Haley MacLean
And sure, we all know Beerio Kart, but what other Nintendo titles hide awesome drinking games deeps in the depths of their couch co-op gameplay? With the friendly reminder to always drink responsibly, here are the 10 Nintendo games that make absolutely awesome drinking games for anybody to enjoy.
Beerio Kart (Mario Kart)
Let’s get the obvious one out of the way. Beerio Kart has become the poster child for video game drinking games pretty much since the first Mario Kart was released in 1992. It’s so popular it has its own definition on Urban Dictionary, so you know it’s the real deal. Despite the name, Beerio Kart doesn’t always have to be played while drinking beer, but for the sake of the game lasting more than a few rounds, it may be best to avoid harder mixed drinks or shudder actual shots. Here are the rules.
Rules:
One beer (or whatever quantity of drink you desire) must be completed before the end of a race. No drinking and driving.
Several strategies can be invoked here. You could space out your drink throughout the match, or guzzle it all down at once at the beginning or end of the race. From personal experience, Beerio Kart usually turns into “chug a beer and do a race” pretty quickly, and by the forth or fifth race you might be needing the Wii steering wheel to stay on track. Sort of like the ever changing rules of beer pong, certain people believe the game should be played a certain way. I have gone to parties where the no drinking and driving rule was expanded to having to actually pull over onto the side of the track and come to a compete stop before the drink could touch your lips. Another stated you could only start drinking after the first lap, to prevent the inevitable chug and race approach. If you happen to be in a room with a bunch of Beerio Kart pros, perhaps the limited ruleset may seem a bit easy. I too have been in this scenario, and present what my friends and I refer to as the Pro Beerio Kart.
Pro Beerio Kart Rules:
Just as before, one beer must be consumed before the end of the race. As well, no drinking and driving. A second beverage will also be present (you don’t have to stop to drink from it), and must be drunk once whenever the following happens: You are hit by a red shell (two for green, three for blue). You are hit a by an enemy/object in the environment (Car, Piranha Plant, Moo Moo, etc.). You are hit by any of the usual items (Bananas, Bullet Bill, Bob-omb, Fake Item Box, etc.). You may give a drink when you get a Star. Drink once for each place you are away from first at the end of the race (or reverse so the better players get drunk quicker). Winner of the race gives one drink.
Super Smashed Bros. (Super Smash Bros.)
Less well-known than Beerio Kart but still relatively popular, Super Smashed Bros. can double as a awesome drinking game. Whether it’s the original, Melee, Brawl, Wii U, or Ultimate, any Super Smash Bros. title can be used and will have you feeling a buzz after a few KOs. Whether you prefer stock (the obviously better option) or time limits, the rules stay the same.
Rules:
No pausing to take a drink. If KO’d, drink once. If the crowd chants your name, everyone else drinks. If you KO someone in your Final Smash they drink, but if you miss anyone you drink the number of people you missed. If you taunt and finish without getting hit, give a drink. If you taunt and are hit, drink two. Lose all your lives, finish your drink. Winner gives one drink OR drink for how many places you are from first (could also reverse this so the better players are getting drunk quicker).
Of course you can make this entirely your own with Smash’s seemingly unlimited options to customize your game. By allowing certain items or adjusting the game’s options, you can create new rules and expand upon the ones given above.
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
There have been seven WarioWare games over the years, but Smooth Moves for the Wii is the perfect foundation for a super fun drinking game. Like with the other games in the series, Smooth Moves sees you play micro/minigames that are categorized into differently themed levels. With each minigame cleared, you gain a point, and after you beat the “boss” minigame in each level you can continue on to try and get a high score by beating minigame after minigame as time speeds up and the difficulty is increased. There are four lives for each level, and you can gain one back if you lose one by beating the boss level that cycles back as difficulty goes up. If you lose all four lives, the game is ended. So all you have to do is choose a level and follow the rules below.
Rules:
The remote is passed along after the completion of each minigame. After each minigame you do, take a drink. If you lose a life, take a drink. If you beat the boss and gain a life, give a drink. During the “pose” sections, everyone must also pose and the last to do so drinks. If the remote is dropped, the two people passing must drink. The person who loses the last life and ends the game must finish their drink.
As the minigames get quicker and quicker and you get down to the final life, this drinking game almost feels like a crazy “hot-potato” type of thing where you try desperately to not be the last person to mess up and have to finish the rest of your drink. The more drunk you get, the harder this will be.
Derby Dash (Wii Party)
There’s tons of awesome mini-games in both Wii Party and its successor Wii Party U (except Hide-and-Go-Beak, screw that anxiety-inducing nightmare), but none top Derby Dash on the Wii. This game may seem shallow on the service, but after (I’m not kidding) hours of playing this one minigame with friends, it has a unexpected layer of strategy to it that makes its replay value extraordinarily high. So the goal, like in all horse races, is to be the first one to cross the finish line. The kicker, though, is that you use a crop to get small bursts of speed, and when you stop using it you can regain stamina to use it again later in the race. If you use up your stamina at the start of the rest, you better be prepared to be left in the dust by the finish line. And likewise if you horde your stamina to try and gun it at the end, your opponents will probably already be miles ahead. Patience and planning are highly rewarded in Derby Dash, and the more you play the better you understand the perfect times to use your stamina and when to save it for a big rush to the finish. The best part is if the race is close enough, a slow-mo will camera will run to show the champion who will win by a nose, causing an uproar from your opponents.
Rules:
Players are assigned betting odds depending on their skill. To make it simple, the left number would go higher depending on how bad a player is and the right number always stays at one to make it easy to decide how many drinks to give. For example, good players would be 2:1, bad players 6:1 etc. (This is different then how betting odds are calculated in actual horse racing). As the game goes on, betting odds can be adjusted depending how that person is doing. Players can bet on themselves before the race (not others so they won’t purposely throw it) or not at all if they don’t like their chances. Other people in the room can bet on whoever they want. If you win the race (or choose the winning person) you give drinks relative to their betting odds. If it was 2:1 and you bet two drinks, you can give out four. Or if you bet on a long shot and said three drinks on a 6:1 odd, you can give out a whopping 18 drinks. If you were racing, didn’t win but also didn’t bet, you just drink once. If you bet on yourself and lost, you drink the amount you would have given out if you won plus one extra for losing.
What’s great about Derby Dash is that when a person wins a few matches in a row they can get cocky and bet high stakes on themselves. At the same time though, winning in Derby Dash is never guaranteed since you can learn your opponent’s stamina strategy simply by watching them. By copying them, even a new player to the game could get lucky and end up winning by a hair.
Mario House Party (Mario Party)
There have been 12 Mario Party games released (excluding the spin-offs, of course) that all include the famous board game with an interspersed minigames game mode, and most all of them follow the same basic rules. So whether you’re playing on an N64 or trying out the latest Mario Party on Wii U, check out these rules to speed up the inebriation process while also enjoying a few minigames.
Rules:
Roll a one, take a drink. Roll a six (or 12 with two dice), give a drink. For Minigames, in dual, 2v2, and 1v3, the losers drink. For battle minigames, drink however many you are from first (Again, this can be switched so the better players get drunk faster). Steal a star, player who loses it drinks three. Land on red space, drink one. Land on blue space, give one drink. Waterfall your beer while Boo steals coins from you. Every time you have to open the map, you take one drink. If you get a star, everyone else takes one drink. Winner of the game gets to choose one person to finish their drink. The others just drink three.
Of course, you can always add additional rules if you are playing a certain Mario Party entry that changes up the format a bit. For example: In the original Mario Party you could drink once every time you get a fake Bowser star, or in Mario Party 10 in Bowser Party you can drink once every time Bowser catches up to you.
Nintendoland
Nintendoland has some awesome minigames, and some just alright ones. Three out of the 12 total games can make pretty great drinking games if you follow these rules. The first is Mario Chase, a game where one person uses the Wii U Pad to run around maps as Mario while everyone else looks at the TV screen as Toad tries to corner him. Just this one Mario Chase minigame was one of the most innovative uses of GamePad during the whole Wii U’s lifetime, offering a fun digital game of tag where no one has to actually stand up. Since the games are usually quick, the rules are simple.
Mario Chase Rules:
Toads drink every time you lunge at Mario but don’t get him. Mario waterfalls their beer during the initial countdown, using just one hand to run and try to hide. Toads drink if Mario gets a star. Toads drink every 30 seconds they don’t catch Mario. If Mario is caught, they must finish their drink. If Mario is not caught, each Toad drinks three.
Next is Animal Crossing: Sweet Day. Similar to Mario Chase, some players are trying to evade while others try to catch. Either with 1 v 2, 3, or 4 players, one player controls two analog sticks on the GamePad to try and catch the remaining players who run around trying to gather candies. The more candies they get, the slower they go, making them easier to catch. Those running also have the option to drop candies if they feel they are about to be caught, giving them a speed boost to escape.
Sweet Day Rules:
Drink every time you have to drop candies to get away. Drink every time you jump to catch an animal and miss. Every animal drinks when they lose candies by intervals of ten. So the animal who drops the candies that puts them back over 10, 20, 30 etc has to drink twice. Chasers drink every time the animals gather candies by intervals of ten. Once at 40, 30, 20, etc. Animals drink every time they lose a life. If animals win the chaser drinks three, if chaser wins the animals finish their drinks.
Finally we have Luigi’s Ghost Mansion, where one player is an invisible Boo thats skulks around Luigi’s Mansion trying to grab the other players by surprise. The players’ flashlights can harm the ghost, with the ghost having 100 points of life that drain as long as the light is on them. When the ghost is near a player, their Wii Remote will vibrate, and flashes of lightning can temporality expose the ghost’s location.
Luigi’s Ghost Mansion Rules:
Ghost drinks every time his life goes down by an interval of ten. Ghost drinks every time lightning shows where they are. Players take three drinks when they are caught by the ghost. Ghost drinks when a player gets revived. Players drink when they get a new battery for their flash light. If Ghost gets all three people, they finish their drink. If players beat the Ghost, the Ghost finishes their drink.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
You might not immediately think of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a title that is suitable for a drinking game, but it’s honestly perfect for getting good and sloshed alongside some friends. The premise is simple: Alongside some buddies, you’ll be tasked with setting off into the game’s open world and trying to make as much progress as possible. For every death or blunder that results in your needing to restart, both you and your friends will need to down some cold ones and then continue on with your journey. We’ve laid out some basic rules that can act as a beginner’s set down below, and you can add to or take away from them as you see fit.
Rules
For every time someone dies to an enemy, everyone takes one drink Every time the active player kills themselves by accident, they take two drinks For every time the active player blows themselves up with a bomb and survives, they take one drink For every speedrun strat used (send yourself flying through the physics, glitch into a dungeon, etc), everyone takes one drink
It’s definitely a little looser rules-wise than other entries on this list, but that makes it all the more fun to try out and find a ruleset that works for you and your buds specifically.
Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury
Few Nintendo games are as chaotic as Super Mario 3D World, but this is a huge mark in the game’s favor when trying to find Nintendo games that make for perfect drinking games. Alongside a group of friends, you can make your way through the title’s myriad of levels and hazards with a number of drink-laden stipulations. These can range from penalty drinks for losing a life and failing to properly use a power-up to missing a collectible scattered throughout the level, with the persons or persons punished with a drink determined by your total number of players. Reddit user MajorGamer14 came up with a great set of rules several years back that serves as a great framework to use if you’re intimidated by making your own ruleset. We’ve listed their rules down below for you to check out at your discretion.
Rules
Everyone will play a random character When the group gets a Too Bad (where everyone dies), everyone takes a shot If a player gets a double cherry, they must take one sip for each clone that did not survive the entirety of that level There are 4 items to be found in each level (3 green stars, one stamp). If they are all not found by the end of the level, everyone takes a shot. Those who don’t touch the flag pole in the end will take a drink If the first person touches the flag pole and doesn’t make it to the top, they must take a sip. If that’s the case, the previous rule is null in void If you are the first person to get the top, everyone else who touched the pole and hasn’t reached the top takes a sip.
Pokemon Drunklocke (Pokemon)
Pokemon Nuzlockes are fun enough to play with friends while sober, but they become even better with a drinking game applied to its ruleset. As for what rules you can apply to make a Nuzlocke into a drinking game, it’s pretty straight-forward: For every time a Pokemon faints and becomes unusable, everyone present has to take a drink. If your entire team ends up getting wiped and you white out, then everyone present needs to finish their drinks and start a new one to go along with the new run. Granted, this one isn’t recommended for those who enjoy taking on the harder variants of Nuzlockes via rom hacks and the likes. Remember: This should be about making a fun night out of a video game’s rules, not bringing you and your friends to the verge of disaster. Likewise, the earlier entries in the series are more viable as they’re easier to get through in a short amount of time.
Rules
Every time a Pokemon faints, everyone takes one drink If you white out, everyone finishes their drink and starts a new one if you begin a new run
Splatoon 3
Splatoon 3 is great for making a drinking game out of some cooperative play sessions, and the rules couldn’t be easier. After gathering however many friends will be playing the drinking game, you’ll need to enter into a match together. Based on everyone’s performances, drinks will be divvied up based on factors like who was knocked out the most, who covered the most terrain in ink, which team won the match, and so on and so forth. Given how quickly matches can be completed though, our recommendation is that you avoid penalties that would require anything more than a drink. Trust us when we say that it won’t take long for everyone to get properly sloshed even if you’re sticking to more temperate drink amounts.
Rules
For every time a player is forced to respawn, they need to take one sip Whoever gets taken out the most in a round has to take one drink Everyone on the losing team in a round has to take a drink Whoever spends the most time in Squid form has to take a drink
What Nintendo drinking games have you tried that are worth mentioning? Is there a certain Nintendo console that is the best to play drinking games on? Let us know down below!
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