This added layer of chaos tackled a problem many party games struggle with: how to even the playing field between new players and veterans in a way that feels both fair and fun. Playing on single-player versus multiplayer truly felt like two distinct experiences. I was impressed by how much harder this made things many of the games I’d easily won before on single-player were rendered all but impossible on a screen as flat as a pancake or one bouncing around like a DVD logo screen saver. However, this microgame appears in a windowed, floating screen, similar to a phone’s picture-in-picture display, that the other players can manipulate the display by squishing it, shaking it or using other effects that change each round. In the first half, everyone races to be the first to score a goal on an air hockey table, and the winner gets the play a microgame for a chance at two stars.

The same could be said of Puck’er Up, another crowd favorite, wherein everyone plays as the same random crew member as you compete to earn the most stars through two-part rounds.

Mario party 2 switches 8 players