8 Best Sport Minigames In Mario Party

Minigames are one of the enjoyable parts of the Mario Party titles. Every entry in the series has a bunch of them, and they are very varied. One minute, you may be grabbing pancakes, while the next, you could be sorting balls.

Plenty of them have been inspired by real-life sports. Yet, the keyword is 'inspired by' as they're generally warped versions of regular sports. So, it isn't like you play regular basketball or football in these minigames. Instead, it will have a Mario Party twist or plenty of Mario Party twists. The following ones are the best sports-based minigames in the series' history.

8 Trike Harder

Trike Harder tasks you with moving around the Nintendo Switch joy-con to pedal your tricycle to the finish line as quickly as possible. So, it's a standard trike race. The controls are slightly awkward on purpose to give you a bit of a challenge.

Yet, they aren't so difficult that they're frustrating, plus the race is pretty short anyway. Therefore, it's just a fun little minigame that gets bonus points because the larger characters look silly riding little trikes.

7 Snow Ride

Mario Party is a series that pays tribute to winter sports as well as summer ones. The sport that's being represented in the Snow Ride minigame is snowboarding.

It tasks you and your opponents with racing down a hill on snowboards. You must move through the gates and dodge any warp pipe in your path. It's a tense minigame, as one crash can cost you the entire race.

6 Three Throw

The true test of which Mario characters are the best athletes comes in the Three Throw minigame. In it, all the players take rapid-fire jump shots at three rows of baskets.

Ideally, you want your shots to land in baskets from the middle row, as you get more points for that, but any basket will add to your tally. The one with the most points at the end wins. The element that really mixes things up is that once a basket has a ball in it, no other can get in. This can lead to some satisfying moments where your opponents' balls bounce away.

5 Bobsled Run

Team minigames where multiple players have to control one vehicle are always fairly chaotic. This is the case with Bobsled Run, as two teams of two must race one another in bobsleds.

It's a bit reminiscent of Mario Kart, except you don't get cool items to unleash on your opponents to slow them down. Instead, the winner is often decided by who can work with their teammate the best as well as who can hit all the boosts on the track. It's a simple yet enjoyable minigame.

4 Peak Precision

Mario Party 9 isn't the best game in the series, but it does include Peak Precision, so it isn't all bad. The minigame is based on rock climbing, as you all race to climb the cliff in front of you.

The presentation is really nice, as the buttons you must press to advance up the mountain serve as the handholds. This is useful, too, as it makes it very clear what buttons you must press. Along with being nicely presented, the minigame is also fast-paced and enjoyable.

3 Hot Rope Jump

Jump rope might not be the most popular spectator sport in the world, but if the rope were made of flames, everyone would tune in to watch it. This is pretty much the idea behind Hot Rope Jump.

All four participants have to keep jumping over a rope made from lava bubbles without getting hit. In the original game, the goal was to get to 20 jumps, while later versions made it all about being the last person standing. In all versions, the speed at which the rope moves continuously gets quicker, so things get more intense the longer you and your opponents avoid being burned.

2 Grabby Gridiron

There are plenty of games that allow you to experience football, but only Mario Party 8 enables you to play Grabby Gridiron. It's a game that's a bit like football, except it contains multiple balls that bounce, has fewer rules, and is surprisingly more violent.

It's a two-on-two game where the goal is to put balls into the opposition's goal multiple times. This is easier said than done, as the balls are bouncing everywhere, and your opponents are free to hit you or jump on your head. It's all very chaotic and fun.

1 Snow Whirled

Snow Whirled is based on the sport of snowboarding. Yet, instead of racing, it's more of a showboating competition, as you must click the prompted buttons in order to make your character do some fancy spins in the air. The faster you press them, the more spins you do before you land.

The person who performs the most spins wins. It's a unique type of minigame because you aren't just button-mashing one button. You have to mash several.