Mario Party 9 introduced the “Car” mechanic, in which all players move around the board together in one vehicle. Released for the Wii in 2012, Mario Party 9 significantly changed the series’ traditional board-game structure. Instead of each character travelling independently, the group shared a vehicle called the vehicle, with the active player determining how far it moved by rolling a Dice Block.
This design made every movement affect the whole party. Players collected Mini Stars rather than buying regular Stars with coins, and boards included special events, vehicle routes, and boss battles. Minigames were triggered by particular spaces or events instead of automatically occurring after every player had moved.
The mechanic also appeared in Mario Party 10, but Mario Party 9 was the first game to introduce it. That distinction is the common source of confusion: Mario Party 10 continued the shared-vehicle system, while Super Mario Party returned to individually controlled movement and a more traditional format. Mario Party 9 contains 81 minigames across several categories, including free-for-all, team, and boss battles.