"Mario Party is a party video game series featuring Mario series characters in which four human- or computer-controlled characters compete in a board game interspersed with minigames. The series was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo (though the arcade version was developed by Capcom).

Since the release of the first Mario Party in December 1998, the series had put out a sequel every year until 2007 for North America and Japan until 2006. The series is known for its party game elements, including the often-unpredictable multiplayer modes that allow play with up to four (and sometimes eight) human players."

Source: Wikipedia, "Mario_party", available under the CC-BY-SA License.