I was thinking about this today because I had the idea there should be coin handicaps. Do you use handicaps? I personally don’t. I know some people give everyone one star to give everyone something to lose. I prefer not to play with them.
Also, which difficulty to play on with the CPU? I just do easy because I have a hard time with some of the mini games.
I haven’t played any Mario Party game in years, but when I did I never touched the handicaps. I never bothered with using hard CPUs, so there was no reason to make the game easier for myself. I’m glad they exist though. They can let people who might need the extra help enjoy the game.
The hardest difficulty I’ll use is normal if I want a little challenge. Otherwise, they’ll be easy. Mario Party is an stress-free game for the most part. I have no reason to put them on master, lol.
I don’t use handicaps when playing, and I usually play the CPUs on easy mode. Occasionally I’ll play on normal, but usually I don’t. I’m signed up for the neighborly games coming up!
Depending on the game and/or board, my friends and I like to all start with five-ish stars so chance and Bowser spaces, along with duels and Boo's shenanigans, are more interesting from the start.
I've never used handicaps in Mario Party. Though, the most interesting use of the handicap system that I've seen was carrying the results of previous games into the next game (i.e. if Player A finished with 3 stars in a game of MP1 and 2 stars in a game of MP2, they started with 5 stars in a game of MP3), which was entertaining to watch.