Super Mario Party Jamboree Review - Super Star
Often as we grow older we look at the way the younger generations conduct themselves and think, “I would never have been that way when I was a child” or “The parties I attended were never like that.” As a teacher professionally for almost 15 years, largely teaching those between the ages of 16-18 years of age, I quickly came to the realisation that yes, the teens of today and the teens of 20 years ago, as well as those of generations past, all partied the same way, the only limits imposed upon us were due to the resources at our disposal, and funnily enough, fans of Mario Party would likely feel the same. Since the days of the original three Mario Party’s on the Nintendo 64, technology has only improved, and Nintendo has continued to look to push gameplay boundaries allowing the family-friendly IP to stretch its legs in a range of new directions. Super Mario Party Jamboree parties just like the old days, but there’s much more available to the player to make it a exciting, modern event.
Players traverse the hub of Mario Party via hot-air balloon, allowing them to partake in a range of different activities, from the standard Mario Party experience, to the motion control driven Rhythm Kitchen, Paratrooper Flight School and Toad’s Item Factory, the opportunity to return to beloved mini-games at Minigame Bay or even the cooperative and competitive Bowser Kaboom Squad and Koopathlon respectively. While not evey mode is the life of the party, there is something to enjoy about essentially every game mode, and of course the core Mario Party with its 110+ mini-games takes the spotlight.
The core Mario Party mode features four party boards out the gate with several other additions to come via in-game unlocks. They range in difficulty, and complexity, but each are quite engaging in their own unique ways. Available right away is Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party, Roll Em’ Raceway, Goomba Lagoon, and the Rainbow Galleria, while long-time fans might have something to enjoy that scratches a nostalgic itch as they continue to increase their level in the Rewards Chart. The playing boards throw a range of engaging obstacles at players, ranging from the Wiggler who shifts around the centre of its board, changing the way you navigate it, to race-cars that shoo players who are in their path along the board, potentially missing a star along the way; each present something unique to the board, and to the great credit of the team, there are no real weak boards that you might feel tempted to avoid through future playthroughs. As usual each match can be customised to suit the number of players, their skill levels, the matches turn duration and more, while the mini-games themselves are superb. The DNA of some of the franchise’s classic mini-games can be found in some of Jamboree’s additions, but the majority feel completely original to this entry. While some games are better than others, the list of weak mini-games is quite small, another enormous credit to the design team behind this latest party.
As a mode however, Mario Party is mostly how you would expect it; players take turns rolling the dice to progress up the board, landing on a variety of different positions, triggering a range of different desirable or less than desirable events. Every now and then a Jamboree begins where a beloved character from the Mario-verse appears on the map and whoever meets up with them will have their skills at the players’ control for three turns. The presence of an ally will also allow the player to buy multiple stars (should they be able to afford it) if they land on the star space. The Jamboree’s are fun in principle but can get annoying at times for players who just acquire an ally over to be passed over on the board that very turn, forfeiting the ally to the person who lapped them. Unfortunately you will sometimes pay the price for chasing the character down first, and it would’ve been nice to see that person get a little more reward for their efforts.
Beyond the core mode, the aforementioned additional modes provide a lot of variety, though not all are filled to the brim with lasting value. The motion-controlled jaunts are lacking for much depth, with Paratrooper Flight School falling particularly flat as players flail their real-world arms around to chase down coins in a 1on1 contest. Toad’s Item Factory and Rhythm Kitchen provide some fun gimmicks, as well as their own sets of mini-games unique to those modes but they’re still not as gripping as what the core game can offer.
What will undoubtedly add a lot of additional fun to the experience however are the cooperatively fuelled Bowser Kaboom Squad, and the competitive Koopathlon. In Bowser Kaboom Squad a mega sized Bowser is bearing down on the party of eight players (who will be a mix of CPU and human players depending on your circumstances), and the job is to take him down through excessive cannonfire. After a round of collecting bob-ombs and coins, the party will enter a mini-game and their collective efforts determine a range of rewards which will assist in the process of collecting more bob-ombs to launch further waves of attacks at Bowser until he’s thwarted. The mini-game structure is turned on its head here and it works quite well, while the looming presence of Bowser on the playing space the rest of the time gives you something to constantly be keeping track of.
The Koopathlon on the other hand is more competitive in nature. Players are racing to complete three laps around a course, by being successful in a range of mini-games. With 150 places per lap, players have a lot of opportunities to collect coins with each game they play, each coin corresponding to a place around the board that they move. The mini-games are less about success or failure but degrees of success which then determines the race frontrunners. Every four mini-games will be a Bowser Minigame which is often more punitive in nature, players losing coins and progress for failing. One bad loss in this stage could serve to reshape the momentum of the match. Koopathlon is a fast paced addition to the formula that gets its hooks into players and should continue to do so online for months to come
Pretty much all of the gameplay modes support online play, something that took significant amounts of time to come to prior entries and so it is fantastic to see Nintendo getting on the front foot so well with Jamboree. Otherwise, the game has continued to build upon the various UI improvements and quality of life requirements that have been filtering in with recent releases. The game looks great, albeit it isn’t a game that’s going to push the boundaries of what the console can do as well, audio from sound effects to voicework is all of the usual high standard expected of anything Mario adjacent.
Super Mario Party Jamboree has made some wonderful additions to the formula and has also introduced the world to in excess of 100 exciting new games (and variants) to play, and while not every swing hits the target, the majority do, creating an experience that is begging to be played by friendship groups and families alike. It’s hard not to feel excited about the future of the franchise when entries like this come along. The limits of generations past aren’t here, and the party is still as enjoyable as ever.
Super Mario Party Jamboree was reviewed on Nintendo Switch with a code kindly provided by Nintendo Australia
