"mario party 5" plays the same as the first four "mario party" games. players go around on boards to collect coins, which they can use to buy stars. movement is done with the use of a dice block with the numbers one through ten. after all four players take their turns, a mini-game is played. the player that wins the mini-game wins coins. the winner is the player with the most stars at the end of the game. boards have different types of spaces, including blue spaces which add coins, red spaces which take away coins, and bowser spaces which causes bowser to appear and do a bad event. the game introduces the dk space, where donkey kong appears to cause an event to happen. unlike bowser events, these events are always good. also new to the game is the capsule system, which replaces the item system from past games. capsules are containers that hold a single item. players can get capsules by passing by the "capsule machine" on the board. each capsule does something different, including increasing the number of dice blocks a player can roll, and taking away coins from an opponent. capsules can be thrown up to ten spaces away.