23 Mario Party Minigames Perfect For Halloween

While it pains the crew at Goomba Stomp to admit it, Halloween horror isn’t for everybody. While enjoying the fall aesthetic and getting dressed up in a creative costume can be fun, not everyone enjoys the month-long adrenaline rush that supernatural serial killers, poltergeists, and the undead bring. And although watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” Hocus Pocus, and The Nightmare Before Christmas can make for some fun October traditions, it’s not exactly the most original routine. 

So if you’re looking to spruce up your fall repertoire without doing anything too spooky, you might want to check out this list of the 23 Mario Party minigames that are perfect for Halloween. They’re guaranteed to get your adrenaline pumping in a not-too-terrifying way, while also being perfect Halloween fun. 

1. Croozin’ for a Broozin’ – Super Mario Party

What’s scarier than a ghost chasing you? How about a ghost wearing a set of boxing gloves? This minigame has players running from a pack of angry Broozers while trying to avoid obstacles and blocks that slow players down. If a Broozer hits you (which they will), you’re out.  

2. House of Boos – Mario Party: Star Rush 

Do you like Pac-Man, but wish it had more Mario Brothers characters in it? Well, you’re in luck! The minigame “House of Boos” has players navigating a maze and collecting coins, while simultaneously avoiding ghostly enemies. If you accidentally hit a ghost, however, you’ll be dragged back to the start of the labyrinth. 

3. Haunted Hallways – Mario Party: Star Rush 

Your goal is simple, to get to the end, but it’s a difficult one to accomplish with the dozens of doors to choose from and ghosts hunting you down. With tense music, winding hallways, and Boos surprising you, this game is a fun race to the finish line (or finish chamber). 

4. Spiked Ball Scramble – Mario Party 10 

Although this game doesn’t look scary at first glance, it’s an absolute nightmare to play (we mean this in the best way). With lava, swinging spinners, and a platform that seems to disappear behind you, this minigame is guaranteed to make you sweat. 

5. Peepa Panic – Mario Party 10

Ghosts, spooky music, and a haunted mansion. What isn’t to love about this minigame? You and your friends have to race to the end of the mansion while a never-ending sea of Boos tries to catch you. If they do, you have three chances to wiggle out of their grasp and, if you don’t, you lose. 

6. Tragic Carpet Ride – Mario Party: Island Tour 

Your objective is simply to stay on the floating carpet in the centre of the room. And while that sounds easy enough, it gets a little harder when there are giant Mattermouths eating the carpet you’re trying to stand on. 

7. Horror Harriers – Mario Party: Island Tour 

For this minigame, players have to move around in a circle while a group of Boo’s move in patterns around the space. If they bump into you, your character is lifted out of the arena and you lose the game. Although it’s a fun game, we have to admit that we’re a little sad the North American version didn’t keep the British name for this minigame, which was “Jeepers Peepas.” 

8. Hide’n’Splat – Mario Party: Island Tour 

This game is tenser than it is scary, as players are confined to an arena as giant Tox Boxes try to crush them. You never know which way the box is going to roll, and as the game progresses they move faster and faster. 

9. Smash Compactor – Mario Party 9

This game is eerie to play thanks to the dim lighting and music, not to mention the Dry Bones (aka. dead Koopa Troopas) operate machinery in the background. Players run around, trying to find an open manhole in the ground, while a trash compactor threatens to descend on them. The last one alive wins. 

10. Mecha Choice – Mario Party 9

Mecha Koopas are adorable in theory, but terrifying in large numbers, which is why Mecha Choice is such a fun game. Locked in a mansion, you’re trying to choose the right door that leads outside while this horde of wind-up robots advances. Unfortunately for you, there’s no way of knowing if the door you pick leads to a dead end, another room of doors, or (if you’re the last man standing) outside.  

11. Manor of Escape – Mario Party 9

This game isn’t terrifying, but the music, ambiance, and creepy setting make its Halloween vibe complete. The game evokes a very classic Scooby-Doo vibe, as players attempt to make it from the top floor of the manor to the bottom one by walking through one of six doors, which may or may not lead to the level below. 

12. Boo-ting Gallery – Mario Party 8

An adorable first-person shooter game in the Mario Party universe, Boo-ting Gallery has players entering a very haunted mansion to exterminate Boos. The game begins outside, then in the entrance of the building, before throwing players into the basement to face a giant Boo. 

13. Eyebrawl – Mario Party 8 

This game isn’t especially creepy, although the premise for it is. Characters are walking through a spooky forest when, suddenly, they come across giant eyeballs that they need to make dizzy to escape. Why are there a bunch of giant eyeballs in a forest? What will they do to you if you can’t escape? We may never know, and we certainly don’t want to find out. 

14. Ghost in the Hall Mario Party 7 

This spooky game has players running through maze-like hallways as they try to avoid Boos and find the exit. With players only being able to see only a few feet ahead of themselves, ghosts popping out at you unexpectedly, and tense music, this game is perfect to play this October. 

15. Magmagical Journey – Mario Party 7

On its own, this game is more stressful than it is scary. Players have to cross a lake of magma by jumping on rocks jutting out of the ground. To make matters more difficult, the stones eventually sink and Koopa Kids launch missiles at you as you try to make your away across. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, the music in this game gets crazier the longer it goes on. 

16. Boo-Bye – Mario Party Advance

When we say this game is fun, we mean fun. Players have to avoid being grabbed by Boos by trying to trap the ghosts in the portrait that matches their colour. Unfortunately, the more spectres you trap, the more they come after you. You get bonus points for trapping multiple Boos at the same time, and the game ends when a ghost eventually catches you. 

17. Burnstile – Mario Party 6

This game is a fast one. Players stand on platforms in a sea of lava while a giant spiky turnstile spins around and around, getting faster with each full rotation. Your team wins if one of you is the last player standing, which shouldn’t take anyone too long given how impossibly quick the spiked turnstile moves. 

18. Dark ‘n’ Crispy – Mario Party 6 

The only thing more terrifying than being trapped in an arena with Bowser is being trapped in an arena with Bowser in the dark. Which is, at its core, the premise for Dark’n’Crispy. Players are placed on an elevated platform and have to avoid Bowser’s flame breath while trying not to fall off the edge of the arena and into the never-ending pit that surrounds them. 

19. Something’s Amist – Mario Party 6

This game hits all the markers for an aesthetically Halloween minigame: spooky forest, lots of fog, eerie music, and happens at night. The gameplay is also pretty fun, with players roaming around in the mist, trying to blindly find the emerald in the ground before their opponent does. 

20. Trick or Tree – Mario Party 6 

A game of chance, Trick or Tree is a fun take on the classic sleight-of-hand shell game. Players watch as identical trees of varying heights are shuffled and rearranged. They then select a tree to climb, and whoever climbs the highest wins. While it doesn’t sound creepy, the haunted-forest aesthetic is perfect for the season. 

21. Cage-in-Cookin’ & Scaldin’ Cauldron – Mario Party 5

Although these are two different Bowser minigames, they’re both terrifying for a similar reason. In Cage-in-Cookin’, players need to press a combination of buttons as fast as they can to escape. In Scaldin’ Cauldron, players need to guess which of the three cauldrons Bowser won’t boil and hide in whichever one they pick. You win if you correctly enter the combination or guess the right cauldron respectively. If you lose either, both of these minigames end the same, with Bowser setting you on fire or boiling you alive. Now that’s horrific. 

22. Skateboard Scamper – Mario Party

If you’ve ever played the original Mario Party, then you’re probably already having traumatic flashbacks to all the times you’ve lost this game. If you haven’t, then you’ve (un)luckily never experienced the stress of trying to skateboard across a platform that breaks apart into lava while simultaneously trying to avoid crashing into Thwomps. 

23. Pedal Power – Mario Party 

For a simple game, this one is surprisingly stressful. All players need to do is make their characters bike fast to generate electricity and illuminate a lightbulb. What makes this minigame stressful is the Big Boo that’s lurking right behind them and who’s slowly approaching as you bike. If you win, the light goes on and Boo vanishes, but if you lose then Boo catches you, the light goes out, and you have to assume your character is about to join the ranks of the undead.