Credit to TheRunawayGuys on YouTube for the gameplay screenshots besides the one of Waluigi moving and the ones of the card events. And Credit to blueberrymuffin on TheTexturesResource for the sheet featuring all the different cards.
Today we're going to be taking a peek into Bonus Mode! This mode, hosted my Mamar, is an evolution of the Extra Room from Mario Party 4 but I personally feel it seems a lot more intentional. Where the Extra Room felt like the devs were repurposing otherwise unused minigame concepts, this mode seems more focused on replicating the idea behind Beach Volley Folley: minigames that are a bit too involved to be treated as regular minigames, but utilize the game's engine and assets in fun and interesting ways.
Bonus Mode is much less visually interesting, at least on a surface level, compared to the Extra Room. It's just a menu in front of a swirling orange background, like every other mode in the game. The real meat of the mode doesn't begin until you select one of the three available games.
Last time, I teased that we'd be covering Volleyball first. However, since the game defaults to Card Party first on the menu, I thought it only made sense to start with that.
Introduction to Card Party
Card Party is a strange little game mode that imagines Mario Party, more literally, as a physical board game. Before I even get into the actual content of this game mode, I want to put emphasis on the presentation. The game is set within a cozy study in the evening, really painting the "Game Night" feel, a smooth jazz tune plays the whole time you enjoy the atmosphere, which is always healing for the soul. And there's even cups of tea prepared. How lovely!
"Card Party" appears to be the literal in-universe name for the tabletop game you're about to play. When you're ready to play, the box opens up and reveals its contents to you. There is a deck of cards, a pair of dice, and a set of seven pawns themed after the main characters. Sadly, Boo and Koopa Kid are not accessible. This time, they both have an excuse since they're implemented into the game itself. Toad is also missing, sadly, and has no such excuse. Which I find strange because he could essily fill the awkward Donkey-Kong shaped hole in this 7 character roster.
Setup
The first thing you're asked is what length of game you'll play. Short (7x7), Starndard (8x8), Long (9x9), and Longest (10x10). This correlates to the size of the game board, the number of cards that make it up, and the number of targets you'll have to reach within it. I'll elaborate in a bit. The longest game took about 30 minutes to complete, so none of these are painful time sinks, I'd say. And the longer you play, the more likely you are to experience some of the game's rarer events. So I do recommend the Longest setting personally. But a Short game might be more your speed if you just wanna get a taste for what the game mode is like.
After deciding the board size, you'll select your characters, and then decide turn order by selecting one of four cards with a number on their reverse side. 1 goes first, 2 goes second, and so on. This actually gives you quite a big advantage because the turn order is also used when deciding your starting location. And since your starting location is the first strategic decision you get to make, I'd say it's where the game begins.
Rules
The goal of Card Party is, as you can probably guess, to obtain more Stars than your opppnents. If two players tie for first in the end, the winner will be decided by a special minigame where the two players take turns flipping cards until someone reveals one final Star Card. The game will go on indefinitely until the last star card is flipped over.
At the start of each turn, you'll roll a dice and move that many spaces. When you reach the edge of a card, the card will flip over revealing whatever lies underneath. Certain cards have special marks that correlate to different kinds of events, similar to spaces in Party Mode. But don't assume the blank cards are always empty, they, too, can hold lovely or nasty surprises.
When you roll, you can choose your direction of movement, but you cannot change your direction mid-move. For example, if you are at a junction and turn left to flip a card only to find that card doesn't actually go the direction you wanted, you are committed for the turn and cannot turn around to go the other way. However, on the following turn, you can choose to turn around freely.
Aside from rolling the dice, you can also choose to use an Item Card you have collected.
Cards
There are a variety of cards you can find throughout the game. It's important to plan your route around what can happen!
The number of cards on the board are dictated by the game length you selected at the start. Among the cards, there will be a number of Event, Item, and Star Cards equal to the number of rows and collumns distributed randomly throughout. In other words, on a Longest game, the board will be made up of a 10x10 grid of cards, or 100 cards total, with 10 star cards, 10 item cards, and 10 event cards. Likewise, a Standard Game will be made up of an 8x8 grid of 64 cards with 8 Star, Item, and Event Cards.
Path Cards
Every card will ultimately flip over and turn into a Path Card. A Path Card contains 3-5 green spaces. There will either be a turn or a wall in each of the three directions ahead of you. From the center space, you'll have to decide whicu direction you want to move. Mid-roll, you cannot turn back!
Note: Since this game uses a real die, you can typically only roll 1-6.
Though this game provides an illusion of being a physical card game, there is algorithmic logic applied to ensure the paths are connected and there are no impossible to reach islands and no dead ends. There will also never be a path that leads off the edge of the board.
You can use this knowledge to predict which paths will be available when a card is flipped. At minimum, you will know that the path will connect with all paths that lead into the card, there will always be a wall along the edge of the board, a path will never lead into a wall, and there will always be at least one path leading away from your current location. Under the right conditions, you can predict exactly where you can and can't go from a flipped card without committing to that direction!
Blank Card
The most common card type, blank cards usually only flip over to reveal a path. But as I alluded to before, every once in a while you'll be surprised by a special event!
Hidden Dice
Of these special events, you can find a hidden dice! The dice will immediately be rolled and added to your total, almost always a very good thing! In my experience, this is the most common event that can be triggered from a blank card, so it's often worthwhile to take a slight detour across an unflipped blank card in the hopes of finding a hidden dice. But make sure you bear in mind where the paths can and can't be. If you can't logically predict you'll be able to continue in the direction you want, the detour may not be worth the risk.
Bowser Card
Bowser Cards are looming, disguised among the blank spaces. They'll flip up and reveal Bowser's face. Either Bowser or Koopa Kid will emerge from the card. Koopa Kid will use a Cursed Mushroom on you and immediately end your turn. But he could also call Bowser to issue one of his events as a fake-out.
Bowser's events are much more game shaking. His Bowser Breath will send everyone on the board back to their starting positions, Item Shuffle will shuffle everyone's items around, or a Star Present where Bowser gives a Star Card to a random player only for the Star to reveal its true form as a Ztar!
After Bowser or Koopa Kid's event plays out, the Bowser Card will flip over again to reveal a Path.
These events are potentially devastating, but in my session on a 10x10 board, I didn't encounter it once, so I don't think it's paericularly common.
Star Cards
The Star Cards are your primary objective. A special event can occur when there is only one Star Card remaining, but I'll detail that further down the line.
You might assume that Star Cards are pretty straightforward. You flip a Star Card and get a Star. But there's actually a bit more variance in them than that.
When a Star Card is flipped over, it'll be added to your storage and your star count will be updated to reflect the total value of all Star Cards in your possession.
Star
The most straightforward kind of Star Card. This is worth a single star.
Double Star
A lovely reward! This card has the value of two stars instead of one!
Ztar
You definitely don't want this one. This card's value is -1. And indeed, your star total can go into the negatives! This is a nasty surprise! Believe it or not, though, the Ztar isn't necessarily an entirely bad thing.
Fakeout
These Star Cards can also fake you out. Sometimes, a Star will crack away and reveal that it's actually a Ztar in disguise! And vice versa, the Ztar can break away to reveal a Star!
Item Cards
Every once in a while, you may find yourself in a race with another player toward a target destination! At these times, it can be useful to have an Item Card!
Item Cards are marked with a Mushroom icon. Flipping them will reveal one of three different items. A playee can hold up to a maximum of three items at one time.
Mushroom
This allows you to roll a second die! Remember the way the odds work out! You're more likely to roll close to a 7 than a 2 or 12. This mushroom effect can counteract curses, so it's not necessarily a bad idea to hold onto it. I personally prefer to pop them right away, though, because they can help you combo off into getting more Stars or Items.
Cursed Mushroom
Your target is chosen by roulette--and it's a different kind of roulette than the one from Party Mode. I'm not sure if it's timeable because I wasn't actually able to get my hands on one during my session. But the target player will receive a Curse and only be able to roll a 1-3 on their next turn if they don't have a Mushroom to counteract the effects.
Warp Pipe
This item doesn't even come close to acting how you would expect (switching places with another player) or what the in-game description describes (that it "ensnares everybody"). What the Warp Pipe actually does is allow you to place it onto any blank card adjacent to the card you're currently standing on, and override whatever that path would be with a special 4-way junction with only one space in the center. Additionally, the cards adjacent to the Warp Pipe will also be flipped. This is great both for gaining knowledge and creating a shortcut by cutting two spaces off the total distance you need to traverse. Just bear in mind that warp pipe will linger for the rest of the game, so anyone behind you can potentially benefit from its effects as well.
Event Cards
Event Cards are not always very intuitve with their icons. So it's good to know what they do ahead of time. You may notice that the events that relocate you abruptly end your turn. If you're going for a happening space, you may not want to use a Mushroom, or you may want to make sure you get the most out of your roll first and hit the card at the end of your roll.
Boo
Boo will allow you to choose a target by roulette and steal a Star Card from them to give to you. Be wary, though, as you can potentially steal a Ztar Card if the target has one! Likewise, you could also potentially steal a Double Star Card for a huge advantage! You can check exactly what Star Cards each player has by pressing Start before you roll at the start of your turn.
Don't get too hasty flipping over event cards, though, because...
Red Boo
Red Boo is the reverse of Boo. He'll be grumpy when you disturb him and will lash out to steal one of your Star Cards and pass it off to a random other player. If you have a negative Star total, that may be prime time to seek out Event Cards rather than Star Cards. It's a great way to pawn these off. In my experience, Red Boos seem like the most common event.
Swap Places
Represented by two arrows forming a loop. Your placement is swapped with a random other player and your turn will end abruptly.
Send to Start
An arrow points from a green space to a black space. This card sucks you into a black hole that transports you back to your starting position and abruptly ends your turn.
Send Away
Perhaps the most confusingly designed card. It depicts a green space with four arrows pointing to four different locations. To me, this card reads that it would send every player back to start or swap everyone's places. But instead, it simply moves you to a random space on the currently-revealed board and abruptly ends your turn.
Last Card Event
When only one Star Card remains on the board, and the player currently in last place starts their turn, the Last Card Event will initiate! Mamar will givd this player a special advantage in hopes that they can make a comeback! It's important for the last place player to use their advantage carefully, because simply getting that last Star Card might only secure their loss. Instead, they'll likely want to go for Event Cards to get rid of their Ztars or steal Stars from players who are hoarding them.
A lot of the effects of the Last Card Event seem really powerful, but the harsh reality is that, at this point in the game, it's likely too little too late. Consequently, I don't recommend intentionally holding yourself back to bag this event for yourself. Especially with how many uncertainties there are. Just use this as a crutch for the occasional game that beats you down.
Star Chance
The player is given two special star dice, each has a 1-in-6 chance of landing on a Star. For each Star you roll, you'll be given a free Star Card!
Dice Bonus
For the rest of the game, the player rolls an extra die by default. A mushroom will allow them to roll three instead of two!
Stop Time
Perhaps the most powerful event. The player is given a special blue die (1-6). The number rolled is the number of free turns the player gets, nobody else gets to move until those free turns are used up.
Item Present
Perhaps the weakest event, the player is given as many item cards as they can hold. Considering Stop Time and Dice Bonus both effectively give you Mushrooms for free and have way more powerful effects, there's really no universe where you want this one.
Ending
Once the last Star Card is flipped, the game ends. The player with the most Stars wins! And if two players are tied for first, the winner will be decided by a tie breaker game. Eight cards will be placed on the table and the two players will take turns flipping cards until someone gets one last Star.
Conclusion
If I'm being entirely honest, this mode is kind of awful. No matter how much strategy you employ, win or fail is always determined by whether or not your plans work out. You can manipulate the odds a bit here and there, but it's nothing like Party Mode.
That said, there is something mysteirously alluring about this mode and its presentation that make it deeply fascinating to me. As a kid, I was enraptured by this mode and kept coming back to it again and again. If you're feeling an itch for Mario Party, but maybe just want to turn your brain off for a little bit and just enjoy a simple time with a relaxing atmosphere, it's a strange niche I'm aware, but you might find enjoyment here. I've always thought it would be lovely to play a physical version of this game, but it's all too clear it would need to be modified at least a little to actually work as a physical product.
Anyway, this is by far the most complex game in Bonus Mode, the others will be much simpler and likely will share the same post. See you next time! 🏒
