Nintendo’s New Mario Party Game Makes a Great First Impression

Published:

Super Mario Jamboree Party boasts huge numbers: 110 minigames, seven game boards, and an online mode that supports up to 20 players. But the fresh Mario Party game — the third installment in the series on Nintendo Switch and the 19th overall — doesn’t seem to be going over too well. Instead, the Mario Party formula is being given fresh, inventive twists Jamboreeincluding fresh co-op modes and active fresh boards.

At a recent pre-release event in New York, I played a few Super Mario Jamboree Party with a tiny group of media. Our first experience was a round Jamboree on a brand fresh board called Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party. In the center of the board is, of course, a giant Wiggler vibrating in a circular pit. This Wiggler’s body is part of the board’s path, and players can actively move it to change the map to their advantage or to the disadvantage of others.

- Advertisement -

Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party is one of seven boards in Super Mario Jamboree Partyalongside fresh creations Roll ’em Raceway, Goomba Lagoon, King Bowser’s Keep and Rainbow Galleria, and the classic Mario’s Rainbow Castle boards Mario’s Party and the Western Land of Mario Party 2.

Even the mayor of New Donk City needs to chill out sometimes
Image: Nintendo

More compelling to me than any of the boards, however, was Koopathlon, an online mode for up to 20 players—the largest player count ever supported in an online Mario Party game. During our session, we played as five human players against 15 bots in an online competition to see who could complete five laps around a racetrack, as opposed to a typical game board.

In Koopathlon, players take part in competitive mini-games, many of which are played independently, such as one that requires baking bread to the right degree of doneness, while another involves playing a contemporary version of the hit Nintendo game AlleywayIn other Koopathlon games, up to 20 players can appear on screen at once, and they must avoid Bowser’s attacks or die from falling.

Koopathlon, while great fun for friends and family (and Mario Party friends), seems like it will be a popular option Super Mario Jamboree Party players who just want to connect online and play a Mario board game. (Super Mario Jamboree Party (Incidentally, the bundle includes three months of access to Nintendo Switch Online.)

Ninja uses a hammer in the Whack a Monty Mole mini-game in this screenshot from Super Mario Party Jamboree

Whack-A-Monty-Mole action with Koopathlon results in picture-in-picture mode
Image: Nintendo

I may have had the most fun with Super Mario Jamboree Party was in Bowser Kaboom Squad mode, where up to eight players work together to battle King Koopa with cannon fire. This requires running around a tiny map, collecting explosives from falling crates, and dropping those bombs on Bowser. In between rounds of fighting for ammo and avoiding Bowser and his minions, players are thrown into group mini-games where they must play together.

Some of these minigames are straightforward; one places all players on a grid, challenging them to look towards an ever-changing arrow on the screen. However, this arrow plays some grubby tricks and tests your reflexes in a fun, sometimes frustrating way. Another minigame tasks players with rearranging a series of cards, requiring them to arrange the numbers one through eight in ascending order. Once that’s done, the minigame changes things up by replacing the numbers on those cards with dots. During our playthrough, the game asked us to arrange illustrations of a sea serpent in the correct order. As the timer ticked down, there was a lot of stumbling and scheming to get it right.

Various Nintendo characters run with bombs held above their heads in a screenshot from Super Mario Party Jamboree.

All my friends hate Bowser, they want to blow him up
Image: Nintendo

Your performance in the mini-games in Bowser Kaboom Squad mode determines what power-ups you take with you to your next round of collecting bombs to fire at Bowser. These power-ups change over time and include things like banana peels that make enemies slip and power-up pads that you can place to give your teammates extra speed. If regular Mario Party is too competitive for you, the co-op play style of Bowser Kaboom Squad can be a great alternative.

But Super Mario Jamboree Party is pure Mario Party through and through. It has a ton of fresh additions, like all-new minigames and two characters fresh to the series — Pauline and Ninji — but you probably know what you’re getting into given the 25-year-old series. If you skipped Mario Party Superstars AND Super Mario Party for Switch, Super Mario Jamboree Party is a great place to jump in.

Super Mario Jamboree Party coming to Nintendo Switch on October 17th.

Related articles