Since the Nintendo 64 has four controller ports on it, it makes sense that you would eventually get some games that would make use of them all. And since I didn’t actually own Goldeneye, the first four-player game that I would spend any significant time with would turn out to be Mario Party.
Mario Party is a series of mini-games tied together by a overarching board game of sorts. See, you and three players take turns rolling a die and walking around the board. After all four players have moved they all go to play a mini game where coins are the prize. You use the coins to buy Stars, which are the main currency of the game. Whoever has the most stars at the end of the game is the Superstar, a.k.a. the Winner. There’s a little more to it than that, but you get the idea.
This game isn’t actually all that fun unless you’re playing with at least one other person, and each person you add bumps up how much fun you can have. There’s just nothing like having a close match between real, actual people. Especially when you steal their coins and stars at the last minute to win. Mwahaha!
Some of the mini games require you to rotate the control stick as fast as you can. Which sounds good in theory, but it quickly becomes apparent that the best way to do that is to mash your palm down on the stick and rotate it quickly around. This leads to two things: severely worn out/broken controllers and wearing a hole into the palm of your hand.
I played this game a whole lot, and although I never actually injured myself playing this game, I guess a lot of people did. Enough that Nintendo had to settle a lawsuit and give out some padded gloves to people who just couldn’t, you know, take a break now and again.