The holiday season is rapidly approaching and while many are looking for great gifts for their loved ones, others are looking for games to play and show off their gaming prowess. Since the holidays can be a stressful time, releasing some of that stress through board, card, or video games and showing that they are the best against friends and family.
Before video games, board games such as Life, Risk, and Monopoly created chaos and resentment at Holiday gatherings. Now, Games such as Mario Kart, Cards Against Humanity, Overcooked, and Mario Party can create those tense situations. Just in time for the Holiday Season, Nintendo has released their newest installment of Mario Party, Super Mario Party Jamboree.
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: October 17th, 2024
Players: 1 to 20
Price: Base: $59.99 USD
When Nintendo announced Super Mario Party Jamboree many were excited at just a new Mario Party game releasing. Little did I know that Nintendo was planning to release the biggest Mario Party to date. Super Mario Party Jamboree contains seven base maps (3 of which are locked until leveling), Koopathlon, Bowser Kaboom Squad, Rhythm Kitchen, Paratroopa Flight School, Toad’s Item Factory, Party-Planner Trek, and Minigame Bay.
On the standard Mario Party maps, you can start off by playing one of four levels. As you complete the battle pass and level, new laps become available at levels 10, 20, and 30. the seven maps are Roll’em Raceway, Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party, Rainbow Galleria, Goomba Lagoon, Western Land, Mario’s Rainbow Castle, and King Bowser’s Keep.
Before you even select a map, you will have to decide if you want to play against local players or CPUs, or play online. Once that is decided, you will have to choose which rule type you want to play: Party Rules or Pro Rules. With Party Rules. players can adjust the AI’s difficulty, speed, and character while applying a handicap (Stars). When playing online, you may select to play against human players but get paired against AI if a match is not available; when this happens, the game lies to you and gives these bots account names.
New to Mario Party is Pro Rules. With Pro Rules, the bonus star’s rules are announced at the beginning of the game and each player gets to pick an item. The game is set to 12 rounds. Lucky Spaces become less lucky only granting 10 coins or a set of Double Dice. Unlucky Space takes away 7 coins and gives them to the last-place player. Bowser Space automatically causes the player to lose a star.
Finally, Chance Time is removed from the board and Item Space grants an item randomly. In addition to the board’s basic changes, the game now shows where the next star might go. The star will not move to a space that a player is currently on, a Jamboree Buddy is waiting, or has been to previously; once all the locations have been cycled through, the possible star locations will reset. Players also get to vote on the mini-game to determine what to play.
Outside of the changes to how the standard game mode works, Nintendo Cube has added a bunch of changes to the actual gameplay and visuals. Levels are no longer one-dimensional.
Players can strategize what paths they want to take in order to get the star or complete the maps’ bonus objectives. Super Mario Party Jamboree features the largest character pool to date with twenty-two playable characters though Pauline and Ninji must be found by exploring the world hub.
Each map features different specialty items that can affect how the players control the board; these items can eliminate paths or cause you to speed through the map without having to stop for interactions. The map also features Jamboree buddies that grant bonuses to the player. Despite getting to the Jamboree buddy first, it is not a guaranteed benefit.
Players must compete in a mini-game to earn the buddy’s favor; the player who arrives at the buddy first gets a bonus to make it easier to win. Any space that the player lands on while they have a Jamboree buddy will activate twice; this means the player can get double the coins, items, and even the Bowser Space. Unlike Super Mario Party where buddies stay with you, Super Mario Party Jamboree’s buddies only last for a few rounds.
The game has received a massive visual update and provides arguably the best visual experience to date. Items have their own unique feeling and look visually appealing. The custom dice block no longer feels like it was a second thought and instead looks like a highly desirable item. Although stickers are still in the game, they no longer interrupt or block players’ ability to read the text or block the player’s decisions.
In-game, when a player lands on a square the interaction feels significant. The game now features a turn tracker down at the bottom of the board that lets you know what to expect. Visually, if you compared Super Mario Party Jamboree to either Super Mario Party or Mario Party All-Stars, you would think that it was on a next-gen console.
Nintendo has outdone itself in every way with Super Mario Party Jamboree. The mini-games are a combination of some of the most beloved games from the Mario Party franchise with new and invigorating ones included. The ability to turn off motion-control games and just do standard controller game modes makes it so that you don’t feel like a wrong movement cheated you.
The giant variety of characters, boards, and game modes make the game feel massive and like you could play only it for a few weeks. The quality of life updates to the franchise also makes it feel like Nintendo Cube was listening to gamers and trying to make the best experience possible. If you had told me that I would be this blown away by a Mario Party game, I would have called you a liar.
Outside of a small bug in the game when it launched that made it so you could only select round intervals of 10, Super Mario Party Jamboree has exceeded all expectations and gone above and beyond. The game looks and feels fresh and makes you want to keep playing because there’s always something to do. With the addition of pro rules, it feels like there is an added layer of difficulty that goes above and beyond what you would expect when you play a Mario Party.
Honestly, I can see Nintendo putting out updates for Super Mario Party Jamboree and treating it like they do Splatoon or Mario Kart. We’ll probably see in the next year a tournament scene revolving around the pro rules and some of the other game modes.
If you are on the fence, then I can easily put your mind at ease – Super Mario Party Jamboree is the best entry in the franchise yet and I recommend you pick it up this holiday. Even those who may not like the previous Mario Parties can enjoy different aspects of this game.
Super Mario Party Jamboree was reviewed on a Nintendo Switch using a copy provided by Nintendo. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Super Mario Party Jamboree is now available on Nintendo Switch.
