Whether I'm looking to make new friends or lose existing ones, Mario Party has always been my go-to series for social gatherings. Its board game-like presentation makes it easy to pick up and understand for those who are inexperienced (or just bad) with video games, but it's also competitive enough to appeal to even the most hardcore of gamers. There have been two Mario Party games released for Switch thus far (selling 33 million+ copies combined), but before moving on to a new console generation next year, Nintendo has one more entry up their sleeves. Launching 17th October 2024, Super Mario Party Jamboree aims to throw the best party yet, but after experiencing all the festivities that it has to offer, does it really take the cake or does it rain on the parade of its predecessors?
With 22 characters, 7 game boards, over 110 minigames, and 8 different game modes, referring to Super Mario Party Jamboree as "jam-packed" would be an understatement. Every time you start up the game, you're greeted with the Party Plaza; the hub area where you select your character(s) and number of players, as well as the home to various shops, game records, and other extra content. Once you're all set, you can hop aboard a hot-air balloon that takes you to the main selection of game modes. Menu navigation can be a bit overwhelming at first, but it starts to feel much more intuitive once you get used to where everything is. The only downside is that you have to return to the Party Plaza every time you want to change certain options, but fortunately, load times are more than fast enough so that it doesn't feel like too much of an inconvenience.
With all that being said, let's take a look at each of the available modes in Super Mario Party Jamboree:
Mario Party (1-4 players - local or online)
The original Super Mario Party was a return-to-form for the classic board game mode, and not only does Jamboree follow in its footsteps, it improves upon it too. While the gameplay plays it safe by staying mostly the same, small quality-of-life changes go a long way, like how the on-screen UI now adjusts position with each turn, making it more clear which player is rolling next and when the next minigame will happen. Now having 7 game boards to choose from also adds some much needed variety and replayability, on par with the amount in Mario Party 5 (2003) on GameCube and Mario Party: Island Tour (2013) on 3DS, and just one 1 less than the first Mario Party (1998) on N64, which still holds the record for the most game boards to date.
Each of the seven boards brings about some sort of gimmick to the experience, usually triggered by landing on an "Event" space or by using a board-specific item. Mega Wiggler's Tree Party, for example, has a giant sleeping Wiggler in the centre of the map that will move when woken up by ringing a bell, changing the route of the board and potentially ruining a player's direct path to the star. The two remastered boards from previous Mario Party games, Mario's Rainbow Castle and Western Land, keep their original mechanics, with the return of Ztars and the Steamer train respectively. I was honestly surprised by just how much I enjoyed all seven of the game boards and the different strategies that come with them. There isn't a single board that I wouldn't want to play again in the future, but my personal favourite is Rainbow Galleria, which alongside its bright and colourful shopping mall aesthetic, includes a special Markup Sticker item that can be used on a player to double the price of stars and items until the end of their next turn. No matter which board you choose, rest assured there will be lots of chaos.
Speaking of chaos, Jamboree Buddies is another new gameplay mechanic featured in Super Mario Party Jamboree. At the start of a turn, there's a chance that one of ten possible characters will appear somewhere on the game board. If a player reaches the space that the Jamboree Buddy is on before it leaves after a few turns, it will initiate a Showdown Minigame; a unique type of minigame hosted by the respective character. Although the player that reached the space gets an advantage, who actually gets the Jamboree Buddy as an ally is determined by who wins the minigame. Once a Jamboree Buddy is obtained, it will stick with you for three turns, but if another player passes you on the board before then, it will immediately follow them instead. Possessing a Jamboree Buddy not only gives you a special ability, like Mario adding 3-8 to your dice roll or Peach getting stars for half-price, they also double just about everything. This includes not only the potential of buying two stars at once, but if you land on the formidable Bowser space, you'll be punished twice as hard. Jamboree Buddies are a huge step-up over the standard Allies of the first Super Mario Party, being much more interesting than just a change in dice block.
Overall, the traditional Mario Party mode in Super Mario Party Jamboree is about as good as it gets. As mentioned in further detail in our preview, the amount of settings and customization options is fantastic, especially the newly added Pro Mode rules and the ability to turn off motion-controlled minigames (you wouldn't be missing out on too much by doing so as there are only 15 of them) so you can properly play on the Switch in handheld mode or with a Pro Controller.
Minigame Bay (1-4 players - local and online)
The minigames have always been the bread and butter of the Mario Party series, so the ability to play each of them individually is crucial. If you don't have the time for a full round of Mario Party, or you're just looking to go after some high scores, Minigame Bay allows you to play all the different minigames from all the different modes in one convenient spot. Whether it's button mashing, puzzle solving, platforming, or furiously shaking your Joy-Con like your life depends on it, Jamboree has a great selection of minigames, both competitive and cooperative. There are even a few sub-modes (one of which literally takes place in a sub) within Minigame Bay.
Free Play contains all 112 total minigames, separated by category: Free-for-All, 1v3, 2v2, Duel, Item, Showdown, Motion, Endless, Koopathlon, Kaboom-Squad, and Rhythm. Of course, some minigames fall into multiple categories and are displayed as such. Once you select a particular minigame, you can see how many times you've played it, your high score, change the difficulty of the CPUs, and even add it to your favourites list for ease of access. As for the other sub-modes, Daily Challenge takes you jet-skiing in three sets of three pre-selected minigames that change daily, Tag Match is a 2v2 banana boat battle where the goal is to be the first team to win either 3, 5, or 10 minigames, Survival is an online single-player only parasailing mode where you compete in minigames to increase your Skill Grade, and Showdown Minigame Battle takes you down in a submarine to compete in either 5, 7, or 10 Showdown Minigames where you receive coins based on your performance and the player with the most coins at the end wins. These sub-modes are more about presentation than functionality, but they still provide some welcome new ways to experience some of the different types of minigames available.
Party-Planner Trek (single-player)
Being primarily a multiplayer party game series, Mario Party doesn't usually offer too much in terms of single-player content outside of playing the multiplayer modes against NPCs. Super Mario Party Jamboree however, tries to go above and beyond by introducing the Party-Planner Trek campaign, but as you might expect, it's unfortunately not as in-depth as one might hope.
Taking less than 5 hours to 100% complete, Party-Planner Trek consists of freely moving from space to space on the game boards from the main Mario Party mode to collect mini-stars by interacting with and doing tasks for various characters to help prepare for a party. Most of these tasks are to simply come first place in a minigame, but the minigames are not unique to the mode, and the other types of tasks feel more like chores, like grabbing an item on one space and bringing it to another. That isn't to say I didn't enjoy my time with it, as there is definitely a novelty to getting to explore the game boards without the use of a dice, some fun and unexpected surprises occur, and you unlock decorations for the Party Plaza by progressing, but while I'm glad that it's included, Party-Planner Trek sadly feels more like a missed opportunity.
There are also a few confusing omissions, such as only five of the seven game boards being playable. The two that are missing are the two classic boards, Mario's Rainbow Castle and Western Land, so I suppose Nintendo only wanted to include the brand new ones, but I can't really think of any reasonable explanation as to why. Additionally, there are three save file slots for Party-Planner Trek, and once you start with a character, you're unable to change to a new one without creating a new save file. Some of the dialogue changes slightly depending on which character you're playing as, but it would have been nice if those minor details were just adjusted every time you load in so you can play as someone new without having to start over.
Rhythm Kitchen (1-4 players - local only)
A spiritual successor to the Sound Stage mode in the original Super Mario Party, Rhythm Kitchen now has you and your friends working together instead of against each other. Moving the Joy-Con to the beat of the music and controller vibrations in a random selection of food-themed minigames (such as flipping pancakes, digging up veggies, spreading butter, etc.), your team will be given a collective 1-5 star "Chef Rank" based on how many notes you hit on time. Each player's accuracy percentage will also be displayed at the end, so you'll know exactly who in the group needs to work on their rhythm. Thankfully, if you're playing with less than 4 local players, the NPCs will always have 100% accuracy. There are four different options when playing Rhythm Kitchen: Normal (3 minigames), Long (6 minigames), Challenging (3 minigames but increases the intensity), and Remix (6 minigames but increases the speed). As a huge fan of rhythm games, Rhythm Kitchen is one of my favourite modes to go back to, but I do wish there were more than just 10 total minigames.
Toad's Item Factory (1-4 players - local only)
While I appreciate it for trying to do something different, and it might appeal to a more younger audience, Toad's Item Factory is by far the weakest link in Super Mario Party Jamboree. Playable either solo or with up to four players locally, this mode has you using the motion controls of the Joy-Con to move pieces of machinery and guide a marble through an obstacle course to the goal. There are 10 different areas with 3 levels each, and even though the difficulty does increase as you progress through the areas, it never gets challenging enough, and the physics of the marble are far too slow-paced and floaty to feel satisfying.
Paratroopa Flight School (1-2 players - local only)
Holding one Joy-Con in each hand, Paratroopa Flight School has you flapping your arms in real life as you soar through the sky like a Koopa Paratoopa. Playable either solo or with a friend, Mario and Luigi are the only two playable characters in this mode. Paratroopa Flight School has three unique sub-modes: Sky Battle is a competitive mode where you try to collect more Para-Biddybuds than your opponent before the time runs out, Koopa Paratroopa Taxi is a cooperative mode where you pick up and drop off passengers, navigating obstacles on the way, and Free Flight allows you to explore the map without any time limit or main objectives. The motion controls can be a bit finicky and hard to get a proper grip on at first, but once you get the hang of it, it can actually be quite fun, not to mention the good arm workout that comes with t-posing for long periods of time.
Bowser Kaboom Squad (8 players - online only)
One of the biggest and best surprises in Super Mario Party Jamboree was the 8-player cooperative Bowser Kaboom Squad mode. A giant Impostor Bowser is wreaking havoc in a free-roaming area (where you have full camera control), and you must work together with either friends or random players online to deplete his health bar within five rounds by destroying crate drops, picking up bombs, and launching them at him with a cannon. The cannon won't go off until 20 bombs are loaded into it, and there's a time limit for each round, so you gotta react quickly.
Bowser Kaboom Squad has three different stages (with three different difficulty options) that have a unique layout and enemies that are trying to stop you: Chargin' Chucks, Bomber Bills, and Ty-foos. If an enemy knocks you down, you'll be put into a safety bubble and need help from one of your teammates to be freed. Coins will also appear around the map, and when your team collects 100 of them, 30 seconds of bonus time will be added to the clock, during which bombs will deal twice as much damage. After each round is over, you and your team will play one of 10 mode-specific 8-player minigames, and your performance will be ranked on a letter grade from C to S. The better your team does in the minigame, the better and more plentiful the items you will get to choose from after, which can then be used to help defeat Impostor Bowser in the next round.
With a Squad Rank to raise to encourage replays, Bowser Kaboom Squad is an exhilarating and addictive new mode that I'm excited to play more of when the game is released and the servers are more populated. With how much I enjoyed playing with NPCs, I can only imagine how much more fun it will be with friends online. My only complaint is that despite the Bowser in this mode being referred to as an "impostor," the real Bowser can not be played as here (or in Koopathlon) for some weird reason.
Koopathlon (20 players - online only)
Koopathlon is a 20-player race unlike any other, as every racer plays three of nine possible single-player Coin Minigames and collects as many coins as possible. Whether you choose to play 3, 5, or 7 laps, each lap has 150 spaces, and each coin you collect moves you one space forward. Collecting enough coins will also fill an item box gauge that can reward you with a brief advantage. After each minigame, the current ranking will be displayed to show how far ahead (or behind) you are in the race. After the three Coin Minigames are done, an Impostor Bowser will appear, initiating one of five possible 20-player Survivathon Minigames where you must do your best to survive Bowser's antics to win an item. If you get knocked out though, you'll receive a penalty and have to go back a certain number of spaces depending on your position (the further ahead you are, the bigger the penalty). This process will then repeat until all of the laps have been completed. Although Koopathlon can also be played by yourself offline with 19 NPCs, much like Bowser Kaboom Squad, it is definitely a mode that is best enjoyed online.
With an overabundance of content, infinitely replayable minigames, and enough charm to fill a piñata, Super Mario Party Jamboree is easily the best Mario Party on Switch. While not necessarily a replacement for Superstars due to that game being more of a series celebration rather than a brand new entry, Jamboree improves upon the original Super Mario Party in almost every way, and is absolutely worth the upgrade. Although the single-player mode wasn't as fleshed out as it could have been, and there are a few strange development decisions here and there, Jamboree has more than a little something for everyone.
8.5/10
A copy of Super Mario Party Jamboree was provided by Nintendo UK for the purposes of this review.
