Mario Party tends to evoke a range of emotions. Some people raised in the atmosphere of star-catching, mini-game-fueled chaos love randomness and friction – the feeling that at any given moment, a comical series of mistakes could take you from first to last place and vice versa. Others think it’s crazy. I think if any party was going to influence some hearts Super Mario Party might have a chance.
Super Mario Party arrives as a third-series entry on Switch. first, Super Mario Partywas inventive but divisive, and its continuation, Mario Party Starsit was nostalgic, but felt somewhat sheltered in focusing on the basic elements of boards and minigames. The legacy of these two predecessors is real in the third: Super Mario Party he seems to have learned something good and bad from both Great AND Superstars.
In your board game, Super Mario Party keeps the focus on the core mechanics of Mario Party. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving around the board, with each turn punctuated by a mini-game. Get as many stars as possible and you will win. Although each match starts slowly, its intensity gradually increases as more items and events are added to the mix, resulting in surprise, chaos, and sometimes huge swings in the race to the top.
There is a wide range of characters, from basic Mario to goofy little guys like Spike, Ninja and my personal favorite, Monty Mole. There are seven boards available in Mario’s Rainbow Castle and the Western Land, with five up-to-date layouts and two returning boards. Each of them is quite solid and has some really great mechanics for the individual boards.
For example, Roll ‘Em Raceway is a race track with fantastic lap mechanics and really fun Turbo Dices that make racing for the most Bonus Star spaces covered very competitive. Goomba Lagoon was a surprise hit in local multiplayer; its ebb and flow can create cloaked pockets on the board, forcing players to employ more movement items such as Pipes and Warp Blocks if they don’t want to be left alone. And as far as classics go, Western Land is still as good as I remember from the N64 days. Not all of them are great, but the quality of the boards is generally above average.
One welcome change is how Jamboree changes the alliance system from Super Mario Party. Now, when a random Mario character appears on the board as a potential helper, all you have to do is pass it, just like you would a star. Once you do this, the mini-game will begin to earn their loyalty, and the passing player will get a slight advantage for getting there first.
These specific mini-games are the main attraction Super Mario Party. Fast-paced puzzles where you can rescue Luigi from a spooky mansion, or playing Waluigi’s predictably over-the-top, self-aggrandizing pinball machine are great fun against both computers and friends. Others are just a bunch of normal mini-games strung together, but are still great fun with a huge reward in the end.
Photo: Nintendo via Polygon
Jamboree Buddies are powerful in Super Mario Party and can radically change the balance of the game. Having an ally grants you their passive ability and also doubles everything; two rewards from fields, the purchase of two items in the store, and even the chance to earn two stars from a place instead of one. The buddy is also moody as hell, leaving you for a passing player when the other player walks by. It’s not unusual to acquire an ally and then see it immediately stolen by a passing player.
Especially with the double star mechanic, your chances of winning can augment dramatically Super Mario Party. There are comeback mechanics, whether through items or simply Boo stealing coins or a star, but I’ve had a few games where players quickly took the lead and held it until the end.
However, there are a few ways to mitigate the randomness. The up-to-date Pro Rules option eliminates most of the randomness and narrows down Mario Party to something that feels strategic to me. Items have constrained stock in stores, players vote on mini-games, and slot machines only offer specific options you choose, just to name a few. Heck, even Boo who steals coins just takes the specified amount rather than starting a fight between the ghost and the targeted player.
It’s an intriguing take on Mario Party, although I find Pro Rules to be more of a novelty than something I’d completely trade off of using all the time. While adjusting chaos is intriguing in its own way, and I liked some of the settings enough to move them to my regular Mario Party setup (voting for minigames is really nippy), I just love classic chaos too much.
Photo: Nintendo via Polygon
Which is really surprising Jamboree that’s all it offers apart from motherboards. There are several different defined mini-game options, whether it’s the classic Mini-Game Bay or other, sometimes strange side activities, given its own party island in the rotunda. Toad’s Item Factory is a neat little puzzle collection in which players move their Joy-Con to operate machines and ultimately construct items that they can purchase on the Mario Party board. Playing in a group can be a lot of fun, but believe me: soloing this entire section alone is like giving yourself a pat on the head, a belly rub.
Paratroopa Flight School feels completely ripped from another game, allowing players to hold their Joy-Cons perpendicular to their bodies and transform Brothers Mario into Daedalus and Icarus as they soar in competitive or cooperative modes. It’s amusing, but the novelty wore off quickly. It may not be bad as an alternative arm workout Ring fitting people, however. And Rhythm Kitchen turns cooking competitions into a rhythm-based event where you need to flip pancakes and season sauces to the beat. Most of them seem a little strange for a Mario Party game, almost abandoned Switch 1-2 concepts, but these are nippy gimmicks for groups that don’t want to compete with each other.
Meatier side options Super Mario Party are Koopathlon and Bowser Kaboom Squad. In the first case, up to 20 players race around a track, completing quick mini-games to advance. It was really crazy at times and it was really great. I believe this is a more suitable option for someone who wants a quick online fight rather than a full board experience.
Meanwhile, in Bowser Kaboom Squad, players work together to throw bombs into the cannon and eliminate the rampaging Impostor Bowser. More cooperative options are always welcome, and dodging an enraged Bowser while he was throwing fire and stomping was incredibly fun. I can see this working well for parties where people don’t want to worry about winning or losing and just want to work together to defeat Bowser – a feeling of cooperation that Mario Party doesn’t always evoke.
Photo: Nintendo via Polygon
Take a decent, if tiny, solo tour of the game’s up-to-date boards in the single-player Party Planner mode and Super Mario Party it’s stuffed to the gills with things to do. Previous Mario Party games have sometimes felt like they were combining two ideas: playing the hits that made Mario Party a disordered, thrilling party game, and doing something fresh based on a decades-old concept. Jamboreeboth in terms of quality and quantity of offering, it achieved both.
Is plot to do, but that doesn’t mean it will take a particularly long time to see everything. Many of these side games and solo modes can be completed in a matter of hours. Rather, it seems Jamboree he wants to make sure that no matter what party you take him to, you’ll definitely find something here that people will want to play. Compete on the standard Mario Party board or just play fun mini-games in the bay. Chop some veggies to keep everyone moving and laughing, or defeat Bowser in co-op PvE.
An expanded number of stages and modes and a solid character roster will probably be enough Super Mario Party one of the better options for playing these disordered board games on Switch. And nothing actually gets lost in the stack. Some of the modes can get a bit lifeless after half a dozen hours, but they’ll still be fun if they attract up-to-date players from time to time. Jamboree it’s something I’ll probably be installing on my Switch for a while to keep on hand.
If this is the last large event for Nintendo Switch, then it’s a fitting farewell. Super Mario Party has plenty of ways to keep the party going as long as the Switch continues to show up at parties.
Super Mario Party was released on October 17 for Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a pre-download code provided by Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.
