Mario Party 4/Game Modes

There are a total of six modes in Mario Party 4: Party Mode, Story Mode, Mini-Game Mode, Option Room, Present Room, and Extra Room.

Party Mode
In this mode, you can play on any map you want.

Party Mode is pretty much the same as it has been in every other Mario Party game. You can view the rules of the game, select the number of human players, pick characters, and choose a board to play on. The major change to Party Mode is that players can now be divided into two teams of two, in addition to the normal Battle Royal. The turn amount ranges from 10 turns to 50 turns in increments of 5, and there are star handicaps for less skilled players. There is also the option of only using the "Easy" or "Custom" Mini-Game sets.

The goal in Party Mode is to collect coins and use them to obtain the most Stars. Coins can be obtained through the various spaces on the board and by winning the Mini-Game at the end of every turn. If the Bonus Star option is on, players will receive Bonus Stars depending on how they did in Mini-Games, their Coin "Record", and the number of Happening Spaces they landed on. For detailed instructions on how to play, see the Rules section.

Story Mode
Follow the story in this one-player mode.

Story Mode is similar to Party Mode except for the fact that only one human can play. The goal is to win all six boards, receiving a present from each character that hosts a board. Gameplay in the boards is identical to the Party Mode gameplay. After successfully winning a board, you must play a Story Mini-Game against the board's host before receiving a present. There is an extra "present" you will receive after receiving all of the presents from the board hosts. Completing Story Mode on the Hard difficulty setting unlocks the Expert difficulty setting for all other modes. Completing Story mode is also the only way to unlock the final board, Bowser's Gnarly Party. See the Walkthrough page for more information.

Mini-Game Mode
Play all the Mini-Games you have unlocked in other modes.

Mini-Game mode is divided into 4 main components, some of which include more modes.

Play
''You won 'em! Now you can play 'em!''

As the title suggests, this mode allows you to play any Mini-Games that you encountered in Party or Story Mode. There are four modes contained inside of Play mode.
 * Free Play: This mode allows you to pick and choose any Mini-Game you have unlocked and play it. For games divided into teams, Player One gets to pick which players are on the same team. Free Play mode is the only way to play a Story Mini-Game against a character other than a board host.
 * Team Play: This mode is just like Free Play mode, except there are only 2-vs-2 Mini-Games.
 * Battle Mode: In this mode, you pick a Mini-Game type, the teams, and the number of Mini-Game wins required to be victorious. Players compete in randomly selected Mini-Games until one player or team has gotten the required number of wins.
 * Tic-Tac-Toe Mode: This mode consists entirely of 2-vs-2 Mini-Games, and players are divided into two teams. Both teams pick the space that they want, but only the winning team gets the space. This continues until a team gets three-in-a-row or the entire board is filled up.

List
This pulls up the same menu as in Free Play mode, but this time, the Mini-Games aren't playable. It's good for quickly checking which modes (e.g. 1-vs-3) are complete and which ones still have Mini-Games missing.

Custom
This pulls up the same menu as in List and Free Play mode. However, you can add Mini-Games to a Custom list. You can have up to four 4-Player Mini-Games, three 1-vs-3 Mini-Games, three 2-vs-2 Mini-Games, and two Battle Mini-Games in your custom list.

Records
It pulls up a list of records for Mario Medley, Domination, Right Oar Left, Dungeon Duos, Mario Speedwagons, and Take a Breather. This is very helpful for seeing which Mini-Games haven't yet unlocked a present yet because the record isn't good enough.

Option Room
Change sound settings and view game statistics.

This mode is very simple. You can turn the rumble feature on or off. You can also view board records, seeing how many times each character has won each board, what the maximum star count for each board is, and what the maximum coin count for each board is.

Present Room
Check out all the presents you have received.

This mode contains every present you received from Story Mode and from Mini-Game records. This table shows what each character receives from each board.

Upon completing a character's entire set of presents, their constellation will appear in the sky over their room.

There are also presents for obtaining good enough records in certain Mini-Games.
 * Bowser Plate: Set a record time in Mario Medley of under 1'00"
 * Koopa Plate: Set a record time in Right Oar Left of under 45.00"
 * Shy Guy Plate: Set a record time in Dungeon Duos of under 1'30"
 * Boo's Picture Frame: Set a record time in Mario Speedwagons of under 10.00"
 * Boo Plate: Set a record time in Take a Breather of over 7.00"
 * Goomba Plate: Set a record in Challenge Booksquirm of more than 15 pages. This can also be done in normal Booksquirm. However, you will not be able to see how many pages you have survived.
 * Goomba's Clock: Set a record of greater than 100 dominoes in Domination
 * Toad's Teacups: Clear the 20-piece puzzle in Jigsaw Jitters in under 1'00"
 * Toad's Teapot: Clear the 30-piece puzzle in Jigsaw Jitters in under 2'00"
 * Toad Plate: Clear the 40-piece puzzle in Jigsaw Jitters in under 3'00"
 * Birthday Cake: Win the Beach Volley Folley Battle Mode

Once you have obtained every other present, the Party Star trophy appears in the space between Wario's room and DK's room. This doesn't alter the gameplay at all.

Extra Room
Play some extra Mini-Games.

This mode is divided into three sub-modes. There is Thwomp's Backroom Ball, Whomp's Basement Brouhaha, and Ztar's Beach Volleyball. Ztar's Beach Volleyball must be unlocked by unlocking everything in the other two sub-modes.

Thwomp's Backroom Ball
This is a mode for four players, or in some cases nine players. It features two boards and two variations of Mini-Games from other modes. Both of the boards are available from the beginning, while both of the Mini-Games are unlockable.

Mega Board Mayhem
''This board was designed by Thwomp. Get Mega-sized, and grab a lot of coins. You start with 100 coins. Whoever has the most coins at the end wins.''

This is an extra board with no Mini-Games or Stars on it. The game length can be set for 10, 20, or 30 turns. There are two Item Shops, one Lottery Shop, and two Mini Gates. There are only four types of Spaces: Blue, Red, Mushroom, and Warp. As the name implies, gameplay revolves heavily around using Mega Mushrooms to steal coins from opponents.

To do well on this board, you have to be willing to spend coins on Mega and Super Mega Mushrooms. Just remember: for a Mega Mushroom to be profitable, you need to hit at least one opponent, for a Super Mega Mushroom to be profitable, you need to hit at least two opponents. Mini Mushrooms can also be useful on this board. If you use them so that you fall behind your opponents, you'll probably be able to hit all three with a Mega or Super Mega Mushroom the next turn. However, it's not always easy to get the item you want. The shop only stocks one item every turn, and it frequently isn't useful.

Another strategy that some people use is to stock up on Mini Mushrooms and to go through one of the gates. In there, it's a "safe zone", and the theory is that the other players will spend so much money, they'll all end up lower than they started, while the player with Mini Mushrooms will more or less break even. The risk is that one opponent will come out ahead of where they started, leaving the Mini Mushroom player in second place.

Panel Panic
9 player Panels of Doom! Five players, including Bowser, must be computer controlled. The other four get to pick numbers before Bowser's group falls down.

Challenge Booksquirm
Just like normal booksquirm, only you can see how many pages you have completed and it doesn't stop until everybody has been squashed.

Whomp's Basement Brouhaha
This is a Mini-Game mode for only one player. There are six minigames, some of which are unlockable. All of the Mini-Games have different ranks which are given out based on performance.

Jigsaw Jitters
This game is unlocked when you play Photo Finish in Party Mode or Story Mode.


 * Rules: Put the scrambled pieces of the puzzle together to form a picture.
 * Controls:
 * Rotate a Piece
 * Move a Piece
 * Drop a Piece

There are three puzzles for this game: a 20-piece puzzle, a 30-piece puzzle, and a 40-piece puzzle. There are awards in the Present Room for completing each puzzle quickly. The best advice is to repeat each puzzle until you can complete it quickly enough. The 20-piece puzzle never changes, for example, so with practice, you should be able to complete it. Puzzle pieces don't have to be perfectly aligned with their outlines in order to be accepted by the game.

Barrel Baron

 * Rules: Find a rumbling spot and press to dig for oil. For RUMBLE OFF settings, a !! will appear.
 * Controls:
 * Move
 * Dig
 * (Dig three times to strike oil.)

This game is easier with the rumble settings turned off. There are three sizes of oil: small (!) worth 1 barrel, medium (!!) worth 10 barrels, and large (!!!) worth 100 barrels. In each game there are three large oil spots that you can find. Move around until you find the three "!!!" that signify large amounts of oil. Dig up any "!!" that you find along the way, but ignore the small oil spots. When you're down to about five seconds, just pick a spot and dig in the hopes of uncovering something.

Mushroom Medic

 * Rules: Try to figure out who ate the poison mushroom. The one who ate it will have a different heartbeat.
 * Controls:
 * Move the Cursor
 * Choose

In this Mini-Game, you need to figure out which character has a different rumble pattern, or with the rumble feature off, which ! pulses differently. Always check all five so that you don't skip over the poisoned character. For example, if you only check the first two characters and they have different pulses, you won't know which of their pulses is normal until you check a third character. Just be careful—you'll have plenty of time for the first dozen levels, but you'll have to move more quickly after that.

Doors of Doom

 * Rules: Choose the left or right door and go forward. One leads to the next room, and the other, well...
 * Controls:
 * Open the Left Door
 * Open the Right Door

This is a luck/chance game. Just keep picking doors in the hopes that Bowser isn't behind them. Contrary to popular belief, there is no way to discern which door is the correct one.

Bob-omb X-ing

 * Rules: A bunch of Bob-ombs are walking around. Try not to get caught in their explosions.
 * Controls: : Move

The best strategy for this game is to run in circles along the edge of the arena. If there are Bob-ombs in your path, just go around them and return to the edge. As time goes on, the Bob-ombs will move faster and there will be less time between when they turn red and when they explode. Bob-ombs stop moving a little before they turn red. Avoid getting surrounded by staying away from large groups of Bob-ombs. Since the Bob-ombs move at different speeds, go towards the slower-moving ones when faced with a choice. A perfect score in this game is 9'59"99.

Goomba Stomp
This game is unlocked when you play Tree Stomp in Party Mode or Story Mode.
 * Rules: ''Get in the robot and stomp on as many Goombas as you can within the time limit.
 * Controls:
 * Change Direction
 * Forward
 * Back

This Mini-Game has the same controls the team has in Tree Stomp. Contrary to the directions, simply hitting a Goomba with the spiked part of your machine is enough to score a point. Whenever possible, make sure that you turn while moving so that you can hit more Goombas. There is usually an especially large number of Goombas at the edges because that's where they run onto the field.

Ztar's Beach Volleyball

 * Rules: 2-on-2 beach volleyball. First team to 5 points wins. 
 * Controls:
 * Move or aim serve
 * Hit ball or serve
 * Jump

The player whose turn it is to hit the ball will have a star around them. Move into the circle and press to hit the ball. Jump and hit the ball to send it to the other side extra fast. You can aim jump shots.

Battle Mode
Join another player or a CPU controlled character and defeat six teams with ever-increasing difficulty to win the birthday cake.

Free Mode
Pick any character (including the secondary cast) and play any game. You have to beat Battle Mode before you can play Free Mode.