Stick and Spin

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Stick and Spin, in the DS version.

Stick and Spin is a rare minigame in Mario Party 7 and a Puzzle minigame in Mario Party DS. Its name is a pun on the phrase "thick and thin".

File:MP7 StickandSpin.jpg

Stick and Spin, in Mario Party 7.

Gameplay

The aim of the game is to make matches of five or more balls with the same color. To make matches, the player needs to spin the wheel with the to align the balls so that the player can drop new ones into opportunistic places. They may also make a ball drop faster by pressing . If the player clears a set amount of balls, they will advance a level. After every 5 levels, starting with Level 6, the board resets and a brand new board is presented, with a new gameplay element added starting at Level 11. These gameplay elements go as follows:

• New color: In Level 4, purple balls will come into play. They are not seen again until Level 12, where they stay until Level 25, and they are seen again on Levels 28-30. They also return in Level 36, where they stay permenantly. In Levels 18-20, dark blue balls will also come into play.
• Faster speed: Starting with Level 7, certain levels will make the balls drop much faster, without even pressing .
• Varying size: In Levels 11-15, balls can be either their normal size, or twice as big, making it easier for balls to be outside the circle.
• Bubbles: In Levels 16-20, there are balls all around the innermost part of the circle, with bubbles surrounding them, making them unreachable. A ball must be dropped directly on top of the bubble to burst it. Once a bubble is popped, it cannot come back into play. After Level 20 is cleared, any remaining bubbles will fade away as the board gets reset.
• Numbered balls: In Levels 21-25, the player will have to deal with numbered balls, that will vary in size. These balls cannot be directly eliminated, instead, a match of 5 or more balls must be made next to it. The number on the ball indicates how many matches are needed before it gets destroyed, however, they all are marked with a 1. They return in Levels 31-35, where they are marked with 3's and 4's instead of a 1. Any remaining numbered balls will be cleared when the board is reset.
• Unknown color: In Levels 26-30, the player will be unable to see the colors of balls on the conveyor belt until they start falling.
• Auto-spin: In Levels 36-40, the wheel will spin counterclockwise by itself, making ball placement difficult. Turning the wheel against the spin makes it go clockwise very slowly, while turning with it makes it go faster.

A checkpoint will be reached every 5 levels, starting at Level 6. If 10 balls are outside the circle at any time, the player will lose the game. If this happens, the player may continue from the last checkpoint, but it will cost them some of their score.

Multiplayer

In Mario Party 7, Stick and Spin can be played with 2 players. A few gameplay elements from the single-player game will be present as well. The 2-player game is played as a survival game, as whoever has 10 balls sticking out of the circle first will lose. As the game goes on, the balls will drop faster and faster. Numbered balls will also be present, and will fall on both players' screens. However, if one player makes big combos, more numbered balls will be sent to their opponent.