Hello! :)

i am not being metaphorical, i work in a garden center, stop buying plants 'to bring in the bees and butterflies' and then immediately poisoning every caterpillar that dares to consume a single leaf

In Mario Party 2, the "Day at the Races" minigame may seem to have completely random results, but the players can actually influence their chances of winning by looking closely at the racers' animations and knowing the probabilities of them winning.

Top: before the race, each racer will be in one of three different animations, a slow, medium, or fast one. It is always advantageous to pick a racer in a fast animation if one is present, unless it is Thwomp, who is so objectively bad that not even being in the fast animation would make him better than his competitors.

Bottom: the probabilities of the racers arriving in either first or the first two places. Note how when given the choice between several racers of the same animation speed, Boo is better than Whomp, who is better than Bob-omb, but a faster speed is more important than the specific racer (unless, again, the racer is Thwomp, who should not be chosen under any circumstances).

Source: ZoomZike, KirkQ