Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games. Other types include pairing off (partnered) games, and parlour races. Different games will generate different atmospheres so the party game may merely be intended as an icebreakers, or the sole purpose for or structure of the party. As such, party games aim to include players of various skill levels and player-elimination is rare. Party games are intended to be played socially, and are designed to be easy for new players to learn.
Pictionary is a charades-inspired word-guessing game invented by Robert Angel with graphic design by Gary Everson and first published in 1985 by Angel Games Inc. Angel Games licensed Pictionary to Western Publishing. Hasbro purchased the rights in 1994 after acquiring the games business of Western Publishing. Mattel acquired ownership of Pictionary in 2001. The game is played in teams with players trying to identify specific words from their teammates.
Mario Party is a 1998 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The game was targeted at a young audience. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as development supervisor. It received mostly positive critical reviews for its multiplayer mode, concept, and music; disapproval of its slow pacing; and mixed reviews of its graphics. It is the first installment in the Mario Party series and was followed by Mario Party 2 in 1999. The game received its first official re-release on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in 2022.
Mario Party 4 is a 2002 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. The game is the fourth installment in the Mario Party series and is the first game in the series to be released for the GameCube. Like the previous games in the series, it features eight playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong, Princess Daisy, and Waluigi from the Mario franchise, who can be directed as characters on 6 themed game boards. The objective is to earn as many stars as possible, which are obtained by purchase from a single predefined space on the game board. Each character's movement is determined by a roll of a die, with a roll from each player forming a single turn. Each turn is followed by a minigame in which characters compete for coins they can use to purchase items and stars.
Mario Party 2 is a 1999 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The second game in the Mario Party series, it was released in Japan in December 1999 and worldwide in 2000. The game received mostly positive reviews, who praised the improvements they made to the original, the multiplayer and minigames, but criticized the lack of originality, while graphics received a better but otherwise mixed response.
Mario Party 5 is a party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the fifth installment in the Mario Party series and the second game in the series to be released for the GameCube. It was first released in North America and Japan in November 2003, followed by Europe a month later. The game is set in the fictional Dream Depot, consisting of seven game boards. The single-player "Story" mode involves the player winning multiple games against the Koopa Kids to prevent Bowser from conquering the Dream Depot. The main multiplayer game mode consists of four characters from the Mario series playing a board game, with each board having a set theme. The game also features several minigames, which are played after every set of turns. Mario Party 5 introduces the "Super Duel" mode to the franchise, which requires players to assemble and control custom made battle vehicles which can be used in combat against other machines. The game features ten playable characters, with playable debuts to the series from Toad, Boo, and Koopa Kid.
Mario Party is a party video game series featuring characters from the Mario franchise in which up to four local players or computer-controlled characters compete in a board game interspersed with minigames. The games are currently developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo, being previously developed by Hudson Soft. The series is known for its party game elements, including the often unpredictable multiplayer modes that allow play with up to four, and sometimes eight, human players or CPUs.
Win, Lose or Draw is an American television game show that aired from 1987 to 1990 in syndication and on NBC. It was taped at CBS Television City, often in Studios 31, 33, and 43 at various times. It was co-produced by Burt & Bert Productions and Kline & Friends for Disney's Buena Vista Television. It has also had two versions on The Disney Channel: Teen Win, Lose or Draw from 1989 to 1992, and a revived version known as Disney's Win, Lose or Draw which aired in 2014. New York described Win, Lose or Draw as "a knockoff" of the board game Pictionary, however, Burt Reynolds and Ed McMahon referred to playing the game at Burt's home during the August 2, 1978 episode of The Tonight Show, with Johnny Carson, three years before Pictionary was created.
Mario Party Advance is a party video game developed by Hudson Soft and A.I and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. Released in 2005, it is the first handheld game in the Mario Party series, and differs from other titles in that the game is mostly single-player. Mario Party Advance was followed by Mario Party DS for the Nintendo DS in 2007, and was re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2014.
Anticipation is a video board game developed by Rare and released by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1988. It is playable in either single-player or multiplayer mode, with up to four players competing against each other and/or computer-controlled opponents.
Pictionary is an American children’s game show based on the picture-drawing board game of the same name. This was the first of three game shows based on the board game, with later editions for adults launched in 1997 and 2022.
Mario Party DS is a 2007 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS. It is the second handheld game in the Mario Party series, as well as the last game in the series to be developed by Hudson Soft, as all subsequent titles have been developed by NDcube. The game was later released on the Virtual Console for the Wii U in April 2016.
Wii Party is a party video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. The game heavily borrows game play elements from the Mario Party series, another Nintendo franchise. It is also the first game in the Wii series that Shigeru Miyamoto did not produce. The game was released in Japan on July 8, 2010, in North America on October 3, 2010, in Australia on October 7, 2010, and in Europe on October 8, 2010. Wii Party was revealed by Satoru Iwata in a Financial Results Briefing on May 7, 2010. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics and sold 9.35 million copies worldwide as of September 2021. A sequel, Wii Party U, was released for the Wii U on October 25, 2013.
Family Game Night was an American television game show based on Hasbro's family of board games and EA's video game franchise of the same name. The show was hosted by Todd Newton. Burton Richardson was the announcer for the first two seasons; he was replaced by Stacey J. Aswad in the third season, and Andrew Kishino was hired for the fourth season. The 60-minute program debuted on October 10, 2010, on The Hub ; it was previewed on October 9, 2010, on its sister channel, TLC. Seasons 1 and 2 contained 26 and 30 episodes respectively. Seasons 3, 4 and 5 each contained 15 episodes. Season 2 premiered on Friday, September 2, 2011, with additional games being added. The games added to the second season included Cranium Brain Breaks, Green Scream, Ratuki Go-Round, Simon Flash, Operation Sam Dunk, Trouble Pop Quiz, and Spelling Bee. However games from the previous season were still kept.
uDraw Pictionary is an art-based video game developed by Page 44 Studios and published by THQ Inc. that players can play on the uDraw GameTablet for the Nintendo Wii. The game is based on the popular board game Pictionary, in which players draw pictures based on clues from a subject and have their teammates guess what specific words the picture is supposed to represent. It was released on November 14, 2010 for the Nintendo Wii game system.
Mario Party 10 is a 2015 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Wii U video game console. It is the tenth home console release in the Mario Party series and a part of the larger Mario franchise. Featuring gameplay similar to the prior series entries, players compete against each other and computer-controlled characters to collect the most mini-stars, traversing a game board and engaging in minigames and other challenges. There are multiple game modes, including one where players traverse a board in a vehicle, sabotaging each other and making choices to collect the most mini-stars by the end. Mario Party 10 adds two modes over its predecessors: Bowser Party, where four players compete in a team against a fifth who controls Bowser on the Wii U GamePad, and Amiibo Party, where players use Amiibo figures. Their gameplay is interspersed by over 70 minigames with various play styles.
Wii Party U is a party video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U in 2013. It was announced in a January 2013 Nintendo Direct, and later detailed at E3 2013 and the October 2013 Nintendo Direct. It is the sequel to the 2010 Wii game Wii Party.
Keisan Game Sansū Series is a video game series focusing on elementary arithmetic calculation of basic math, featuring addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, and fractions. The series is only available in Japanese.
Quick, Draw! is an online guessing game developed and published by Google that challenges players to draw a picture of an object or idea and then uses a neural network artificial intelligence to guess what the drawings represent. The AI learns from each drawing, improving its ability to guess correctly in the future. The game is similar to Pictionary in that the player only has a limited time to draw. The concepts that it guesses can be simple, like 'foot', or more complicated, like 'animal migration'.
Scribblenauts Showdown is a party game developed by Shiver Entertainment and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in March 2018. The game is the sixth installment in the Scribblenauts franchise, created by 5th Cell. Showdown sees players playing minigames against other players or CPUs.
