Which Mario Party game was released in Japan on December 17, 1999?

Mario Party 2 was released in Japan on December 17, 1999. It was the direct sequel to the original Mario Party and arrived first in Japan before reaching other regions in 2000.

The game retained the Nintendo 64 board-game formula but expanded it with new mechanics. Players could buy collectible items from shops, and Mario Party 2 introduced Battle, Item, and Duel minigames. Its characters also wore costumes that matched each board’s theme, a distinctive feature not repeated in the same way throughout the series.

The release date is easy to mix up with the dates for the surrounding games. The first Mario Party launched in Japan on December 18, 1998, while Mario Party 3 followed in Japan in 2000. Mario Party 2’s Japanese launch therefore places it at the end of 1999, between the first game and its successor, even though North American and European releases came later.