my order. I don't I know the answer right now. Yeah, I do. You wanna? Should we go bottom to the top or top to the bottom? I guess it doesn't really matter. It's only three let's. Go bottom to top. On the top, let's do bottom to

top. And bottom to top, OK, I'm gonna go with #1 at the bottom, just because it's simpler. There's less games like we talked about. The games are still pretty good, but there's just less complexity I guess on the boards and stuff and somehow, you know, and then I actually, I while I have the most nostalgia for three, I'm gonna put three in the middle and I'm gonna put two at the top because 2 shares similar games or the same games that we really enjoyed from one. Plus it does have those

costumes. And I do agree that the whole like story or the way that you sort of go through the different areas, I do like the maps better in three, like the actual boards, but I think the mix of the games and a little bit more personality in two puts it towards the top, yeah. OK, I'm gonna go 312. OK, OK. I think I think but but that being said that being thrown out here when I say 3 is at the bottom.

If we put the grand scale of Mario parties out there, those three would still be like in the same order. Right? Like right. Like I don't know. I I've played I've played some of the game cube ones I think I have. I have seven laying around here and I used to have 4:00 but my friend borrowed it and never returned it. Yep, for shame, but for shame. Unless it unless it is back there. But I don't think it is. I'm pretty sure he borrowed he borrowed 3 games and it sucked

because they were all good. Mario Party 4, Metroid Prime and Zelda Windbreaker. I will not say his name, but he knows. But I've reacquired. I've reacquired all of those except for Mario Party. OK, so, and I mean, I don't think he. Intentionally did it. I think it's just one of those things. He borrowed it when we were young. It just sort of, and we just. It just happens, yeah. And you know, he's still my good

friend of this day. But and I thought about bringing it up to him, but I'm like, it's not worth it. I'll just reacquire him. I mean, you could drop, you could drop a name if you want and if you listen, Yeah. Anyway, whatever you're comfortable with, man, yeah. That's all good. Hey, you know the on the flip flop, on the flip flop that he's giving me games, so oh OK, it's probably even Stevens. I will say I don't think they're worth as much. Yeah, you're like, Oh no, it's

partying, but actually. Those are worth a pretty penny. Yo, yeah. Dude, those Mario Party games on GameCube are worth a pretty penny. Yeah? Which is? So crazy I it's something about the GameCube it's specifically is is with that right so. Yeah. And those, those Mario parties aren't as good, I mean. I don't know how I ever. Played. It's hit or miss. I don't know I I. I'm trying to think. Which was the 1st. One on Good. Ones on Wii.

Wii I think was 7 or 8I. Think it's 87's the last one on GameCube. OK. And that one, I have that one. I think I've played eight. I might have even owned it. I don't know. I never owned a Wii U, so I. Skipped I skipped Wii Mario Parties. I skipped Wii U Mario Parties. I played the first one on Switch. Me too. It was fine. It wasn't. It wasn't great. It wasn't great. But the Superstars, that one

takes elements from the first. I think it's the first four games 1234 and Mario Party four was pretty good on GameCube and that that Switch one, if you want to play elements of Mario Party just brought to modern day with you know just awesome. That's a good one. I highly recommend that Switch one. It's super cool and if if you have a Switch you can play the original 3 on the expansion pass. Yeah, which is what we did online. That's what we did yeah.

And and again the whole like your palm and using the joystick and stuff. I I think like I played with like a a power, a wireless controller, you played with the with the N64 wireless thing that you can get for switch and I I didn't feel like I was at like a disadvantage sort of thing. But there's something about holding that 64 controller that I don't know. It somehow felt different.

Yeah, there there are game, there are mini games in it that feel like the 64 joystick is really catered to. It's specifically made for that because there was the one in particular, it was like an ice pathway. You have to carry blocks, right? Right. And I felt I could. So I know the, I know the technical answer to this is something like the range of the joystick is like 83% at full tilt or something like that, where as opposed to like I'm sure the Pro Controller is

probably 100%. You know what? I'm saying between digital. And it's purposely less, Yeah. And I think that difference holds true to the design of the controller and just how it lays out in this mini game 'cause I can do full throttle and directions and it it feels right, whereas maybe you couldn't do that pro controller. No, it's like it's like. I'm just throwing that out there. I don't. I don't know exactly. It it feels like it's it's full-fledged, full speed or nothing.

Like that's that's what it felt like. But but I I don't know, I find the Bluetooth wireless one still works. Yeah, I I had fun revisiting these. I still had fun playing with with, you know with the power a controller and stuff like it's it's it's fine. You know I could have played it on. I might ever drive it would have been with the actual controller. That's fine. But I I wanted to play this. We played it together. I think it was still a good time.

I think it still works. I don't know what it feels like with the joy cons, probably not quite as great, but. Probably trash. Yeah, I wouldn't even bother with joy cons. Yeah, like it's fine but. Unless you're in handheld. Yeah, unless you're in handheld. Yeah, I actually started that when I booted up. I think I booted up, booted them up in order, 123 and I like played like a couple of rounds and I was like, oh, this feels

weird. It's cool to have it handheld, but I didn't like the way it felt. So then I just docked it and I use the controller and it was it was better, but yeah, yeah. Mario Party is a multiplayer game, man. I know, I know, It was good. It was good. Even just playing team people, even just two people is fine. You know, I don't, I don't mind that it it adds a little bit, you know of of the human element of of error or competition or however you want to see it.

I it was good. I I had a good time. I still think these games are worth going back and playing and because they're on the expansion pack. If if you do have that play a couple rounds, play a couple mini games, try to find ones that might work for you that you like the best or don't like and I think you'll get a good taste. You don't if you're playing on your own, just play 20 turns because 35 takes a while depending on what map you're playing or which which board you're playing.

We play 35 turns and took about two hours which is not nothing so. Yeah, it it was kind of long and but I will say that I don't think 2 hours is an accurate time frame for all Mario Party rounds at 35 because this map we picked, like I said, we had this cutscene every it had to have added like a solid 25 minutes. Yeah, to our play time. And then like you mentioned earlier with like skipping things, the fact that you can't do that.

So like the computer characters get an item game and you have to sit and watch that for like 3 to 4 minutes. Like that happens 10 times. Boom. You got an extra half hour. Like, that's that's a lot. Yeah, right. So yeah, that's true. That's a good. That's a good point. Plus, you could also have a safe state. So I guess there's a way around it a little bit. You don't have to do it. Yeah, that's true.

Do it all in one chunk. But yeah, Mario Party 123, still pretty good time, still fun ideas, I think, which is, which is really what it's all about. Just going to go have a fun time, definitely much better time when you play with other people if you can. The fact that you can online now on Switch is great. We had very little issue with any connection. I don't think we really ran into much at all. So that was great. We're good. Yeah, we're good.

I was playing off wireless, everything was was totally fine. So yeah, other than that, man, Mario Party, good way to end off 2023. We're going to have some, if you're listening to this, towards the tail end of 2023 or early 24. We're going into a year of some random fun ideas we're going to. Dig. Yeah, we're gonna dig into some. We're definitely gonna be playing through the N64 library. But Jiggy, you did this a little while ago where you played some mods of games.

We're gonna continue that idea. We're gonna do more of that. We're going to find games that have mods or unreleased games or, you know, things like that. And we're going to play those and review those every couple of episodes as well and have that experience, because why not experience something new while also feeling retro, you know, I think it's, it's kind of cool. This is, this is what I'm this is what I'm doing.

I'm playing a lot of these mods, just random mods that I'm finding for different games on live stream and just kind of like playing through a couple of them, just for a little bit here and there to find the good ones, OK? And then I'm coming back and remember 64. I'm like, these are the ones we need to play. This guy's putting in the work. I'm just sitting here. I I am so interested in the idea that I put out a video that I called the N64 is King in 2024 or why the N64 is King in 2024.

I I I think mods are a huge factor into that. You've got some retro console release like re releases you have, I can't remember, it's like the Poly Meg or something like that. It is a emulator console kind of like a retron a little bit. But you you have mods that you can detach and put on and it can read the physical hardware and they just made an N64 one and it will HDMI out upscale. Amazing. Everything right from and that's

super cool. Analog 3D is coming out with our analog is coming up with the analog 3D, which is their thing. And I'm just so excited about these new consoles that could potentially make the 64 games look as good as I remember on my modern screen which is super cool. And and just follow that up with all these mods that people are making. They're they're making because when you think of mods, you think you probably think on the limited scope of cosmetics, right?

You think, oh, it'd be funny. It'd be funny to play Smash Bros and you play as Wolf, but it's just Fox that looks like Wolf, which is, you know, because a lot of, you know, that's kind of like the Skyrim effect. I'd say like mods like that. But these, we're talking mods that are full games. I'm not joking with you like we're talking Kirko mods.

I'm going to shout him out a little bit because Banjo Kazooie Jiggies of Time I Played, I went in expecting it to be like this little one hour experience of oh, it's Banjo in Zelda of Ocarina of Time. Like he just put Banjo in that world and you just play around. No, it's it is that. But it's so much more than that. Literally the whole world is redesigned around Banjo. All the dialogue is different some. Changes.

Like the castle town that you go into right before High Rule is an entire level and it's platforming and it's it's got its own transformations original dialogue, story. It's incredible. I I was just blown away and that was just the start and I found so many other mods.

So you got to stay tuned, follow Drop a like you need to stay tuned to this podcast because we will be exploring some really cool stuff and I have reached out to some very cool people that we could potentially have as some guests to talk about these games and these mods and things. Just super cool. It's going to be a great year and I'm super excited to go through and play some of these new experiences of old experiences. On on original hardware and everything too, which is super

awesome. Like, that's that's the cool part about it too. There's also like a few game, I mean not a few. There's definitely quite a few games out there that are, that are new that you can play on PC for example, and use modern controllers or a USB N64 controller that are N64 graphics and types of adventure games and stuff like those as well. We'll try and dig into that along with moving through more of the library of the actual

N64. So like, I'm excited because we're going to be playing tons of stuff that we've never played before or have very little experience with. And that's why I love doing this, is because we've run into that so many times already. And and I'm excited 2024 is going to be awesome. So I just want to say, you know, if you've made it this far through through this episode and this show at all, like in any way whatsoever, thank you so far

for coming along for the ride. Jiggy came on as more of a regular and more of a A Co host seat pretty much almost this entire year. Once Donkey Kong 64 hit it was like well this is a no brainer, let's keep this shit show on the road. Let's keep going, I. Can't believe it's been an entire year. Almost, yeah. Cuz I think Donkey Kong was March or April. So yeah, it's been that long and

honestly it's it's great. It's great to have different experiences, like we're joking about our age and stuff, but that's all great because it adds to the different perspectives and everything. So I'm all for it and I'm excited to to keep kicking ass and taking names for the N64 as we go forward. Remember 64 show across the board as far as social media goes, spending more time on threads than other ones at the moment so far, but that could

change, I don't know. Everything's up in the air at this point. And Jiggy, why don't we tell everybody about your work? Really. I. Don't know. I don't know at this moment that I'm sitting here at this moment that I'm sitting here at least. Gotcha. Before we talk about mine, I just want to say that people need to go on and actually rate the podcast, OK. If you're if you're having a good time. I feel like we don't say that. I mean you do in the show sometimes, if not every time keywords.

I just want to. Keywords sometimes because I forget. Sometimes, yeah. I think it's important to go. If you like what you hear and even better if you like what you see, definitely need to go. You need to go review this podcast. OK. It's on Spotify. It's on Apple podcast. Basically, the more the more positive reviews we get, the more credible we are, the better guests we can get on the show. OK, that's that's just what it comes down to. I think I we've got some cool

stuff coming. But I I just, I think if you would just take a second and go review the podcast, just drop five stars, OK? Just drop five stars so you don't need to think about it. Just drop five. OK. And if it's out of 10, just drop a 10. But I'm pretty sure it's 5 S Just drop 5 Power Stars for Mario Party and you can be superstar as well, yes? OK. And also I put out, Speaking of like Spotify, for example, because I run it through their system, the the uploading, the,

the episodes and stuff. They have the cool thing where you can ask like a question if you listen on Spotify and you can answer that question similar. It's when I was talking about the nerd question of the day and like, oh, who would you party with or something. You can do that on the episode itself. So within Spotify, you can actually put an answer in there. And if you do, if you answer to that question, some of them will just say, like, you know, did you enjoy this episode?

But other ones I tried to come up with like funny questions or something like that that's related to the game, like what was your favorite mini game, For example, what was your favorite Mario party and all that. And then those responses will go up on the feeds for other people that find the show. We'll see what you said on that. So it's kind of a cool thing where it's a little bit of a quiz show type of thing and not quiz show a little. How many type?

How many tangents, how many tangents unrelated to the topic did jiggy go off into? Hey, I encourage you, man. I'm all for it. I'm all for it. So. There's at least 4. That's fine. That's fine. I I learned something. I learned about beyblades today. I'm not going to say that's a negative. Dude, dude. OK, Beyblades. But here's the thing, OK, you need to know this before we go. Beyblades today are not the same as Beyblades back then.

OK? Beyblades today, even though they're they're they're metal and they might have some cool effects like mine growing up. I mean they were plastic razor blades. They were not safe at all. You were in danger of losing an eye, losing a finger, like anything. They're amazing. We would, we would mod them. You had different things, like it reached a point where they would add like magnets to them so they'd have like rappelling and attracting effects, which

was cool. And then beyond that they would even have gears inside of them so that when you reached a point in the battle, all of a sudden your Beyblade would just like crank the gears on and it would gain momentum back and like spinning power back. So if that doesn't like sound like the dopest toy ever It was so cool. It does sound cool. It does sound cool. It was just after my time. Is is really all that? That's really the only reason why.

The only reason why, but the culture was there like I I was hyped for a reason because. My cousin. Said. I did want to be the Bay Bay Champion of the world. Hey, no one said you weren't. You just said that you were. I would have believed you. Yeah, but I'm. I'm not like that. I'm honest, you know. Honest to a fault. Honest, to a fault, but anyways, you can find my stuff on YouTube for the most part. I mean, I'm on. I'm on all the socials. I'm on the Tic Tacs.

I'm on the, the, the, the, the, the, the Twitter XS and the threads and the you know, all that jazz. I don't post on threads that much. Dave seems to be really into it. I'm not really into it. I I would say my my wheelhouse pretty much revolves around YouTube, and actually I've been spending a lot of time on X lately because it's been a lot of fun. Kind of get into little little fights with people in in good fun, not serious fights. Everyone has their own sense of

fun, That's fine. Everyone, everyone has really strong opinions about games and I like to push the buttons sometimes. And my opinions are always just way like, I don't know, People say I have good takes. OK, I'm not saying my opinions are right, but I I was going to say my opinions are usually like way different than when other people they like. My opinions are usually against

the popular opinion generally. But usually there's a good amount of people that are like, yeah, that's a good take. And I'm like, OK, like, I don't know, maybe I can just spin my opinion in such a way that it makes it sound better than it actually is. But you know, I love all the retro games, so I'm just be like Call of Duty Donkey Kong 64. Take that which. Free people out of 20 would probably agree with me, but yeah, it's a lot of fun. But yeah, YouTube YouTube's growing like crazy.

YouTube community's growing like crazy. I got a Discord and the Discord server has remember 64 stuff on it. Dave's in it. We talk, we chat about all sorts of stuff that's growing, but the YouTube is really growing. I'm kind of blown away by how it's growing. So yeah, I just recently became a YouTube partner. So it's cool. And the more gross, the more the more stuff I get to cover. Yeah, man. So I'm just excited to see where everything goes and keep continuing on with and 64

related content. That's it man. So let's do it. Big year coming up for both of us, whether it's this show, whether it's individual stuff, it's it's going to be great. So dude, thanks again. Thanks everyone for listening and watching. If you've been watching us, you can also find I'm going to try and if I can get the time to sort of get the editing and all that kind of stuff going, I'm going to try and put up the full playthrough of our time as well for our two hour session.

We didn't spoil who won, so you'll have to fight, wait, watch and find out any guesses and. And that's pretty much it. That'll do it for if you're listening to this around the time of New Year's, this will do it for 2023. On to some more fun awesome stuff. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being with us. We will talk to everybody next time. I remember 64. So long superstars.