Well im a huge fan of the Mario Party series, especially the old N64 ones. Unfortunatly nowadays the N64 versions of MP are rather rare, and will probably set you back about £15 regardless of whether you buy MP1, 2 or 3. When faced with this decision i purchased MP 2, as this was the one i had the most fondest memories of.

Mario Party 2 is quite different from the other 2 MP's on the N64. For one its the only MP that makes you buy the mini-games featured in the game. The players character also changes apperance depending on the board you play on. MP2 was also the first in the series to contain the Battle, Item and Duel mini-games.

It features 7 boards, if you include the secret ones, or 5 boards with the normal ones.

As always the game features a large amount of mini-games, around 60. Divided into 4 player, 2vs2, 1vs3 and battle mini-games. There are 43 new mini-games featured in MP2, as well as several mini-games from the original MP that have been improved upon and added into the game. Another useful addition over the original MP is the ability to practice a mini-game before actually playing it.

The addition of having to pay for mini-games also adds a cooperative element to the game, as all the players coins and stars get added together at the end of the game and added to the money pot of which you use to buy mini-games, even AI stars and coins are added to the pot.

I personally feel that this game is the best in the Mario Party series, unfortunatly the newer Mario Party games on the Gamecube and Wii will probably end up costing you less money. Needless to say, if you have 4 controllers this game is incredibly fun. Even on your own you can have some good times, which is rare in such games.