Stick and Spin

Stick and Spin is a Rare minigame in Mario Party 7, a Puzzle minigame in Mario Party DS, and a Special minigame in Mario Party: The Top 100 and Mario Party Superstars. Its name is a pun on either the phrase "thick and thin" or the name of the children's toy the Sit n' Spin manufactured by Playskool.

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 to align the balls so that the player can drop new ones into opportunistic places. They can also make a ball drop faster by pressing . If the player clears a set number of balls, they will advance a level. After every five 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 colors: On 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 on Level 36 and many other levels afterwards. On Levels 18–20, dark-blue balls will also come into play. They will return, and permanently stay, at Level 71.
• Faster speed: Starting with Level 7, certain levels will make the balls drop much faster, without even pressing .
• Varying size: On 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: On 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: On 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 five or more balls must be made next to one. The number on the ball indicates how many matches are needed before it gets destroyed; however, all the balls are marked with a 1. They return on 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: On Levels 26–30, the player will be unable to see the colors of balls on the conveyor belt until they start falling.
• Auto-spin: On 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.
• Numbered bubbles: On Levels 41–45, bubbles will return, but this time they have numbers on them. The player can pop them like normal bubbles, but they must do it the number of times shown on the bubbles to permanently clear them from the screen.
• Colored number balls: On Levels 46–50, numbered balls will be the colors of normal balls. Using one in a combo, therefore, will not clear it from the screen until it is used in a combo the number of times shown on the ball.
• Color-changing balls: On Levels 51–55, there will be white and black balls. These balls will change to the other color (if one is white, then it would turn black, and vice versa) when any ball (including other black and white balls) is dropped on them from the conveyor belt.
• Small circle: On Levels 56–60, the circle will severely shrink, being only one ball length long. However, there will be only the color-changing balls and numbered bubbles (all labeled with a 1) on these levels.
• Big color-changing balls: On Levels 61–65, the color-changing balls can be of any size; however, all other balls will stay at normal size.
• All numbered balls: On Levels 66–70, every single ball dropped from the conveyor belt will be a colored number ball, making big combos necessary.
• All big, all colors: On Levels 71–75, both purple and dark-blue balls will return, and all balls will be slightly bigger than normal. In addition, the six colors of balls will fall from the conveyor belt in a rainbow-like pattern: red, yellow, green, blue, dark blue, purple, then back to red, and so on.

A checkpoint will be reached every five levels, starting at Level 6. The game ends when 10 balls stick outside the circle. If this happens, the player may continue from the last checkpoint, but it will cost them some of their score.

Multiplayer

Stick and Spin can also be played with two players. A few gameplay elements from the single-player game are present as well. The two-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 they will fall on both players' screens. However, if one player makes big combos, more numbered balls will be sent to their opponent.

Controls

Mario Party 7

• – Spin the stage
• – Drop balls

Mario Party DS

• – Spin wheel
• – Drop piece

Mario Party: The Top 100

• Left / Right: Rotate field
• : Drop ball
  • (The game will end 2 seconds after 10 balls spill over.)

In-game text

Mario Party 7

One Player

• Rules – "Connect 5 or more balls of the same color to eliminate them. When you clear a set number, you'll go to the next stage."
• Advice 1 – "The number in the center shows how many balls are remaining."
• Advice 2 – "If a stack gets too high, balls will flow over the top of the circle. If 10 balls overflow, you lose--so watch for the blue warning lights."

Two Players

• Rules — "Connect 5 or more balls of the same color to eliminate them. The first person to have 10 balls sticking out of the circle loses."
• Advice — "Use the special Vexing Balls to give your opponent no end of trouble!"

Mario Party DS

One Player

• Rules – "Rotate the cylinder to clear balls by connecting five or more of the same color. You have to clear a certain number of balls to clear a level."
• Tips – "If 10 or more balls stick out past the outer blue ring, your game will end after two seconds, so be careful!"

Two Players

• Rules – "Rotate the cylinder to clear balls by connecting five or more of the same color. You'll lose if 10 or more balls stick out past the outer blue ring."
• Tips – "If you clear a lot of balls, you can cause trouble for your opponent!"

Mario Party: The Top 100

• Description – "Rotate the field and connect 5 or more same-colored balls to clear them!"
• On-screen (Vs. mode) – "Connect 5 or more same-colored balls to clear them!"
• On-screen (Endless mode) – "Connect 5 or more same-colored balls and clear the number shown!"

Gallery

• 

  Mario Party 7 (player versus player)

• 

  Mario Party DS

• 

  Mario Party: The Top 100

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	かいてんパズル[?] Kaiten pazuru	Rotation Puzzle
Dutch	Keren en kleven[?]	Rotate and stick
German	Kullerkoller[?]	?
Italian	Pallapuzzle[?]	Ball Puzzle
Korean	회전 퍼즐[?] Hoejeon Peojeul	Rotation Puzzle
Spanish	Atracción nuclear[?]	Nuclear Attraction

Trivia

• In Mario Party 7, the staff record for this minigame is 20,190 points in the American version, 49,320 points in the Japanese version, and 49,620 points in the PAL version. In Mario Party DS, it is 11,130 points in all versions.