This is my guide on which minigames to win and which minigames to throw and the most effective way to throw/win said minigames.

4 player:

--Slime Time: Win. Just press A a lot and fast.

--Domination: Varies. Just press A a lot. It is faster to let a CPU win so the least amount of Whomps appears on screen, but the time saved is so miniscule that it's not usually worth losing 10 coins over.

--Take a Breather: Varies. Just press L and R alternatively a lot. It is faster to let an opponent win by not pressing any buttons at all, but this should only be done if you are confident that a few seconds of time saved is more important than 10 coins.

--Mario Medley: Win. An easy to remember strategy that I use is to get a huge lead at the beginning of the race and just pace yourself for the rest of the race. I mash A+B until I get down to about 1/4 of my health after the starting shot is fired. For the rest of the race I keep it at about 1/4 health, which is a safe zone to fluctuate. If your heart gets to about empty, it's okay to just stay in place in the water for a second or two to recover, as the health you gain back can take back any lost progress you might've felt like you lost while resting.

--Bob-omb Breakers: Varies. It is faster to win, but you can set yourself up for a throw by placing your blocks in your opponents' zones, giving them a better chance to score some points over you. A good strategy is to cover 2/3 of your zone and use your last remaining column to score groups of 3+, as the falling blocks may fall into each other to score big combos. It is possible to win by having all 3 CPU's be unable to place any more blocks, but winning this way is not recommended.

--Long Claw of the Law: Win. The opponents will usually start rotating once to the right to find their target. If you start by rotating to the left, and take a glance at your opponents to see if their right rotation has the intended target, then you can get more info and you can maybe get a target without having to go around the whole rotation. If you hover over a target and the door closes, if you shoot your claw twice in quick succession, the first time it will hit the door and the second time the door should open as your claw is reaching. You do not have to wait for the door to open again.

--Booksquirm: Throw. Let yourself get crushed by the first page. 2 of the 3 remaining CPUs will scramble and 1 will rush to an open space. Only win if you absolutely need the coins, as this can end up being a long minigame.

--Mr. Blizzard's Brigade: Varies. You can push CPUs against the wall so a snowball can hit them. They may move against the wall, but usually they will want to run somewhere towards the middle of the circle. Try blocking 2 CPUs, then let yourself get hit to end the minigame to save the quickest amount of time, or continue the same strat by pushing the last remaining CPU against a wall or frozen player to win the minigame yourself.

--Mario Speedwagons: Win. Do not press R until the light turns green. When your speed gauge reaches the red zone and your controller starts vibrating, press A. Do this until you are in fourth gear to win the minigame.

--Paratrooper Plunge: Varies. While your first instinct would be collecting coins for yourself to get the coin star, the ideal strat is to push your opponents into obstacles to pop their balloons, as well as popping your own balloon. The faster all the balloons are popped, the faster the minigame is completed and less coins are rewarded. This can be rather difficult, so try to collect as many coins as you can while attempting to pop your opponents balloons.

--Avalanche!: Win. Well timed A presses will give you a slight boost down the hill. There are three rocks that spawn in the same spot on the hill. If you stay near the top wall, you should be far enough away to avoid all the rocks.

--Picture This!: Win. There are 3 different puzzles: The penguins on the frozen pond, Toad in the banquet hall, and the Shy Guy in the car. The pieces on the top row have a different background color than the pieces on the bottom row for each puzzle, so the best way to win is to recognize the differences to narrow down where the pieces would go. For the penguin puzzle, the bottom row has more white and sky blue pieces, and the top row have night sky blue pieces. For the Shy Guy puzzle, the top pieces have clouds in them, the bottom pieces you can see a part of the car. For the Toad Puzzle, the top pieces you can see a yellow wall covering the majority of each piece, and the bottom half you can see mostly the red carpet and the pink tablecloth. Having this knowledge will let you easily figure out every corner piece for each puzzle and narrow down each side piece to two possibilities per puzzle.

--Three Throw: Win. Always jump and shoot, even if the top and middle baskets are full as they pass by your shooting zone, as your basketballs could still bounce off of them and into another basket. If you shoot at the top of your jump you will hit the top basket, if you shoot as you're just starting to come down from the top of your basket, you should make the middle basket. It's better to focus mainly on the middle baskets.

--Toad's Quick Draw: Win. Hover over a single balloon near the exact middle of the balloons after they've spread out. As Toad is revealing the flag of the correct balloon, pause really quickly. Even after the first frame Toad pulls the flag out you can see the color of the flag. Since your cursor is hovering in the middle of all the balloons, you won't have to rush to reach the correct color. It might be good to practice this a little bit in minigame mode because the cursor moves pretty quick and if you miss your shot at all, your opponents have a small chance to capitalize.

--Manta Rings: Win. Your opponents never focus on gold rings. It's important to go for those the most, as just collecting the gold rings (15 points total) usually gives more points than your opponents collecting 15 individual rings. It's also important to know that Bloopers lock on to the closest player and move as close to you as they can. When they start to move toward you, move away and stay back so you don't get stunned. If you stay as far back and as far to the right as possible when the eel spawns, it will never hit you.

--Stamp Out: Win. Hop to the closest corner as where you spawn and stay against the wall, moving from corner to corner. Opponents will spend most of their time near the middle of the playing field, so a lot of your pathing will remain uncovered. You can cover around 30% of the board with this strategy. If you are too close to the corner, part of your path will fall off the side and will not be counted.

2 vs 2:

--Order Up: Varies. This minigame can take longer than it seems since there is no timer. It's recommended to go for the win, but if your opponents take the first point, it's faster to let them take the next two points and throw the minigame. Winning 3 points in a row can be as fast as the opponents winning, but it takes more effort. Memorizing a bit of the order of food and pausing as the options pop up can help you win rounds more consistently, but guessing the food order as it pops up can be quicker. If you decide to throw, just follow your teammate around to prevent them from picking food options.

--The Great Deflate: Win. Do not always ground pound at the top of your jump, because your CPU teammate will not always match your jump height. If you vary your jump height, your CPU teammate will more often than not match it at the same time you ground pound. The opponents hardly ever match their jump height, so you shouldn't have too much trouble with this minigame.

--Dungeon Duos: Win. If you spawn on the left side, it's important that you reach the 1st rotating platform lever before your teammate. Line it up so your teammate can jump on the rotating platform before you start spinning it. When they're jumping off, make sure you jump on the rotating platform before they start spinning it, otherwise they'll spin it and leave you at the start. It's also important to reach the 2nd rotating platform's lever before your teammate here as well. When your teammate gets to their lever on the other side, continue pressing X to make the rotating platform go at twice the speed. When it's lined up with the mat, get off your lever and jump, you should make it. You can stop spinning a bit early to make a safer jump, but this wastes about a second. If you spawn on the right side, your teammate will get to the first rotating platform lever before you and will start spinning. It looks scary, but you can always make that first jump without needing the platform to rotate around. You can make it to the 2nd rotating platform lever before your teammate, even though they are closer. When they're jumping off the first rotating platform, step in front of them. This will prevent you from moving on to the 2nd rotating platform because the game thinks there's a player still working on the first rotating platform. Use the time it's taking your teammate to try walking up to get to the left side so you're closer to the 2nd rotating platform's lever. If your teammate gets there first, they will get off their lever when you cross the chasm, so the lever will not be moving at double speed like it would if you were controlling the first lever. When you get to the warp pipes, pay attention to which pipe your teammate is targeting. Your teammate will never target the correct pipe on the first try, so divert from their target and pick a different one to narrow down the correct pipe faster. The same goes for the 2nd warp pipe zone. For the balloon zone, don't press L and R as fast as you can. You have to time it so you press the opposite button at the top or bottom of your pump for the most efficient air pumps.

--Revers-a-bomb: Throw. The CPU's will put up too much of a fight. This minigame can be ended quickly by trapping your teammate against the top or bottom lane while your opponents send Bob-ombs your way. Avoid the Bob-omb from hitting you on the lane you're standing on to block your teammate, as your teammate can escape from their lane if you have been stunned. This will allow your teammate to extend the minigame by sending Bob-ombs back towards your opponents.

--Team Treasure Trek: Win. Before the minigame even starts, it's important to check your position as the teams are announced, because this will show you which corner of the maze you will spawn onto. This is the only minigame this is important for, so it can be easy to forget, but it will give you a slight advantage. You only get about 4-5 seconds to mark your path. It's important to not only mark the path towards your closest treasure, but to mark it again towards where the 2nd treasure is so you don't get lost on the way to meet your teammate. You can check the map after the minigame has started by pressing X or Y, but it does not show walls, so marking your path in those 4-5 startup seconds is the best way to find the shortest path. Your teammates can get lost, so while it's possible for you to find your treasure and make your way to the 2nd treasure, the opponents can still find both of theirs and meet up before your teammate find you.

--Cheep Cheep Sweep: Win. When the game first starts, there are usually fish around your feet. You may be able to catch 3 in the first couple of seconds by putting your net in the water and moving your net back and forth a couple times. If you move fast, the Cheep Cheeps will get scared and move away from you, so it's important to pace yourself. It's also important to not move fast while your teammate has their net in the water, because they will bring it up if the fish are scared. You can move fast to disrupt your opponents trying to catch Cheep Cheeps, but it's unnecessary if they're not between you and your pool. When it's down to a few fish left, the CPU's often run in a circle trying to get to it and often scare the fish. Your best course of action if this happens is to guess where the fish will swim to while it's scared and it may just swim into your net. If you realize you are behind by a few points and there are few fish left, you can block your opponents by stepping in front of them while they're trying to walk to their pool. They don't know how to go around you, so they will continue walking straight into you and get stuck. This should only be done if you don't want your opponents to earn coins, because this minigame is 60 seconds and it's faster to let your opponents win than to run out the timer.

--Pair-a-sailing: Varies. The most ideal situation is to collect as many coins as possible to help with the coin star and minigame star. Situations in which you'd throw this minigame are if your teammate is a few coins short of a star, lamp, or Boo space and throwing will prevent them from getting enough coins, or you want your opponent to end with more coins than you. If you are driving and want to throw, don't press any buttons, as you start at the lowest speed and your teammate isn't high enough in the air to reach any coins at all. If you are in the air, you can hold left or right to influence your teammate to driving more to the left or right, even to hit crates, which they generally try to avoid.

--Cliffhangers: Win. The first storm will never be too rough because you are too low on the mountain, so continue climbing until the 2nd storm starts. Your teammate will never lose their footing if you never lose your footing, so as long as you are good at timing the heavy storms, you should not lose this minigame.

--Right Oar Left?: Win. Pressing A+B at the same time should row both oars at once, and your teammate should always follow suit. Sometimes your timing will be a little bit off and you will row one oar a little faster than the other. If you are consistently pressing A+B at the same time, you should be going straight, even with one oar rowing ahead of another. Doing this should get you past the first fire spitter without a problem.

1 vs 3 (as the one):

--GOOOOOOOAL!!: Throw. Stand to one side of the goal and let your opponents shoot into it. If you constantly keep diving into the side you're standing on, your feet will stick out and could unintentionally block a ball, so it's recommended not to do this.

--Money Belts: Win. Collect as many coins as you can so your opponents can't get any. You can zigzag from one side to the other to get as many coins from either side, but it's more difficult to collect two coins that spawn at once. It is possible though.

--Tree Stomp: Throw. Just press down to save 45 seconds.

--Candlelight Flight: Throw. Stand a little below the star in the middle of the room and let yourself get sprayed. You won't have to walk as far to take your position when the minigame ends, saving a little bit of time.

--Makin' Waves: Throw. Hold any direction. You just saved about 28 seconds.

--Hide and Go BOOM!: Win. This is a guessing game, so just try your best.

--Fish n' Drips: Win. The same button for the 1 never appears twice in a row, so be careful that you don't hit the same button twice during a sequence. You may pause to get a better order of the sequence you need to input, but it's not recommended because the word "Pause" is covering the 5th button in your sequence.

--Hop or Pop: Win. If you move at a slight zigzag towards your opponents, they will get confused as to which direction you want to go and will be easy to pop. If you are running towards a wall and your opponent(s) hop out of the way, it's better to keep going and hit the wall dead on than to try turning around, as this will stop all your momentum at once.

--Blame it on the Crane: Win. Opponents will more often than not try to stay as close to the middle of the circle as possible. A pretty consistent way to make sure you always grab them when they are as close the middle as possible is to pay attention to the star. Once the bottom right part of the star is pointing to their circle, that's when you hold A. Release it when it's over them. If all 3 opponents are grouped together, go for the one at the back of the line so the others continue rotating, otherwise they will stop on the claw and a few seconds will pass before they begin moving again.

1 vs 3 (as the three):

--GOOOOAAAAL: Win. In all modes except Expert, if you aim your ball as far left/right as possible, it will never go in, but your opponent will be distracted by it. If you can time it to where you shoot your ball before your two teammates, the opponent will chase your ball, allowing your two teammates to score a goal while your opponent is distracted. You can also do this without holding left/right all the way so you can make goals of your own, but it's helpful to aim away from where your teammates are facing. If you hold A for too long, your ball will bounce off the top of the goal post and will never go in.

--Money Belts: Varies. The more coins you collect, the more your two teammates get, so the importance of collecting the most coins is up to how the board is going.

--Tree Stomp: Win.

--Candlelight Flight: Win. The CPUs can detect which direction you're walking if you're walking in a straight line, so they will steer clear of walking directly in front of you. Keep where you want to aim in mind, but move unpredictably to throw off your opponent. You can throw by doing nothing, but your teammates can still pull out a win without you.

--Makin' Waves: Win. The goal is to ground pound at the same time as your two teammates, as this will make the big wave completely unpredictable. However, the 1 CPU in this minigame is very good at balancing and more often than not will win this minigame. You should always keep trying though to save some time.

--Hide and Go BOOM!: Throw. If you don't choose a cannon at all, that could be one less cannon for the 1 to shoot to win the game, saving a lot of time.

--Fish n' Drips: Win. You won't know what button you need to press until it's your turn to take/pass/dump the bucket. Unlike the 1 in this 3v1 minigame, you can get the same button that a teammate presses in a row, so no possible buttons are off the table.

--Hop or Pop: Throw. This is a hard minigame to throw, but it is possible. You can learn how to throw your opponents towards the 1 by getting under them while they are bouncing and angle your jump while they are above you to influence their direction. Since your teammates can't move in midair, if they are falling towards the spiky ball, they will more often than not get popped. This can be hard to master, but it can shorten this minigame by a lot of time. If you get popped before your teammates, it's likely your teammates will move along the walls, and since the 1 CPU will chase them along the walls themselves, they will never catch up and 45 seconds will be down the drain, so it's recommended that both of your teammates are popped before you pop yourself.

--Blame it on the Crane: Throw. Your CPU teammates always get grabbed, so the faster you throw and get yourself grabbed, the more time you will save. If you need the coins, hold up & right the entire game and you will win. Something about this movement confuses the 1 CPU and you will always pass by the crane.

Battle minigames:

--Trace Race: Win. The harder the difficulty, the more accurate the CPU's movements are, so it's recommended practicing if you're new to this minigame.

--Chain Chomp Fever: Throw. It's recommended to throw, but only when two CPU's have been eliminated already. Doing this will allow you to win coins for getting 2nd place and will end the game faster than you outlasting the 3rd opponent.

--Paths of Peril: Win. If you're confident in your balance, picking either split path both times will result in a win, since CPU's tend to take their time. If you're not, pick one split path, but don't walk all the way. Look for dark brown rocks at the base of the canyon you're walking towards. If you see them form a corner at the bottom of the canyon, turn around and pick the other path, as the one with the corner has a much longer, more linear path and can take more time to complete.

--Bowser's Bigger Blast: Win. This minigame is 100% RNG, so there is no strategy. Just avoid picking it if you are the one who landed on the battle space, as this game can end up going on for 3+ minutes if you're unlucky.

--Butterfly Blitz: Win. Target all blue butterflies. Your opponents just go for whichever butterfly is closest to them, so you will get more points if you target only the blue ones. If there are none around you, target the red butterflies, then the yellow. If you targeted and caught all blue butterflies in the match, stop collecting butterflies before the timer runs out. The more you collect, the longer the butterfly point counting will take, resulting in lost time. If you're confident you'll win, you will stop counting butterflies quicker, but still have more points than your opponents.

--Rumble Fishing: Win. My best recommendation is to turn the volume down and close your eyes (if rumble is on). Sometimes your opponents will reel in a Cheep Cheep too quickly and catch nothing, and the sudden noise might instinctually make you want to press A. If you play without any other possible distractions around you, you just have to feel for the rumble of your controller and press A as quick as you can.

Bowser minigames:

--Darts of Doom: Varies. If you go last, it is recommended you try your best, since the game will end after your turn regardless. If you go first, 2nd, or 3rd and you can afford to lose your coins, stars, or items, it's best to aim for Bowser's face in the middle. If you'd rather try to keep all your possessions, then avoid hitting bowser's face.

--Fruits of Doom: Throw. All fruits start with a different letter (Apple, Banana, Cherry, Melon, Pineapple, Orange, Grapes, Strawberry). The fruits that Bowser requests can not be read legibly except for the first letter of each fruit, which is enough to narrow down what he wants. Narrow down the fruit he does want and avoid those. There's always at least 1 fruit he does not want at all, so if you can narrow down that fruit, pick it to end the minigame. Otherwise this will cost a lot of time.

--Balloon of Doom: Throw. On your turn, refuse to jump and ground pound. This will end the minigame.

Story games (win them all):

--Goomba's Chip Flip: It's all RNG. Even paying attention to the chips when they're stacked does nothing. So do your best and have fun!

--Mystic Match 'Em: This is also all RNG. You should know there are only 5 of each card, so if you opponent has, let's say, 1 piano, there are 2 on the field, and you have 2 in your hand, you have to start working towards a new instrument, as it's impossible to get 3 pianos in your hand at this point, unless a boo card is picked up and the cards are reset.

--Kareening Koopas: When you get a shell close to the hole, hold back from the current direction you're leaning to help it go in a little bit easier. You can do small clockwise/counter-clockwise movements so the shells go in a little easier without passing over the hole.

--Archaeologuess: Pausing when the shapes are in the air can give you a much better view on the odd one out. If the odd shape out is on the far right and is closer to your opponent, hold left or up before they start moving. If you're holding your cursor towards the correct answer, the opponent can recognize this and will race you to it, but if you try to trick them before they can walk, they may just follow your direction. If you notice them doing this, head for the correct answer again and try to reach it before they do. This doesn't work all the time, though.

--Bowser Bop: Go for any Bowser that pops up, otherwise go for all the sets of two.

--The Final Battle: Note that all the health you lose is carried over through all the rounds, so it's best to be cautious if you're newer. The Koopa Kids have 2 attacks on the first slide puzzle, a fireball that drops directly over where the Koopa Kid is hovering (Koopa Kid and the fireball move with the panels moving), and a whirlwind attack that chases you. You have to keep moving to avoid it. On the 2nd slide puzzle, Bowser has 1 attack in his clown car, which is a fire boomerang. You can jump over it or move out of the way. WARNING: If you are hit by the fire boomerang while a piece is sliding, you will stay over the spot you were hit. This means if you ground pound onto a piece, it starts to move, and you are hit, since the spot you just ground pounded will now be a lava spot, you will lose as you will not travel with the piece. It's recommended to jump over the fire boomerang completely before groundpounding, as touching the lava at any point on The Final Battle will drop your health to 0. On the final zone Bowser has x attacks to watch out for. He will attack when he stops walking. One is his charging attack. This is his most dangerous as there's no cue to say this is the attack he's going to use. The higher the difficulty, the further back you will fly if you are hit by this attack, so when Bowser stops moving, it's recommended to be as far away as possible and move perpendicularly for the best chance to dodge this attack. You can also stay near the middle and take a hit to get him to stop moving since you're unlikely to fall into the lava if you are in the middle of the field. Bowser has a firebreathing attack as well. The cue for this is Bowser tilting his head back before the attack begins. When Bowser has 3 or more hearts of health, Bowser will not move while firebreathing. When Bowser has 2 or less hearts of health, he will move toward you. Bowser's last attack is the fire boomerang. The cue for this is Bowser will first raise his hand with a "Just bring it" hand gesture, then throw his boomerang. The first part of his throw the boomerang will stay near the ground and will target you. It will then fly off screen, but it will stay at jump height, so be careful not to jump into it. Bowser only throws 1 fire boomerang when he has 3 or more health. When he has 2 or less health, he will throw 2.

Bowser 1v1 minigames [These minigames can be played by using a mega mushroom and passing a Bowser zone (not a bowser space) on Bowser's Gnarly Party]:

--Panels of Doom: Win. This minigame is all RNG, so good luck! It doesn't matter which number you select.

--Bowser Wrestling: Varies. If you don't need half of your coins, throw by doing nothing. Otherwise keep Bowser as close to his side by taking an early lead, but stay near the middle. When the golden mushroom drops, collect it and spam L+R as fast as you can to win.