Day-Night Cycle

The exclusive day and night cycle of Horror Land in Mario Party 2 is vastly expanded in Mario Party 6, and that’s something which we may love or hate from this game. It can lead a player to fortunes during the day in Faire Square, but can cause nothing but trouble at night in Clockwork Castle. Some would happen to actually love that inclusion of 3 turns being the day and 3 turns for night, I myself actually like this inclusion. It fits well with the cheesy story of how Brighton thinks he’s better than Twila and vice versa. It makes creating a well thought-out strategy a bit more of a challenge, and thats really what makes the game overall more of a challenge than the previous installments of Mario Party.

For each board map, the difference between day and night, is equivalent to the difference between good and evil, mainly notciable with how events go about on the board maps. That’s actually a nice inclusion, but it seems to make Brighton an example of good, and Twila an example of evil in a way, even though that’s not necessarily the truth, I think. I mean, during the day, there are Donkey Kong spaces which can only benefit you, beneficial Happening (?) Spaces (most of the time), and mini-games taking place during the day (not sure if that’s necessarily a good thing). On contrary-wise, nighttime events are just somethings that are hard to avoid. Bowser takes over Donkey Kong’s role creating nothing but negative mayhem for those who land on his space. Not only that, but most Happening Spaces now seem to be detrimental, and thats very noticable in a board like Towering Treetop where ? spaces now take coins away from players instead of giving them away like it was during the day. However, there are more evil deeds that go on at night when compared to during the day, and sometimes, it’s really evil. Really really evil….
One very noticable evil difference takes place in none other than Castaway Bay. It’s a one way-ish board map where you must reach the end of the map to have the opportunity to purchase a star from Donkey Kong during the day. That’s not a bad thing, but how many times have you been 5~ spaces away from Donkey Kong only to realize that you’re turn has already happened, and nighttime approaches in the next turn, and you know what happens to Donkey Kong. The sun sets, Donkey Kong struggles to keep his form but the force of darkness takes over his body, he yells up towards the dark sky, and he goes through a transformation. He’s now Bowser! Well maybe not like that, but anyway, Bowser’s now there, you’re 5 +/- spaces away, and you’re now doomed. You just went though the entire board, all of that hard work, and you end up being screwed over by Bowser. You now lose a star, the worst thing to happen to you (well, in Mario Party). If that’s not just awful luck, what about Clockwork Castle? During the day, you’re playing a fun game of catch-me-if-you-can with Donkey Kong, and you have to reach him to get that star. But at night, Bowser’s trying to get you, to do stuff to you, to make you feel bad, to make you give in to him. He’s after your star(s), and if he reaches you in this game of being chased, you can say good bye to a star. The worst part about this is if he lands right in front of you, and there’s still some nighttime turns left after the one where you got a star stolen. You’ll probably get another one stolen from you since you’ll probably reach him if he’s really right in front of you. However, just because nighttime happens to be evil, that doesn’t mean only bad things happen to you.
Even though things like that happen on the board map, it only gives you another reason to further decide on a strategy to avoid nighttime terrors. If Bowser is chasing you in Clockwork Castle, use those pipes to your advantage in getting far away from that dude. In Castaway Bay, always have a Warp Pipe with you just in case the worst happens. It may be an evil deed, but hey, it’s nighttime. Everything’s evil at night. Plus, Pink Boos are available at night. Hire one to make them steal stuff from someone, as long as the chosen victim doesn’t have a Boo-Away Orb. Psh, who says a good-hearted Mario Party player doesn’t have evil inside of them. If you have an opportunity to get what you want via evil acts at night, take advantage of all of them if possible. Sometimes, nighttime acts aren’t evil at all. In Faire Square, the star price is selected by Twila, and it can range from 5 up to 40 coins per star. One noticable positive thing that happens at night just has to be that dice block rolling a 5. 5 stars for 25 coins, stars are literally 80% off. In Mario Party, who doesn’t want that?
So, here we have the day-night cycle of Mario Party 6. Some hate it, but some can take advantage of it. Some can see though the darkness the night offers, which gives them the upper hand, while others coward in fear of the worst to happen. I see through the darkness the night offers, and it’s easy to see the light that comes from the day. As soon as that sun sets, you’d better not let your guard down, because the darkness will take over you if you do so.