What's Your Opinion? An Idea for Mario Party

It has been quite some time since I've done one of these videos hasn't it? I was tempted to just make this some kind of one off thought video, or even a Forbidden Fruit. But I was curious about the ideas you guys could come up with and decided to revive this series. There could be another one of these in the near future as well. Enjoy. :)

[@RyansChannel0203]

I just want to see the the day and night system from 6, the character-specific orbs and 8 player mini games from 7, and the orb system in general back.

[@Vsirugo13]

I feel like this idea, while cool in concept, would be too (particularly visually) non-cohesive. I think this idea would only really work if you kept it to Mario-themed properties I.E. Luigi’s Mansion and Donkey Kong Country. While Nintendo Land and Mario Kart did the semi-crossover thing decently well, I feel like in a strategic game like Mario party, this concept is way more convoluted and confusing to a general audience than simply inserting a character or stage like in Mario Kart. There’s honestly just too many concepts you put on the table that for both budget and marketability reasons I feel wouldn’t go over very well aside from super core fans. Also we’ve seen when Nintendo tries to do Mario Party related things with other properties lol. Overall I feel like your concept has merit, but you’d just need to do it at a massively lower scale.

[@RetroBeetle]

Some ideas I had: *•Animal Crossing* could be similar to the infamous Animal Crossing: Amiibo Festival game. You collect Bells instead of coins and Happy Points instead of Stars. The main draw to the board would be the Stalk Market; you buy turnips for a set price, then have to sell them for a profit within the next four turns. If you want to be unique about it, selling turnips is the only way to get Happy Points, so you need to be _really_ careful about when you sell them; alternatively, you could make the board super beginner-friendly and have spaces award Happy Points like they do in Amiibo Festival. *•ARMS* has everyone carry around two Dice Blocks, like in Super Mario Party; you can choose between both of them for each roll, and each block has a different set of numbers on it. What makes it interesting is that item shops will have you to swap out one of your Dice Blocks for another one, allowing you to strategize about how you want to move around. Do you take one standard block and one that can give you coins, or do you take an all-or-nothing block and one that's got all 3's and 4's? *•Mario VS. Donkey Kong* introduces a Mini Mario system. Mini Marios replace Stars, and the goal is to have the most Mini Marios following behind you at the end of the game. What makes it interesting is that, at the start of each turn, every player gets coins, and if a player has Mini Marios following them, they have to spend coins on maintenance, meaning fewer (or no) coins for them. Those who are ahead need to think carefully about how they spend their money, while those who are behind can rack up tons of cash to steal from enemies with a Mini Mario Magnet! *•Mario Kart* tasks players with gathering kart pieces. There are four main garages to visit around the board, and each allows players to buy a component for their kart (engine, frame, tires, and glider). When someone's kart is complete, they go directly to the start of the Rainbow Road section of the board and quickly drive to the end for a Star; afterward, they return to the main section and repeat. However, if you buy more expensive kart pieces, you'll get extra benefits, like having tires be reusable for your next kart, or rolling two Dice Blocks every turn while on Rainbow Road! *•Ice Climbers* is a 2v2 board that splits teams up into two separate boards. In order to win Stars, both teammates need to collect one half of a two-piece star-shaped puzzle; if one player buys two halves, they still won't have any Stars until their partner buys at least one half from their side. Event Spaces and items will, of course, make things easier for your teammate or make things harder for the other team. (For something _really_ interesting, maybe minigames can still be battle royale-style; if it comes down to two players who are on the same team, the minigame isn't over until one of them wins and gets _all_ the coins. Teammates will have to decide who needs the coins more, and the other player can try to sabotage the enemy while their partner takes the gold!)

[@kodokunayuki2232]

I feel like this could work, but instead of making Item minigames based on the IP being used, maybe make exclusice duel or battle minigames. Like for a Pikmin board have a mini Dondori Battle similar to Pikmin 4, or for a Warioware board make some small microgames that work on a 2 life system instead of a 4 life, and cap the games at 5 so it wont be drawn out for too long.

[@rikustorm13]

Your channel is alive? Welcome back :D

[@DJCerealSauce6455]

Ok as soon as you mentioned Animal Crossing, a lightbulb went off and was hovering over my head in a comedic fashion. Since a fair chunk of Animal Crossing (especially ACNH) is built and crafted by YOU as the player, it could be cool to have a map that resembled a sort of generic island map, but maybe there are squares on the board that add or take different things away like houses, trees, NPCs, maybe rivers and bridges. I don't exactly know what kinds of effects those would have on the gameplay, but I like the idea of a mario party board that will look different at the beginning and end of it on each playthrough, making it significantly more dynamic than other boards at it PEAK, even if it might look a little plain at the beginning

[@xalrons4831]

I don't have a ton of ideas for it, but I think a Kid Icarus board could be interesting. Hearts could replace coins as currency, the sacred treasures can be stars, and Bowser can dress up like Hades. For special events on the board, an eggplant wizard could turn players into eggplants and force them to backtrack, and reset bombs could send players back to the start or maybe reset everyone's hearts to zero. Palutena could grant the players temporary flight and warp them to the sacred treasures. I feel like there's more elements that could be added, but that's all I can come up with.

[@AlexSWarrior254]

I actually had a fun idea for Punch-Out inspired board. The board would be heavily influenced by the minigames. Every player will have a record by their HUD that shows how many minigames they won or lost. Duel minigames will be rampant but you can also compete against NPCs to try to beat a set score in a 1 Player minigame. The two players with the best records by the end will have a final duel to determine the winner. Also the player characters will have boxing attire on. The board itself will have plenty of boxing rings, but also have sections based around the various countries the Punch Out boxers are from like France, Ireland, Spain, etc.

[@Werten25]

A part of me wonders if they could do a “Heroes vs. Villains” ordeal. Basically, good and bad characters would be able to use different items and trigger different events on the board. If they brought back DK Spaces, they could be bad for the bad characters whilst Bowser Spaces are good for them. Perhaps basic items like Mushrooms could be available for both, but items like the Golden Mushroom could be exclusive for heroes whilst the “mischievous” items like the Cursed Mushroom could be exclusive for the villains. I also think it would be cool if they expanded on the Solo Mode from Mario Party 6. What if instead of just hoping you get the right number, the end of the board has a boss minigame which you must win in order to keep the prizes you’ve earned? Maybe you could have a certain number of “hearts” which you start with and lose if you fail to beat a minigame. You could also take a cue from Mario Party 7’s team mode and throw in a two-player option. Third and finally, if generic enemies like Koopas and Boos were made playable again, what if you could customise them with accessories and/or change their colour to give them a bit more personality? Perhaps you could buy accessories with the stars or coins you earn on the boards.

[@spacesoccercowboy6091]

It's shockingly weird we haven't had a Wuhu Island and/or a Mii Game-based map at all. Heck, Miis have only been used in the Mario Party series within side modes in Mario Party 8. The costume idea you brought up could be used to customize your Mii, or even give hats/outfits for the Mario gang thenselves. As for a map, it would be cool to see a mix between Board Game Island from Wii Party alongside the iconic Wuhu Island map; the medals you get in various Wii Games could be Stars. Also, if a duel space would be landed on, the characters could do a quick bowling minigame, a swordfight, or a shooting range!

[@ZachaRicO]

That's a good point!

[@keybladeoverlord]

An Animal Crossing board could probably work around the idea of gathering coins (which are reskinned to be Bells from Animal Crossing to fit with the map theme) to buy furniture for a house and the winner is whoever gains the most points from the Happy Home Academy at the end of the game is the winner. To ensure it's not a time sink of actually designing your house, you could buy presets based on the default room layouts of the villagers in the Animal Crossing series being worth different amounts of points but have special synergy bonuses like if two rooms share a theme or two rooms of different styles are both used by Cat Villagers, etc. They could even work in the idea of paying off your debt to Tom Nook to upgrade your house by making it the way you upgrade your house on the map to be able to have more rooms to it. The Happening Spaces can even be themed around the various things you can do that usually earn you more bells or items, like hitting rocks with shovels to uncover secret bells, shaking trees for fruits but with the chance of a beehive/wasp nest dropping making you lose coins, fishing, bug catching, etc. The shops could even be based on the Able Sisters shop for clothing, which will bestow benefits to the person wearing the clothes for a few turns, and Nook's Cranny which has only a couple items at the start, maybe 3 items and two room sets per visit, but you can only buy one item and one room per visit, and to work in another mechanic from Animal Crossing, once a certain number of coins has been paid to Nook's Cranny, it'll get upgraded and become bigger to stock more items and better ones at that the following turn after it reaches the threshold.

[@AnthonyMtheGamerArtist]

Okay, here's MY idea for an Animal Crossing board; have it based off a typical AC island, makes sense. But Bells will be your coins and Villagers would be your Stars. The more Villagers you get to move in and wear YOUR character's emblem on their shirts, the higher your placement. And villagers can even give you items to decorate your own Start Spaces (every character will have their own, like in Mario Party Advance). You could buy items to trade to Villagers to get their houses upgraded (think Koopa's Tycoon Town) and better tiers of house would earn you more "Stars" in the placement.

[@redeyeflyguy2772]

Cool idea. I'd certainly buy it. To add my two cents, I think that the Pikmin stage should be the "Star Steal" map but it would be different than Snowflake Lake or Bowser's Warped Orbit. How? Well, Coins would be Pikmin. If you encounter another player, you'd bet a certain amount of Pikmin to steal theirTreasure (the map's equivalent of Stars). The target would also bet a chosen amount of their Pikmin and if it's greater than the attacker's, they don't lose their treasure (but both sides would lose the Pikmin they spent). There could also be objects blocking paths you can use Pikmin to move somewhere else and Bulborbs who wander the map at night to steal your Pikmin but can be taken out during the day while they're sleeping for rewards.

[@christheleavittman7080]

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION RETURNS!!! I remember watching the Virtual Console one as a tween!

[@Grant_Scarboro]

Same here.

[@greentoad64]

1:20 At first I was gonna say Diamond City, but trying to put a disco club, a mansion, a space ship, and all of the other crazy locations from Warioware would be too hard to squeeze into a Mario Party Board, maybe instead it could actually just be his house, and everyone is shrunk, and there's a lot of junk everywhere, like soda cans and Mona Pizza boxes. Waluigi could be wearing Jimmy T's outfit, and if Pauline was playable, she could cosplay Captain Syrup. Maybe bring the car back ONLY for 1 or 2 boards, I feel like the car would have become a fan favorite feature if it was just for one board instead of making all the boards themed around it

[@AdeleineFelina]

I think I got an idea for animal crossing: The board is a town with vital stores on relatively random spaces (like within a relative area of five potential spaces) Coins are bells, and rather than owning deeds for stars, the equivalent is a community of villager friends. These can be earned by either spending bells on something they want or taking a longer route to do a favor. Stopping by the Able sisters can adjust the costume of your character within certain limits for, say 5 bells per addition/change. Copper and Booker could have their guard uniforms from Wild World/City Folk and guide the player to a random villager for ten bells. But this is just me spitballing ideas here. Dunno how well they’ll be put in practice.

[@Alberto_Tellez]

How about a Mario Party with Holiday themed boards based on Christmas🎄, Fourth of July🇺🇲, Easter🐰, Halloween🎃, Valentine's Day💗, St. Patrick's Day☘️, and the final board being themed around Chinese New Year's🎆. Characters like Pauline, Professor E. Gadd, Cappy, Tiara, and the Locos might even be in the game, especially have Pauline and E. Gadd playable, and also bring us the return of TOADSWORTH, even make him playable too, even bring back the outfits depending on each board (similar to Mario Party 2) like Santa Costumes for the Christmas board, patriots for the July 4th one, and all the traditional Halloween costumes for the...you know. 🎃. Overall it'd be a sensational time to celebrate the holidays with a Holiday themed Mario Party. Don't YOU think so, CJ?

[@FilmsOliver]

Here’s a funny idea for a WarioWare board Instead of Toad, the main NPC is Wario speaking over an intercom I imagine the story behind the board would be like Wario and his friends have turned Diamond City into a giant carnival for another one of his get rich quick schemes

[@ivanzoneBR24]

Here are some of my ideas * The Donkey Kong Country map could be based on Tropical Freeze and have mechanics like pulling a vine in the ground for a item good or bad or a change in scenary or building the meter of a Kong Pow move that turns you invincible to hazards, gives you more currency or balloons that can teleport players. * Maybe you can use the boosting mechanic of Mario Party Island Tour's Rocket Road in the F-Zero stage. * You could make a board based on Ring Fit Adventure and the concept is the player who gets exhausted first is out, the player gets exhausted by walking many spaces and partake in workout minigames or board events.

[@sarahelucey]

Alright, here’s my idea for an animal crossing board: The map is basically a big circle with a bunch of paths in the middle that you can take. However, Isabelle is in the center of the circle with a brand new house! But, the house is very expensive. Like 200 coins at the lowest. The goal is to be the one who buys the house. So it’s like normal Mario party, but there’s only one very costly star with the goal being to be the one who gets it. There wouldn’t be a turn limit. Just a race to get as many coins (or bells, I suppose) as you can and be the one who gets to the house with the money first. Bowser would be dressed in Tom Nook’s clothes that are clearly way too small on him, claiming to have bills that you owe him. Like a bill for breathing his very expensive air, or walking on and dirtying up his very expensive grass. You know, dumb stuff like that. There would be an option to choose how expensive to make the house, with the lowest being 200, and the highest being 1,000! Maybe there could also be a way to catch bugs and fish and sell them to someone, but I’m not entirely sure on how that would work. If that was on the board, than the seasons would probably change every 5 or so turns to change what fish and bugs you could catch. Oh and one more thing. Isabelle would be sitting on the froggy chair as she waits for someone to come to her with the money.

[@TheFormidibleDan]

My concept for an Animal Crossing map: Each player starts with a house and are tasked with increasing their Happy Home rating by purchasing room and furniture upgrades with coins from an NPC. At the end of the game that rating decides how may stars each player gets (before bonus stars). You could also have an NPC that sabotages house ratings by putting weeds in their yard or roaches in the house. Maybe also include another NPC dressed as Redd that sells upgrades that have a chance to be fakes and lower your rating rather than increase it.

[@Sean_Bird]

Hmm… I don’t think this idea is bad, but I don’t think it should happen for Mario Party, it feels a bit too much like a fan-wiki creation for my taste. Although with that rumor you talked about, who really knows. If something like this were to happen, I think it would suit a combination of Wii Party and Nintendo Land better, as having Miis cosplaying other Nintendo characters would be less jarring than Mario and crew IMO, and it could better fit the dress up theme if that’s what you’d like to do.

[@ronochyrule6707]

Let's see for Animal Crossing, the obvious answer would be Amiibo Festival but better, but I think we can do more. The main gimmick of the board would be every turn, a random event would happen (since the tag line of the series was like something happens everyday even if you're not around) shops items changing, Special villagers showing up and changing something on the board, chance time, last 5 turns roulette, Bowser's roulette, etc. And for winning the board, it could be like Tycoon Town, although it would be more about having and upgrading your house, you spend coins(bells) to increase your houses value and each stage would grant a star, and you can use coins to make the other players lose coins or house value. Or, to go even more into the RNG, every 5 turns the raffle would happen, which would be that at the end of your turn you can spend coins to try the raffle to get a star, more coins spent means better odds, and you could even win more than one star per raffle, items, or even more coins, you'll always get something as long as you give one coin.

[@Grant_Scarboro]

Although I haven't played Ocarina of Time, I do love the gimmick the Zelda map you proposed. However, I also feel a board revolving around on the Zonai powers from Tears of the Kingdom could also be insane in a fun way. For example, some event spaces could have the Ultrahand carry you to a random space, or some other event spaces could be like Fuse with you being forced to follow the same path as another, randomly selected player for two or three turns.

[@fictionfan0]

Okay, so here are my thoughts for a Hyrule-themed stage: One set of Lucky Spaces lets you pick between three treasure chests: one is coins/rupees (5,10, or 20 at a time); one is a random dice block; and the final is unique to this stage, a Piece of Heart--if you're able to come back and get a second Piece of Heart, you get a free Star (seems broken, I know, but seeing as how you have to land on the Lucky Space *and* guess a one-in-three chance correctly *twice...)* One set of Unlucky Spaces would be placed near a cucco farm. Land on one, and the cuccos will take away your coins. This is more an overarching mechanic than a specific one, but one Lucky Space would take you to a "solo minigame," where you just have to grab as many coins as possible. (Incidentally, this Lucky Space would be outside a Sheikah Shrine from BotW.) Finally, one thing I really loved about MP9 (don't judge me) was the boss battles. If they wanted to bring those back, then one possible boss would be against Ganon (Bowser cosplay or the real thing). I imagine an archery minigame with light arrows. Left stick moves your character, right stick aims, and R/ZR fires. Ganon would fight back, though, and every hit costs you coins. Whoever gets the most hits before the HP bar hits zero wins.

[@SPAZIO2021]

Maybe for more retro or one-off type games there could be a somewhat of a mashup board where each corner is a different game, at least for ones that don’t have enough material for a whole board on their own. I imagine something like the Duck Hunt field in one corner, leading to the Wrecking Crew skyscraper on the way to a Pilotwings landing strip. I don’t really know what the main mechanic of the board could be, but it’s a pretty good way to represent lesser known stuff. It would kind of be the same idea as when Smash has had Famicom medleys instead of fully remixing all of those shorter and more obscure songs on their own if that makes any sense.

[@TheMr.L01]

OK, so, ZoomZike's Identifying Luck video for MP8 got me thinking, what if there was a "random" board (like King Boo's Haunted Hideaway) but it clearly spelled out the mechanics, and made deducing the star location a part of the board? Think Mario Party meets Clue (just with finding out the star location instead of finding out the murderer). That sort of idea might work well as a Lost Woods board or something like that. It's the kind of thing that could go wonderfully or horribly depending on how you execute it.

[@blaa6]

Mario Party: Party Round the Clock Bowser uses Time Travel to try to win and beat Mario. Mario and Friends follow after him and end up at different points in Mario history. 1-1, Dinosaur Island or Yoshis Island, Peach's Castle as well as past Party Boards like Sweet Dream, Pyramid Park and Waluigi Island (examples) Gameplay and items will be a fusion of 3, 7 and Superstars. Character spaces return from 7. Minigames will be a mix of ones from MP past and ones themed to Mario's past in general (maybe bring back MPIQ but for Mario trivia). Music for boards can be changed as can the boat load of costumes for each character. NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Power Up costumes and more. Helper Minigames replace DK Spaces and give you similar benefits. These are hosted by Funky Kong and Cranky Kong. Bowser minigames are based on Bowser levels in past Mario games like Corona Mountain obstacle course and Bowsers Galaxy Generator. Bonus stars work like Superstars. Total Boards: 10 Total Characters: 16

[@ZachaRicO]

Oh, this is BRILLIANT!!!

[@Alberto_Tellez]

Great idea. Perhaps have this for an anniversary of the Mario franchise in general.

[@RealTomahawk7]

I think the best way this can thrive, is if this title were a special "one time only, limited release" game, ala Mario 3D All Stars.

[@HylianWolfMage55]

I think this is an amazing idea for Mario Party. I do have one idea for the Animal Crossing Map. It would be based on one of the four different islands you could pick from in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Coins is Bells though I don't know what will be in place of the Stars. It would be based on some elements of Dokapon Kingdom with you paying a certain number of Bells to buy bridges to other areas as well as buying tools to progress from shops you build up by paying enough Bells. You could even change it up so that the player who built up the most stuff on the island wins instead of using something from the Animal Crossing series to represent Stars.

[@Darkfawfulx]

How have i been subbed all these years and never seen this series? Reminds me of Forbidden Fruit. Anyways i think a Metroid board should be based on either Metroid 2 or Prime 1. Preferably the latter due to it's sales, remaster, and more distinct locations. The stars would be Chozo Artifacts and there would be a finite amount. The Artifacts would all spawn at the start of the game. It would be based on either Chozo Ruins or Phandrana Drifts. If we were doing a Metroid 2 theme you would catch (not kill) Metroids with larger evolutions being worth more. You could have a morph ball item that would be similar to the mini mushroom from Mario Party 4, it would go through certain paths to small for normal characters and avoid certain traps. The twist would be that it could bomb open certain paths as well but then those paths would be open to everyone for a few turns before respawning like in the games. As for costumes we could have everyone in a powersuit but thats a wee bit lazy. The plumbers would be Galactic Rangers. Daisy could have the powersuit, Peach and Rosalina could either be in a different powersuit or in a zero suit. Yoshi and Birdo could dress up like the shinespark bird from Super Metroid and DK could be dressed as the wall jump monkey from Super. Just some starting thoughts. Maybe ill post more later. Love the old school KZbin content here.

[@RutherfordMRV]

While the Mario party series is in a good direction now. I want to see the series adopt the mario kart model, new boards with classic ones as well same with mini games. But online has to be a permanent stay now.

[@ZachaRicO]

Honestly, you don't even have to go too far outside of Mario's series to find a cool idea. Ending a game like this off by unlocking a wickedly hard board based on Rainbow Road would be amazing. Or maybe have a board based on Dr. Mario or even Paper Mario (old-school Paper Mario hopefully), or even Super Mario RPG (if they can do that; still not sure how many legal hurdles there are for that one). And of course, I'd love to see some boards based on Super Mario Bros. Wonder (the talking flower commentary would be hysterical in Mario Party), and, depending on how well it does, maybe even Princess Peach Showtime! All that being said, the ONLY way I will ever accept a Donkey Kong board is if the stars are replaced by Golden Bananas, and whenever a player buys one, we hear, *"OHHHHHHH, BANANA."*

[@michaelnelson1127]

This is definitely an interesting idea. Though sadly, I don’t have any extra ideas to flesh out the boards you mentioned. But for Animal Crossing, there’s actually an easy fix: make it like Amiibo Festival, but actually fun this time!

[@ZachaRicO]

If you ask me, I'd say the failure of amiibo Festival would dissuade Nintendo from including Animal Crossing themes in a Mario Party game. But that's just me.

[@Arcadenblog]

I really like the idea of crossover boards have unique gameplay ideas, especially the F-Zero one where you would need to focus on completing laps around the board. Having the angle of "acting out" the games through having the characters dress up could also tie into the "stage show" angle MP2 used for it's intro, and yeah, having the boards look hand-made/mechanical like they did in Nintendo Land would be a great way to add to that, aesthetically. Glad to see this series back!

[@meta527II]

I guess it could make sense, they did do something like this in Mario Kart 8.

[@boydixonentertainment]

I kind of mentioned this already in an earlier conversation that I could MAYBE see Isabelle and ONLY Isabelle playable in a Mario Party game possibly as to make up for the blunder that was Amiibo Festival. Plus compared to any other Nintendo franchise, Animal Crossing would look the most natural next to the other Mario characters. I 100% agree you can’t just take Link or Samus and put them on a tropical island or a birthday cake and expect that to work. I will also say I’m intrigued by the retro game idea but a number of them like Balloon Fight or possibly Ice Climber I could see working slightly better as minigames. A single level in either of those games can usually be done fairly quickly after all.

[@christheleavittman7080]

Me and my brother actually liked Mario Party 9. Personally, I would like to see the car mechanic return but as a separate mode from the main board game mode. Unpopular opinion I guess, but I could see the car working better than how they did it in 9 and 10.

[@videogamerzero1schannel]

I really do dig this idea especially with F-Zero but I think it'll be cool if they added a bit more single player in it, which I know it's a game supposed to be played with friends but what if your friends aren't with you atm? It should still be enjoyed for people who are currently alone at least if you ask me, I think it'll be cool if they brought the 1 player types of modes like in 8 but a bit more depth and it doesn't have to be groundbreaking, it can be as simple as Mario DDR's story as long as you can enjoy it alone

[@AeroDragon2]

Maybe F-Zero could also work for a star stealing board. The machines are in pit stops and you pay money for one, two or three boost canisters, but the kicker is that the machines can only travel on a set path. So it becomes this game where everyone is constantly planning their movements, and where a bad roll at a bad time can be greatly punished. Perhaps the machines can also lead to parts of the map you can't reach otherwise that could be good or bad, adding more strategy to it

[@pippin3430]

I know you said, no characters from that series, but it would be cool if a guess star or the party host is part of the franchise, like if Tom Nook hosted Animal Crossing or General Pepper hosted Star Fox, like in Mario Party 4 (just something that would make Toad and Toadette playable again). The guess star of said series can be playable as long as its there the approapite series. (I did think of a free play mode where the guess stars can crossover but I would make it subitle like in Mario Kart 8)

[@brawlmaster012]

I'm someone who regularly day-dreams about all of my favorite things crossing over (aside from Smash). But I could easily see this concept falling into the exact same trap as Nintendo Land - great fan service if you're a fan of all these other properties, but ultimately a novelty at best. Mario Party works on its own because Mario as a brand has universal mainstream appeal. You can absolutely get away with being a Mario fan without being a fan of any other Nintendo franchises. So when you pull in all these other franchises and make an entire game around that concept, it doesn't have as much mainstream appeal as Mario does on its own. Smash Bros is a completely different story altogether. The only people who would get hyped to see something like a Star Fox board or a Pikmin board in Mario Party are the existing fans of those franchises. The casuals who only play Mario most likely won't care. To be fair though, there are plenty of people who like Mario Party purely for how it plays and the kind of competitive "friendship-destroying" party atmosphere the game's design creates, regardless of whether or not they play any other Mario games. So if the rules and designs of the boards themselves are simple enough to understand and are fun, an argument could be made that this game concept could be fun even for people who don't know the source material. Also, I know you explicitly stated this would not be "Super Smash Party" and would not feature playable characters from other Nintendo franchises, but let's be honest. If this game were to actually get made by Nintendo, the comparisons would be there from day one. If you couldn't play as Link or Samus or Fox in this hypothetical Mario Party cross-over, people would be extrmely quick to point out that omission. They would immediately question why that wasn't the direction the devs went in. They would request a sequel purely to have the character roster expand outside of Mario. Mario Kart 8 gave people a taste of this "shared Nintendo universe" concept outside of Smash Bros and now some people are practically convinced that that is the direction the series must go in going forward; turning into Super Smash Kart. The second you show gamers a Hyrule board in Mario Party, you practically open the flood gates for "Super Smash Party."

[@work_days8745]

I feel like your idea is way too complicated. Think simple. My idea is, make maps based on recent Mario Characters & their games. A mario odyssey or Wonder map, a Luigi Mansion map, A peach theater map, a custom wario map with parts of the map decorated based on wario ware, Donkey Kong based on (either a new upcoming game, or tropical freeze). Could make some mini-games based on this to. Like capture some ghosts, jump over some barrels, grab a wonder flower, etc

[@sstteev]

My opinion is I don't care what maps there are, just bring back BOMBSKETBALL