It was the “Super” heard round the world.
When Super Mario Party Jamboree was announced for the Nintendo Switch this past June, fans were excited, but they also took question to the game’s title. This new game had the making of 2021’s Mario Party Superstars — classic free-roaming gameplay, dynamic boards with a variety of options, and standard yet easily accessible controls — but without some of the more divisive elements first introduced in 2018’s Super Mario Party. So why go back to this naming convention?
This was top of mind as we arrived to our demo of Super Mario Party Jamboree back at PAX West. Nintendo invited us to take an early look at four modes: a few turns of the main board gameplay, a quick spin at one of the minigame modes, a run through the new Koopathlon mode, and a round of the cooperative Bowser Kaboom Squad mode.
We started with the Mario Party mode by hopping into Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party, your standard starter board. The layout was simple and the gimmick was easy to understand. A single outer path circles the entire map, while two shorter paths grant access to the shortcut atop of the Mega Wiggler. Now, the catch is that Mega Wiggler can only occupy one side of its sleeping grounds, meaning only one of these two Mega Wiggler shortcuts is accessible at any given time. Using the new Wiggler Bell or landing on specific Event Spaces will cause the snoozing caterpillar to switch sides, and that includes any soul still standing on its back. It quickly became clear this mechanic can be used to great benefit to the individual player or as a means to royally mess up someone’s plans. You know, classic Mario Party.
But this gimmick also speaks to a common theme we noticed: more freedom to movement. Despite having a main circular path, Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party feels like it can be traversed with ease. The moving Mega Wiggler in the center is a huge part of that, but so are the items. Your standard fare of Double Dice and Custom Dice Block help get you moving, but so is the readily available Wiggler Bell. A Warp Box exists to take you to another player’s space, but the Pipe also exists and allows you to move to a random spot on the board. The game wants to make sure you don’t feel stuck and unable to move.
Take, for example, the new Shop Hop Box. Three characters were nearing a Star. Ninji was eight spaces away, Boo was two spaces away, and good ol’ Goomba was just a single space away. Ninji’s turn began. The odds of rolling an eight or more were not in Ninji’s favor, but another option existed. The Shop Hop Box will teleport you to the space just before an item shop. You don’t know which item shop it will be, but in this case, Ninji wanted to be dropped in front of the item shop just five spaces away from the Star. The gamble, sadly, was not pulled off, but you can see how this item can mix things up no matter where you’re located. And hey, Ninji got to visit the board’s Boo right after, so not all was lost!
Those new features are all good and great, but they still don’t answer the “Super” of it all. It wasn’t until we got to the fourth and final turn of our demo that things began to click. Super Mario Party Jamboree is stylish. It’s got flare and a fluidity in everything that it does. The characters are expressive, the animations are fresh and lively, the menus are slick and clean, the transitions are natural, and the overall speed and pace feel just right. Super Mario Party was all about giving the world and the characters, well, character, and that feels like a priority once again in Jamboree.
And it doesn’t end there. The music got a big lift as well. The theme for Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party is already a bop, but what happens when you throw dynamic music into the mix? Strolling across the sleeping Mega Wiggler? Music is switching to something reminiscent of a lullaby. Visiting the shop? Let’s get a shop theme going, and let’s make sure it’s different depending on Koopa’s shop focused on friendlier items or Kamek’s shop focused on offensive items. Oh, you made it to the Star? We’ll make sure you know with a gentle and rewarding tune mixed into the main theme.
Did we mention each character has their own intro jingle when their turn starts? It’s such a cool touch! We only got to hear a few, like Peach’s regal melody and Ninji’s stealthy tune, but it’s exciting to wonder what the rest of characters get.
There are other neat changes worth mentioning, but we’d rather spend more time with them before fully jumping into the details. The new HUD for player stats is a great example. As we noted in our second entry in our Deep Dive series, player stats move along the bottom of the screen with the current active player or event appearing on the left-most side. This seems like a worthwhile update, but we want to see how it works with some of the more complex boards. We did like that reactions, or stickers from Mario Party Superstars, all appear in the same area and take up less room on the screen.
There’s also the coin economy. A mere four turns aren’t enough to get a sense of whether coins are too plentiful as they were in the previous two entries. So far it feels like that is the case, but additions like the Unlucky Space, which can force you to lose coins, and reducing the amount of Lucky Spaces are steps in the right direction.
The Mario Party mode is the bread and butter of Jamboree, but it’s not the only mode we got to try. Next up was Daily Challenge, a minigame mode tasking you with winning the most out of three pre-selected minigames. If you followed our PAX West coverage from the show floor, you’ll notice these are the same minigames at play.
Koopathlon was next! We had lots of fun with this one. The idea is that you start the game as one of 20 players focused on finishing five laps around a map. Movement across the map is done simultaneously while playing a single-player minigame. Each coin you collect moves you one space ahead, and all 20 characters are moving across this map at the same time. Items pop in that you can use against opponents ala Mario Kart, and after three minigames, all players stop to play a Bowser focused minigame where all losers get sent back 30 spaces. First player to the end wins!
We love this mode, but we can’t say it’s particularly unique. Anyone that’s played Mario Party: Star Rush will know Koopathlon is an enhanced version of Coinathlon. And that’s okay! That mode was awesome, and now we get to play with five times the amount of characters, and online! We’ll gladly take a “Super” version of this mode.
We wrapped up the demo with Bowser Kaboom Squad, a cooperative mode where eight players fight to bring down Bowser rampaging across a miniature city. Crates carrying bombs drop from the sky, and players claw and punch at these boxes as enemies and Bowser do their worst to stop you. Grab the bombs that are released from the crate, bring them to the cannon, and watch Bowser get blasted. Minigames are periodically played where performance grants each player an item. Sometimes it’s a heart for more health, other times it’s a banana to throw in Bowser’s path to get him to slip or a steel hammer to smash open crates without worry.
It always feels a bit strange to work together with every other player in Mario Party, but here it works. As more enemies were thrown at our group and fewer bombs were brought to the cannon, teamwork began to feel more essential. The ability to use commands to direct other players or grab their attention is a huge plus. We only played a single version or level of this mode, and we’re excited to see what is changed to keep things from feeling repetitive!
All four modes were plenty of fun, and it’s reassuring to know there are still other aspects of Super Mario Party Jamboree that we have yet to get a detailed look at. The idea of Jamboree being the biggest Mario Party game to date has always been intriguing, and we can’t wait to see how else this mega collection makes use of the “Super” in the title. Just a few more weeks until October 17!