Chance Time: Difference between revisions

'''Chance Time''' is a [[board (Mario Party series)|board]] event triggered by landing on a [[Chance Time Space]] in the [[Mario Party (series)|''Mario Party'' series]]. The player landing on the space plays a small minigame that transfers [[coin]]s and/or [[Star (Mario Party series)|Star]]s between themselves or other players. Chance Time has the potential to drastically alter the course of a game, making it a very risky gamble.

The first ''[[Mario Party]]'' establishes Chance Time as rolling three Dice Blocks, lined up from left to right. The left and right blocks correspond to the four player characters in the game, while the middle one specifies how many coins or Stars one must give to the other. The player landing on the "! Space" can roll the dice in any order. Selecting a character on either side block removes the character from the other side, so they cannot appear on both at once. The blocks speed up after each roll; it is fairly easy to select a specific outcome for the first roll, but it is rather difficult for the second and practically impossible for the third.

In addition, one of the possible [[Bowser Space]] events is '''Bowser's Chance Time'''. Here, the blocks spin uncontrollably fast from the outset, the middle block's options are to only give coins from left to right, and the right block is preset to [[Bowser]]. If the loser has no coins, Bowser will give them 10 coins out of pity.

Chance Time in ''[[Mario Party 2]]'' is mostly unchanged from the previous game. The main difference is that the middle block's fixed order of results is longer before repeating and can be of a few different patterns, so getting something in particular is more difficult.

Bowser's Chance Time also appears and remains unchanged.

In ''[[Mario Party 3]]'', the general mechanics of Chance Time are mostly the same but with a significant change: The player does not have control of which order they hit the blocks. Instead, they strike a single block attached to a slot machine-like device, with it being predetermined which block will stop. The game also specifies who the giver and receiver are, rather than either direction being possible, and there are no "swap" options.

''[[Mario Party 4]]'' reworks Chance Time into the '''Reversal of Fortune'''. Instead of hitting blocks, the player uses a pinball machine to launch a ball into a slot that determines what happens. For each of three pinball boards, the player can choose how much power to launch the ball with using {{button|gcn|Stick}}, pressing {{button|gcn|A}} to launch the ball. The game also applies a significant random component to the ball strength, so it is not possible for the player to control what happens in any feasible way. The order is also fixed; the giver is always chosen first, followed by the receiver, and then the amount.

The '''Chance Roulette''' in ''[[Mario Party 5]]'' behaves much like in ''Mario Party 3''; the player hits a single block to determine the three results in a predetermined order. Like in ''Mario Party 4'', the order is fixed to "left, right, middle," and the roulette cycles too quickly for the player to time anything on purpose. The main difference is that there is a significant bias towards the left side being the receiver, rather than it being equally likely for wealth to be going in either direction. In addition, if the player activates the event by using a [[Chance Capsule]] on themselves (for 20 coins), they are automatically placed on the left side. As a result, a self-used capsule applies a notable boost in the chances of something good happening to the player.

*The box art for ''Mario Party'' shows a Chance Time die with [[Luigi]], Bowser, and Star symbols. However, it is not possible for a Chance Time die to have all those symbols at once. There is a die for the playable characters, a die for Stars and coins, and a Bowser-only die that is exclusive to Bowser's Chance Time.