Coins earned from the main board maps or Mini-Game Stadium are deposited into a bank, and the coins can be used to purchase the mini-games, allowing the player to play them whenever they choose. "Mario Party 2" was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. Development was underway as of July 1999, several months after the release of the original "Mario Party" game. A playable demo of the game was unveiled at Nintendo Space World in August 1999. The game was 70 percent complete at that time. Mini-games that involve rotating the control stick, as in the original "Mario Party", are not present in this installment due to potential injuries, such as blisters, from rotating the stick too quickly; this was the subject of a lawsuit in the case of the first game. In Japan, "Mario Party 2" was released for the Nintendo 64 on December 17, 1999. It received a U.S. release the following month, on January 24, 2000. Shortly before its U.S. release, Nintendo donated copies of the game to the Latin American Youth Center. In Japan, "Mario Party 2" was re-released in November 2010, as a downloadable Virtual Console game for the Wii. The following month, it was released for the Virtual Console in North America and Europe. In North America, "Mario Party 2" was re-released as a Virtual Console game for the Wii U on December 22, 2016. "Mario Party 2" received a 76% score on the review aggregation website GameRankings. Some critics praised the game's new features, particularly the mini-games. However, some critics who disliked the original game were also critical of the sequel, despite the improvements. Some critics believed the graphics were an improvement over the previous game, while others considered the graphics to be largely the same as before. Scott Alan Marriott of AllGame wrote that "Mario Party 2" "does what a sequel is supposed to do: address the original's shortcomings while offering enough enhancements to make even the jaded among us take a second look." Marriott concluded, "When the books are closed on the Nintendo 64, it will be the multi-player aspect that players will remember most about the system, and Mario Party 2 ranks as one of the system's best." "GamePro" stated that the game was not fun unless playing with friends. Game Revolution wrote, "If you try to play by yourself or with a friend, the computer will take charge of the other two/three players. This means you'll find yourself staring blankly at the screen as the computer takes its turn."