Mario Party as a concept is an exciting and fun game that has been iterated/improved over the years to become a load of fun with your friends! It started off with some rough patches but the design here is still worth trying out and returning to in future entries.

Mario Party has a fairly loose "plot" that just serves as a backdrop to the stages - Mario and friends compete to see who can be the Super Star, and warp to various worlds that consist of board game layouts that lead to a star to collect (and other such goodies and terrors, as Bowser's schemes are always close by). Players roll dice (randomly generated, though items can be bought outside of stages to provide some dice bonuses) and resolve where they land - gaining coins, losing coins, minigames, special events, getting stars, and incurring Bowser's wrath. It's all very random and expecting to "win" off of this alone is something that's less skill-based and more the luck of the draw that goes off great at parties where anyone can be a winner.

Where the skill comes in is the variety of minigames played between turns - playes will participate in Shy Guy semaphore, dive beneath the ocean, race in everything that isn't a kart, and survive onslaughts of cannons and hammers. Some games are more fun than others (especially if you're rotating that control stick) and some are connected to Bowser events where not performing perfectly can ruin your run. That said, there's plenty of ways to practice minigames outside of stages and give yourself a decent fighting chance against the game's RNG.

Style-wise it's the same cute and colorful environments we're used to, with stages flavored after various characters and given plenty of pre-rendered art to almost seem like Yoshi's Story. Characters are well animated and are given plenty of fun versions in mini-games (every time a head is blown out of proportion during Cash n' Bash or Slot Car Derby). Music is fun, cheery, and mostly inoffensive - like a less iconic version of Super Mario 64.

Mario Party is a game that has ultimately aged over time, providing an unforgettable party experience at the time of release but since has been improved upon and given way to other titles. As a historical curiosity, it's still worth a few spins to see how far we've come!