Having only spent time with the Mario Party games on Nintendo 64, it was high time to change that with Super Mario Party Jamboree. This latest entry on the Switch is packed full of an impressive level of content. While not all minigames and modes are worth a look, this is generally the most fun I’ve had with a party game in a long time.
After a short introduction, you get to explore the hub island. It is here in Super Mario Party Jamboree where players can shop, take in the vistas, and find the different modes. Each island in this title hosts a different game mode. There are quite a few to check out from the minigame island to Bowser’s Challenges to the normal Mario Party island.
It is on Mario Party island where most of the action happens. Players pick between one of 20 (plus two unlockable) characters from across the pantheon. This is a pretty solid cast, with the usual suspects of Mario, Peach, and Bowser. But also some more intriguing additions like Ninji and Shy Guy, who I like to play.
There are also seven different game boards — four at the start — to pick from. Each game board has a completely different feel when compared to the others. In addition, there are mechanics with each board that help them stand out. For instance, there is the Mega Wiggler board. Here, players go around a simple forest with only a handful of red bad spaces to land on.
The main crux of this board is the Mega Wiggler in the middle of the forest. Players can hop on the back of it but he could move at any point. This would result in the player ending up in a different part of the board than they might want to. It is a neat risk-and-reward system. Do you hop on the Mega Wiggler’s back for a possible shortcut? Or do you play it safe?
The other boards you get, including two returning ones from N64 titles, also come with their own exciting gimmicks. Rainbow Galleria (my personal favorite) is a huge colorful mall with escalators to zip from floor to floor and unique stamps to collect. Roll ‘Em Raceway is an odd map with everyone racing around in cars that doesn’t get too out of hand, thankfully.
The general goal of each Super Mario Party Jamboree board game is to have the most stars at the end. Every player takes turns rolling the dice. You could land on a spot with an exclamation point that will grant a random item. But you could also land a red space and have negative effects, like losing coins.
Along the way throughout the board, there are also random stops like shops. Here, you can buy extra dice, custom dice, or even items to hinder your opponents. After all four players take a turn, it is then time for a minigame. There are more than 110 minigames so it took a few matches before I even saw a repeat minigame.
Minigames have a lot of variation to them, such as free-for-all or even 3-vs-1 modes. For instance, a free-for-all game mode might be Light-Wave Battle. Here, every player is essentially battling against the others. You can jump to hop over the waves your opponents send out to avoid defeat. But you can also double jump to ground pound classic Mario-style and send waves. The last person standing wins coins.
Even a simple minigame like this one has a neat level of depth to it. Do you focus on defense purely by just jumping? Or do you risk a ground pound, which has an animation that leaves you vulnerable to waves for a moment? Then there are the fascinating minigames like the three on one modes. Here, you might have a player control a Bomber Bill and try to eliminate the other three players before five rounds are up.
There are still more minigames, such as ice skating to collect coins or a hide-and-seek take on whack-a-mole. The variety is pretty impressive and each minigame pretty fun. I often looked forward to the minigame at the end of each round as one of the highlights of the games I did.
However, I will say the more you play, the more you realize there is a bit of repetition in the minigames. Sure, there are more than 110, but there are a lot of similar modes. One of the oddest parts is there are a lot of run away modes where you have to escape something. And each of these minigames does little to differentiate from the other besides a simple palette or map swap.
Outside of the core board game island, there are other modes to extend your time with in Super Mario Party Jamboree. This is where the game largely loses its quality and my interest. There are different islands for special game modes like flying around in the Paratroopa Flight School or the Overcooked-like Rhythm Kitchen. The former is horrid, where the player uses motion controls to act like they’re flying around. It is ridiculous and frustrating to control.
Rhythm Kitchen is a cooking battle mode where you engage in different food-related minigames to score the highest. But it is a bit too hard to understand how the scoring system works that it feels a little off. Then there are the other forgettable modes like Toad’s Item Factory where you maneuver balls to their destination and the motion control-only minigame location.
The Koopathlon even sounds great a glance, being the showstopping 20-player online mode. Unfortunately, it gets a bit too messy quite fast. 20 players in minigames is a bit too much and overwhelming at times, and the minigames here repeat way too often. Minigame Island with only minigames to play over and over fares a bit better but even it loses its shine after a bit.
The only extra mode that truly captured my attention beyond the normal board games is the new Bowser mode. Here, seven players work together to take down the Impostor Bowser through minigames. The creativity of these unique minigames really shine through, such as stopping bombs from Impostor Bowser. Having everyone work together in a sort of PvE mode feels unique, but it does have its limitations due to only offering 10 minigames in total.
That said, the extra modes are just that: additional content to enjoy. The quality of them matter little when the actual board games at the center of Super Mario Party Jamboree are exceptional. I enjoyed all seven of the board games and would gladly go back to them. Playing this game offline in person with others is the most fun I’ve had in a party game ever. The sheer level of variety and chaos ensured that every match I did was completely different from the last. Even playing alone against bots, which I usually don’t enjoy in a party game, was fun against the CPUs.
Super Mario Party Jamboree is up there for the best in the series. It boasts the most amount of content from high-quality boards to characters to minigames. The variety is enough to carry this game on its own, but the quality of the core experience is exceptional as well with how each board works and the many different types of minigames. Though the additional modes, with the exception of Bowser Kaboom Squad, are all pretty much misses, they do nothing to take away from the top-tier solo and multiplayer party experience Super Mario Party Jamboree has.
Super Mario Party Jamboree releases exclusively for Nintendo Switch on October 17, 2024.
The Mario Party series is back and more jam-packed than ever! With over 110 minigames, new online and offline modes, and plenty of customization choices, there’s something for every kind of partygoer! Switch version reviewed. Review copy provided by company for testing purposes.
Super Mario Party Jamboree attempts to cater to old fans and new, and to pretty solid success. This is the most content in a Mario Party game yet and it shows through the great seven boards, tons of minigames, and decent amount of modes. Some of the modes, such as multiplayer, aren’t as impressive, but this is still a Mario Party worth looking at.
- Don’t bother with most of the additional game modes except Bowser Kaboom Squad
- Save your coins for stars
- You can buy two stars at once if you have one of the new Jamboree Buddies
Published: Oct 15, 2024 04:00 pm