First place is allowed to move four spaces, second place moves three, third place moves two, and last place only moves one. Rescued by (the character that the player chose), the Mini Stars were free to glitter in the night sky forever.

In Mario Party 9, each themed stage has a clear destination point but with multiple paths along the way, so no two games will play the same. The final course is Bowser Station, where the character must defeat both Shy Guy and Kamek en route to defeating Bowser. As Mario peers through the telescope, he is shocked as he notices that the stars are suddenly being sucked into a vortex.

The POW Space can only be used by one player per turn, and is first active when everyone has taken their first turn. The amount of Party Points that the players earns is determined by how many Mini Stars they have at the end of the game. The game was released on March 2, 2012 in Europe, in Australia on March 8, 2012, in North America on March 11, 2012, and in Japan on April 26, 2012. When playing on a board, the type of space the vehicle lands on determines what type of minigame is played. Collectively, players must combine their strength to defeat classic foes such as Bowser™ and King Boo while still playing competitively to boost their own individual scores.

Compare this to Mario Party 8, from what I saw in the video reviews, the party games look quite excellent and it has that classic game play but the boards look like crap. Mario Party 9 features less motion control, fewer board-game rules, and more of a videogame feel, but there's still plenty left to chance.

The setting of the boss minigame Bowser's Block Battle is similar to the areas where Mario would meet Bowser in the game.