Wii Party features nine different game modes divided between three categories: Party Games, House Party Games, and Pair Games. Most of the game modes integrate use of Wii Party's 80 minigames. The game also offers additional modes that make exclusive use of the minigames.
Party Games[edit]
Party Games are games in which up to four players compete against one another.
Board Game Island
A player rolls dice and proceeds the indicated number of steps (Miis are used as players' game pieces). The player who reaches the top of the island first wins.
Globe Trot
Players turn over numbered cards and move the indicated number of spaces. Players win coins in minigames that can be used to purchase vehicle cards to help them advance, or at airports and seaports to travel long distances. When players reach a hot spot, they can purchase a souvenir photo for 10 coins. After 10 rounds, overtime begins and the first player to reach a hot spot and take a souvenir photo ends the game, winning a bonus photo. The player who has collected the most souvenir photos at that point wins, ties are broken by number of coins.
Swap Meet (known as Mii of a Kind in the PAL versions)
Players take turns choosing a Mii from the middle to swap out with a Mii from their area. Players who collect three Miis with outfits of the same color in two different rows win points. Various bonuses are based on how Miis are matched. The player who has the most points after a set number of rounds is the winner.
Spin-Off
Players take turns spinning a wheel to earn medals. Depending on where the wheel stops, players can win medals, lose medals, or add medals to the bank. Players can also win medals saved up in the bank by winning minigames. After ten rounds, overtime begins, and the game ends after ten rounds or until any player wins a Bank Battle. The player with the most medals wins.
Bingo
Players check off Miis on their bingo cards that match Mii balls that drop from a large bingo machine. If a minigame ball drops from the bingo machine, players play a minigame and the winner checks off a Mii of their choice. The first player to complete a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row gets a bingo and is the winner.
Pair Games[edit]
Pair Games are designed for two players and are either cooperative or competitive.
Friend Connection
The players answer five questions before playing a cooperative minigame to test if they are a good pair or a bad pair. They get a better score if their answers to the questions are identical, and if they do well in the minigame.
Balance Boat
Players work together to balance twenty Miis on the sails of a ship without tipping the ship over.
Match-Up
Players match up Miis wearing shirts of the same color into pairs to score points. The color of the Mii shirts are hidden until chosen. If players fail to match up a pair, they lose their turn. Players occasionally play duel minigames against each other to win a second turn. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
House Party[edit]
House Party Games are activities that focus on the players' environments, with most of them prohibiting the use of the Wii Remote's wrist strap due to the unique ways the controller is being manipulated. One of the games, Quick Draw, is exclusive to the Japanese version.
Animal Tracker
This game involves lining up Wii Remotes so all players can reach them. An animal comes up on screen and makes a sound, in which each Wii Remote will make an animal sound but only one of them will mimic the animal sound on the tv screen. Whoever grabs the correct Wii Remote scores a point. First to 3 points wins.
Hide and Hunt
One player hides all Wii Remotes that will be used. Everyone else has a time limit to search for all of them. Every 10 seconds, each Wii Remote will make an animal sound to make locating them easier.
Time Bomb
Only one Wii Remote is used regardless of number of players. Players gently pass it while holding the button shown on the screen. If the Wii Remote is shaken too much or the wrong button is pressed, the bomb will explode.
Word Bomb
Only one Wii Remote is used regardless of number of players. Players pass it like it’s a bomb after saying a word that matches the given category. Whoever is holding the bomb when it explodes loses.
Buddy Quiz: This game is the only one in the house category that requires 3-4 players. After choosing a player to act as the "Buddy", the other players attempt to predict the Buddy's answers to various questions about themself and get points for predicting correctly.
Minigame modes[edit]
Free Play
Players play any of the minigames provided.
Battle
Two or four players face off in minigames to determine who will win the most minigames.
Challenge
This mode features minigames that get progressively harder for players.
Solo
This is a one player minigame quest in which the player challenges five, ten or fifty minigames, to reach the rocket and attempts to last as long as they can.
Spot the Sneak (known as Rule Reversal in the PAL version)
A player is arbitrarily assigned to be the sneak in each minigame. The sneak is given help from the game to cheat in each minigame (such as zombies chasing everyone else besides them) but must attempt to avoid being caught using the advantage. After each round, players vote for who they suspect the sneak is, and the sneak isn’t penalized regardless of who they pick. Correctly guess and that player steals 10 to 20 points from the sneak. Incorrectly guess and the sneak steals 10 to 20 points from that player.