2024-10-01 13:04:36
Three years ago, Mario Party Superstars was released, and since then, my friends and I have played at least one round of coin hunting and fun mini-games every month. For board game enthusiasts, Nintendo fans, and video game lovers, the Mario Party series is the perfect compromise, but to be honest, the content of the game feels a bit lacking, and I have been eagerly looking forward to more.
Now that Super Mario Party Jamboree is just around the corner, I had the opportunity to play it for a few days, and I can now share some first impressions. This time, the game is bigger than ever, featuring around 20 playable characters (including relatively obscure options like Spike, Ninji, and Monty Mole), seven boards, and several game modes, including a light battle royale style online mode (which I haven’t had the chance to try yet).
A new feature this time is that you can choose to play with either Joy-Cons or the Pro Controller, although the latter means that motion-sensitive mini-games are off the table. I don’t know the exact percentage that’s motion-sensitive, but based on my time with Super Mario Party Jamboree, I guess it’s around 20%. In any case, after a brief introduction to the game, my player partners and I stood in the square that serves as the game’s menu. Here, I can buy items with the currency I earn (zero microtransactions), check mini-game records, and take a hot air balloon ride to areas representing different game modes.
This is an advertisement:
Basically, this is a relatively slow-paced menu, but it adds a lot of charm, which is very typical for Nintendo. In my first round, I chose to play the new board Rainbow Galleria, a large shopping mall rated 4 out of 5 in difficulty. The difficulty level actually only indicates the complexity of the course and mainly targets younger players, without any other peculiarities.
This time, in addition to the regular Mario Party, you can also choose Pro Mode, which means the significance of random events and reward items is much lower. There are also no unlimited items for purchase, with everyone starting from the selected items to make things fairer. By default, there are 10 rounds, fewer than the previous entries in the series (which used to be 20 rounds), and according to Nintendo, this should take about 90 minutes — I can confirm that this is very accurate.
Rainbow Galleria offers several different paths across multiple floors and features a lot of special rules. From collecting stamps that give extra reward points when you complete a lap, to budget stores and more luxurious shops, as well as major sales every five rounds. Of course, there’s also a creepy abandoned shop where you can encounter ghosts, and a toll elevator that can quickly take you to the floor you want. Involuntarily, the board feels very well-designed, and even in 10 rounds, everyone playing with me had time to at least play a round, sometimes even two.
This is an advertisement:
As it should be, every round concludes with a mini-game, most of which consist of new and some updated classics. There are a total of 110, and so far we have only found one that didn’t meet the standard, where you have to escape rolling rocks Indiana Jones style (you should be able to exit if you don’t like it), with everyone in the gang managing to survive each time. Otherwise, there are many great mini-games, some of which are very profound and truly challenge you and test the limits of your friendship. I dodged falling sandwiches, boxed my opponents using a huge robot, threw spike traps at my opponents, pushed through an ocean of balls, ran along a platform at water level, and more.
Other boards I tried were Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party, featuring a gigantic increasingly angry Wiggler lying in a hole that sometimes moves around, completely changing the conditions of travel. A very standard Mario Party board, it’s a perfect entry point into the series. We also have Goomba Lagoon, which features a large volcano and tides, with traps or bonus rewards scattered on the parts of the board closest to dangerous peaks, while the tides mean you can easily get trapped on an island. Spontaneously, it can be quite unfortunate to get stuck on such an island, as it can mean spending two to three turns wandering around a pointless little area, but aside from that, it’s a great board.
However, the standout board is Roll ’em Raceway, where all players sit in F1 cars and drive around the track, with stars available at the same spot. Thus, it’s crucial to drive quickly to have the time to buy as many stars as possible, and using a 4x mushroom allows you to roll four dice at once — it’s worth noting that you may drive so fast that you don’t have time to stop and do anything, not even time to buy a star. Do you dare to use it when you’re 20 steps away from the star…? Especially on Roll ’em Raceway, I suggest increasing the turn count to at least 15 rounds, as it plays faster and genuinely benefits from the fact that you have time to drive a few laps.
However, what left the deepest impression in Super Mario Party Jamboree is the introduction of partners as part of the game. They appear for a few rounds in each game, composed of the remaining playable characters. They all provide different advantages (for you) or disadvantages (for your opponents). Those who reach the partner first gain an advantage in the subsequent mini-games to “win” the partner. I won’t spoil the fun for you, but trust me when I say that these mini-games (even not very mini ones) are one of the best and most fun parts of the game.
Another point I want to emphasize is that there’s more information visible on the screen now, which is certainly nice, but it may feel a bit cluttered. There are more icons, markings indicating the order of things happening, and text. Unfortunately, these are all quite small, which isn’t a problem on large TVs, but for those with poorer vision or smaller TVs, I don’t believe everything will be particularly clear.
In summary, this is a good sign for the final game set to be released on October 17. Super Mario Party Jamboree is, in many ways, classic Mario Party, but it’s more of everything, offering exciting new gameplay innovations and a real online mode. We will be back for a final and complete review closer to the release.