Mario Party Superstars was released three years ago, and since then not a month has gone by that some good friends and I haven’t played at least one round of finding coins and humiliating each other in fun mini-games. The Mario Party series is the perfect compromise for fans of board games, Nintendo, and video games, but to be honest, this game is a bit lacking in content and I’ve been eagerly awaiting more.
Now that Super Mario Party Jamboree is just around the corner, I’ve had the chance to play it for a few days and can now share some first impressions. This time around, the game is bigger than ever, with around 20 playable characters (including relatively obscure options like Spike, Ninji, and Monty Mole) and seven boards, as well as several game modes, including a light battle royale Killer style online mode (which I haven’t had a chance to try yet).
The Mario Party series is back and bigger than ever.
One new feature is that this time you can choose whether you want to play with Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller, although the latter means the removal of motion-sensitive mini-games. I don’t know exactly what percentage is motion sensitive, but based on my time with Super Mario Party Jamboree, I’d guess around 20%. Anyway, after a brief introduction to the game, my fellow gamers and I stood in the square that this time served as the game’s menu. Here, I could buy stuff with the money I earned (zero microtransactions), view mini-game logs, and ride in a hot air balloon to areas representing various game modes.
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Basically, it’s a fairly slow-paced menu, but it adds a lot of charm and is pretty typical for Nintendo. For my first round, I chose to play the new board Rainbow Galleria, which is a large shopping mall with a difficulty level of 4 out of 5. The difficulty level really just indicates how complex the course is, aimed primarily at younger players, and nothing else weird about it.
This time, in addition to regular Mario Party, you can also choose Pro mode, which means random events and bonus items are much less important. There isn’t an infinite amount of items to buy either, everyone starts with a selected item to make things fairer. By default, the number of rounds is 10, which is lower than previous installments in the series (it used to be 20), and according to Nintendo, this should take around 90 minutes – which I can confirm is pretty accurate.
Rainbow Galleria offers several different paths on several different floors, with a ton of special rules. From collecting stamps that offer extra bonus points as you complete a lap, to low-budget shops and more luxurious shops, with big sales every five rounds. Of course, there’s also a creepy abandoned store for when you spot a ghost, and a paid elevator to quickly get you to your desired floor. In spite of itself, the board felt really good and even out of 10 rounds, everyone I played with found time to play at least one round and sometimes twice.
As it should, each round ends with a mini-game, most of which consists of new and some updated favorites. There are 110 in total and so far we’ve only found one that doesn’t meet the criteria, you have to escape the Stones Indiana Jones-style (you should be able to quit quitting the ones you don’t like) and everyone in the gang manages to survive every Second-rate. Otherwise, there are a lot of great mini-games, some of which are really deep and really challenge you and test the limits of your friendship. I jumped over falling sandwiches, boxed in a giant robot, hurled spike traps at my opponents, pushed through a sea of balls, ran horizontally along platforms, and more.
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The other board I tried was the Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party, where a giant, increasingly angry Wiggler lay in a hole and sometimes moved around, which completely changed the conditions for how to get around. A pretty standard Mario Party board that’s the perfect entry point into the series. We have Goomba Lagoon which has a large volcano and tides, the parts of the board closest to the dangerous peaks are littered with traps or perks, and the tidal movement means you can easily get stranded on the island. Spontaneously, it’s a real shame to be stuck on an island like this, as it probably means spending two or three turns walking around a pointless little area, but other than that, it’s a good board .
However, the board that stands out the most is Roll ’em Raceway, where all players sit in an F1 car and drive around the track, and the stars are sold in the same place all the time. So here, it’s important to drive fast so that you have time to buy as many stars as possible, and 4x mushrooms allow you to roll four dice at once – the caveat is that you drive so fast that You don’t have time to stop and do anything, not even buy a star. Do you dare to use it when you are still 20 steps from the star…? Especially on Roll ’em Raceway, I recommend increasing the number of rounds to at least 15 as it plays faster and really benefits from the fact that you have at least time to drive a few laps.
However, what’s most impressive about Super Mario Party Jamboree are the companions introduced as part of the game. They appear several times each round and are made up of the remaining playable characters. They all offer different advantages (for you) or disadvantages (for your opponent). Those who reach the explainer first gain an advantage in subsequent mini-games to “win” the explainer. I won’t spoil your fun, but trust me when I say these mini-games (which aren’t even very mini) are one of the best and most fun parts of the game.
Another thing I want to highlight is that you can now see more information on the screen, which is great, but can feel a little cluttered. There are more diagrams, markers with the order of things happening, and text. Unfortunately, these are quite small, which isn’t an issue on a larger TV, but for those with poor eyesight or a smaller TV, I’m not convinced everything will be particularly clear.
All in all, this bodes well for the finished game, which will be released on October 17th. Super Mario Party Jamboree is classic Mario Party in many ways, but it’s more of everything, it also features some exciting gameplay innovations as well as a true online mode. We’ll return closer to launch for a final and complete review.
