When it comes to Mario Party, most zero-in on the minigames as the key to success. They are the main source of coins, so success in them often means having a lot of buying power. All those coins are worthless if a player can’t spend them, however, which is why strategy on the game board might just be even more important. Items, happening spaces, chance time, stage hazards and Boo: all of these are tools in the hands of the player and they must be played effectively if one wants to be crowned as the true superstar. It’s better to start simply, so the focus this time will be on basic strategies for each confirmed board in Mario Party Superstars.

Peach’s Birthday Cake

Even though it’s rated as a two-star difficulty map, Peach’s Birthday Cake is almost as basic as it gets. There are no branching paths and no items; the only opportunity for players to influence on one another is through Piranha Plant spaces. These cost thirty coins in the original game and would steal stars from any other player who landed on the space.

Unfortunately, this wouldn’t pay off often and those coins were better spent on stars. The best practice here is to purchase the spaces behind Koopa Troopa. These spaces tend to get landed on more often than the rest and one can get ten of their coins back after passing Koopa Troopa. After that, all one needs is a little bad luck on the part of the other players. The longer the game, the better the chances are that someone will get their star stolen. Mario Party Superstars seems to have upgraded the Piranha Plants and made them capable of stealing coins too, so hopefully they'll have more utility this time around.

Space Land

Space Land is also a two-star difficulty map, but it has more going on. On this map, the main feature is the counter in the center of the map. Once it hits zero, the Bowser Coin Beam fires, stealing all coins from everyone in its path. The secondary features include speeding Thwomps and the Snifit Patrol. All of these can be effective tools if one knows what to do with them. As for items, it’s best to hold either a Mushroom or a Skeleton Key, as both can create good opportunities.

The star often spawns in the path of the coin beam, so players will often find themselves standing in its path. If one can get a high enough roll, they can run down the counter using the right-hand path and catch the others in the beam. This is most easily done with some sort of mushroom and can have the added benefit of putting one in prime position to grab the star before the other players can reacquire enough coins.

As for the speeding Thwomps and Snifit Patrol, the former is great for running up a player’s Happening Space counter since it keeps sending players back to the left or right side of the board. Hit the space and try again next turn. The top of the map is especially good for this and it also allows multiple tries at the Bank Space. Continually missing that space, however, will lead to an overall coin loss.

Snifit Patrol works well for getting to the bottom-left or upper-right corners of the board quickly. The upper-right is a particularly valuable spot since it lets the player pass Boo. As with the Bowser Coin Beam, both of these can be intentionally used to prevent other players from getting stars too, albeit while risking making it more difficult for oneself too. Thus, this it’s best to use for mobility when one wants to get closer to the star and for interference when one has few coins and must prevent another player from making progress.

Woody Woods

Another two-star difficulty map from Mario Party 3, Woody Woods sits somewhere between Peach’s Birthday Cake and Space Land in terms of actual difficulty. There are no traps on this map, but there's an opportunity for interference in the form of Monty Mole. The two trees: Woody and Warukio are also major features. Woody either gives five coins or an extra dice block, while Warukio either takes away five coins or gives players a reverse dice block. In general, it’s better to take the dice block from Woody if the star is far away since five coins won’t make much of a difference over that distance.

As for Warukio, it depends. If losing five coins will prevent the acquisition of a star, then the reverse dice block is usually the better option. Just make sure to keep the shifting arrows in mind when picking directions at the nearby junction. The same goes with Monty Mole; paying him to turn the arrows early is worth it if it’ll send another player in the wrong direction. Again, please remember that he’ll change them again at the start of the next turn. The best item for this map is a Cellular Shopper, since having one enables players the chance to buy the item they need when they need it most. It helps keep one’s options open

Bonus Tip: Got Too Many Coins? Spend ‘em!

It can be easy to think that there’s no such thing as having too many coins in Mario Party. Having more coins often means getting more stars, and holding the most coins usually means at least one bonus star at the end of the game. Having a ton of coins is dangerous too; it creates the chance for another player to steal them via a chance time. So, the best thing to do is hold enough to secure the Coin Star (at least ninety) and then spend them on stars and/or items. Magic lamps are best if they are available, but Boo Repellant, Item Bags and such are also great ways to minimize the other players’ chances of stealing the coin advantage.

There are still at least two more boards yet to be revealed by Nintendo, and thus still plenty of tactics to be discussed, but this should be enough to help one gain and even build an advantage against their fellow players once Mario Party Superstars releases in October. Be sure to check back later for more winning strategies, as there’s still plenty to talk about. Mario Party is not the simple game of chance that it appears to be, and the sooner one realizes that, the sooner they can become the Mario Party master that their friends love to hate.