I'll admit up front: I am not the biggest Mario Party fan. I remember playing the very first Mario Party with family and friends on the Nintendo 64 back in the late 90s and having a blast with it, but the next few entries didn't quite stick with me as I got older. It gave me a Monopoly-vibe, where at least one player would end the game pretty upset with how the proceedings went.
I've dabbled in the series since, especially when at parties or events where it was available, but I've never felt the urge to jump back into the series itself, until Jamboree was announced.
Super Mario Party Jamboree feels like Nintendo has taken all its learnings over the last two decades and poured them into this one game, bringing about the largest roster of Nintendo greats to the table (22 playable characters, including newcomers Pauline and Ninji), new game modes, and much more.
As someone who would rather play the minigames and not the full Party experience, there are 110 minigames to dive into with its free play mode (as well as Mario Party Jamboree moving closer to the MMO-world with its rotating Daily minigames), but where I really found myself enjoying things was the new 20-player multiplayer mode, Koopathalon.
This is effectively a race against other players where you compete to be the first to complete five laps around a track, playing a rotation of mini-games along the way to help determine your place. It's hectic and back-and-forth nature got me and my fellow press at my hands-on session competing with each other, trying to, if not come in first, at least be the first among each other.
The minigames themselves were pretty simple, from a game that saw us shooting into the air out of a cannon to collect coins or a Whack-a-Mole style game where you whack Monty Moles with a hammer while avoiding Bob-ombs (I was not very good at either of these).
I can see myself and the rest of my family spending a ton of time in this mode personally, as it also feels a bit more fast paced that the full, fat Mario Party Jamboree experience, though if I had a nit-pick it's that the minigames simply repeat until the five laps are completed. This does give you the chance to get better each time you encounter one, but I honestly started to get bored seeing the same games over and over again. I hope there could be a version of this where the minigames are random each time, adding to the experience.
Another new mode, Kaboom Squad, sees its players work together to take down a virtual Bowser, chucking Bob-ombs at the villain, all while dodging Koopa Troopas, hazards, and Bowser's attacks himself. After weakening Bowser with enough Bob-ombs, a minigame will kick off, where if you complete the challenge you and your team can all select an item for the next round to help you out, such as a pair of gloves that allow you to carry more Bob-ombs to load the cannon at the center of the stage.
You have five rounds to take out Bowser, and my team was apparently very good because we were able to take out the villain in just three. It was a ton of fun to work with the people around me for a change instead of against, and it could also provide another quick way to jump into Super Mario Party Jamboree without needing to devote the time to a long session.
The main attraction, the actual board game, was also pretty fun, even if I had somehow angered the RNG gods throughout the day. Taking to the Mega Wiggler's Tree Party map, it was a whimsical introduction to the format. The board itself looks taken from a storybook, with a giant Wiggler in the center that could change directions, changing the route through the map itself.
The goal is like any other Mario Party game: collect stars. Stars cost 20 coins each, so you'll need to get lucky on some dice rolls, win a few minigames, and more to start accumulating the stars, but it's definitely doable even a few turns in. Our Nintendo Rep who played with us collected the first star about three turns in - meanwhile I had landed on a Bowser square, lost my coins, and was generally not doing well thanks to the roll of the die.
The minigames were fun, though, which I feel is what would keep me coming back to Super Mario Party if I were playing with some friends and family. I'm not entirely sold on sitting around for the board game, but maybe that was just because I was doing so poorly, it's hard to have fun (I'm a sore loser, you guys).
Some of the minigames were pretty great, including one that saw me flying around in a UFO, dropping spiked platforms on my competitors, or another that saw us trying to avoid being squished by falling finger sandwiches that stack up the more they fall. My favorite was a minigame that saw me and my teammate perfectly cut a steak in half together - I don't think I got a rush all PAX weekend than the moment we saw we had perfectly cut it 50/50.
All told, Super Mario Party Jamboree is one of the games I've got my eye on this October, and it's the first Mario Party game I've been excited about since the Gamecube era. From its large roster, new boards, countless minigames and new ways to experience them, it's shaping up to be one of the better releases in the franchise in quite some time.
