Best Mario Party 8 Boards

I think almost everyone can admit that this is the best board in Mario Party 8. It's simply a great board that's nearly flawless, if not flawless. The board gimmicks and gameplay are amazing. It obviously had to be first on the list.

This is a rectangular board set in the middle of a city filled with hotels. There are a total of 5 of them (3 in duel battle) and your goal is to invest as many coins in each hotel to be the owner of it. When you become an owner of a hotel, or if you invest enough coins that the hotel is upgraded, you receive a star. This is just such an awesome and fun gimmick that it easily outshines the other boards.

Investing loads of coins in every hotel is satisfying and an incredibly easy way to earn stars. At the same time, it's easy for others as well, as long as you have a lot of cash. It's just so fun.

One of the most fun parts is upgrading hotels. At the start of the game, all hotels are small green houses. When 20 coins are invested in a hotel, they grow in size and become red. When 50 coins are invested, it becomes even larger and silvered with gold. Respectively, each upgrade rewards you with two or three stars. If the building is not upgraded but you become the owner of a green hotel, you receive one star.

This gameplay mechanic is just amazingly fun and exciting. It's the reason this board is not only the best in this game but one of the greatest Mario Party boards of all time. Maybe even the best? Well, it's certainly the best in the classic Mario Party series. Obviously the best one here.

In second place is Bowser's Warped Orbit, one of my all-time favorite boards in Mario Party. It has to do with mainly two things: the setting and the gameplay.

Unlike all the other boards in the game where you try to collect stars, on this board, everyone has three stars or so, and players must steal stars from each other with Bowser or Bullet Candy. Bowser Candy gives you two dice blocks, and if you pass by someone, you steal two stars. With Bullet Candy, it's three dice blocks but only one star. This is one of my favorite types of gameplay in Mario Party boards, and the same gimmick was actually used in a few boards in past Mario Party games like Pyramid Park in Mario Party 7 and Snowflake Lake in Mario Party 6. It's simply such an awesome and fun type of gameplay.

The setting really helps the board be great as well. It's set in outer space on a space station, very close to a red glowing star. It's kind of like how Future Dream in Mario Party 5 was also set in outer space on a space station, but we don't talk about that terrible board. Space boards are overall very good, though, and this is probably the best one. The music is great as well. Probably one of the best in the game. It's got this dangerous and semi-chaotic theme that I just love. Overall, one of the best boards ever.

A lot of people I've seen on the internet think this is one of the worst boards, but personally, I'm really fond of this one. Aside from the very questionable name, the board itself is incredibly cool, in my opinion. Unlike the other boards in the game, this is a totally linear board. You go from point A to point B. At point B is Captain Goomba, who will give you a star if you pay him 20 coins in standard party mode or 50 coins if it's duel battle. I actually like that it's linear. It gives the board its own unique identity, and I overall like linear stuff more than other people.

It's set on a long and narrow paradise island. At point A, there is a residential area. As you go further, you get to a bridge, a beach, another bridge, a stony pathway, the last bridge, and then at the end, you get to the volcano at point B with Captain Goomba. It's a pretty good setting, in my opinion, and it looks very bright as well. I like that. It's one of the most colorful boards of the game.

The music is amazing. One of my personal favorites from this game. It's a very cheery and adventurous theme, and I like it. Third favorite board overall.

The only board I'm a bit mixed on personally, although still positive. It has to do with the gameplay and layout. Because if anything, the music is one of the best in the entire game. I love that spooky feel and just love listening to it.

But as for the layout, it's unique because it's actually made up of 12-20 different rooms. Every time you exit a room, you enter a new one, and it's completely random. There are three sanctums in the mansion, but only one of them has King Boo, whom you must pay 10 coins for a star. The rest are traps. When someone gets the star, all rooms are reset. In Duel Mode, the star just becomes unavailable.

This is a very unique way of gameplay, and I appreciate it. However, it can be infuriating in Duel Mode. You only need two stars to win, and a star costs 10 coins, for God's sake! That's way too cheap. The sanctum rule doesn't matter here, as there are dozens of them, and it's random which one has King Boo in it. This makes it much harder to win than other boards in Duel Mode because it's total luck if you win or not. But at the same time, it's exciting too. Overall, I'm mixed on the board, although I'm positive-leaning nevertheless because it's still good, honestly.

This is a board set on a train, Shy Guy's Perplex Express. Enough said. It's set on a train, for God's sake! I love trains and metro systems and everything that has to do with them. Even if this train isn't the best, it's certainly great.

The train consists of seven carriages. One where everyone starts (only purpose), five normal carriages with spaces, and the driver carriage with Shy Guy. You start furthest away from him on the carriage where everyone starts. When you get to Shy Guy, you must pay twenty coins for a star. However, in the duel battle mode, he will give you ten coins because there you must pay Holly Koopa 50 coins for a star instead.

I love trains, and I love how this train resembles the Excess Express from Chapter 6 in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Some of the carriages look like updated versions of that train, and even the train on the outside loosely resembles it. It's amazing.

The music is the most chill board music as well, honestly. It's perfect train music and truly symbolizes the amazement of traveling with a train, a luxury one at that. It's great, and the board is certainly great as well.

I'd say this is one of the more basic boards in the game. If you're new to the game, I'd suggest playing this board first. It's pretty great for a first board in-game. Like the name implies, this is set in a treetop temple in the deep forest. There's a statue of DK in the middle, and the whole board consists of different pathways that are all connected to each other. I love the forested setting, and the layout is great. It sort of resembles Towering Treetop from Mario Party 6 but better.

It's a lot lower than other boards on the list, though, simply because that's all it has going for it. It's a treetop temple. You look for a star on the board and pay 20 coins for one when you get to it. The music is decent, but it's a bit annoying at times. It does fit the board, though.