Nintendo marketed this as a blast from the past, and boy, they did not lie! If you played a Mario Party from the Nintendo 64 era (and a game from the Gamecube era), you are in for a blast (yes, from the past). So let’s get this party started!
It’s time to turn the tables on friends and family in wild games that can change with the roll of the dice. I must be honest that I haven’t played a Mario Party game since the Wii, so I missed out on the ‘later’ additions – but when I heard the critiques, I haven’t missed … much?
Welcome to the Mario Party
Fans of the Mario Party series have been pleading with Nintendo to go back to the roots of what made the series great; no cars, no bizarre new modes, not just a collection of minigames that, when presented in a vacuum, lose all context or purpose — just Mario characters running around a board grabbing stars and destroying friendships. Well, it looks like Nintendo listened and took that feedback to heart since they revived a bunch of old boards, old minigames I to play on the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, and slapped the Nintendo Switch sticker on it.
It feels a bit like the Animal Crossing community that kept begging for the re-introduction of the Froggy Chair and Nintendo being like – FINE, stop nagging, here is the stuff you wanted! And for those that don’t want to play the remakes (since it’s that), the Mario Party games from the golden age of Nintendo (64) are probably added to the Nintendo 64 expansion pack we got last month so that you can go either way.
You are the Superstar
But enough about that! Let’s look into the main Superstar addition. The game offers two significant modes to contend with: Mario Party (!) and Mount Minigames. The latter is a method of simply playing any of the minigames on offer in one way or another with nothing more than a score counter keeping track of who won how many games. It also offers a daily online challenge, which helps tackle some of the online achievements you can complete (which I recommend doing as soon as possible, or you need to get ready to play until the blisters grow on your fingers).
When you look past the minigame mode, you can pick from a total of five boards (with, maybe, more to come?), all representing an old Mario Party game (which rocks for both old and new fans). Mario Party is represented by Yoshi’s Tropical Island and Peach’s Birthday Cake, Mario Party 2 boasts Space Land and Horror Land, and lastly, Mario Party 3 has Woody Woods. Of course, it’s up to you which one you want to play, but I had the most fun with Woody Woods and Horror Land since they offer the most challenging board-play, especially when you boot this up to play with friends. Nevertheless, I also played this game with my two-year-old partner in gaming crime. She loved Yoshi’s Tropical Island and Peach’s Birthday Cake (which was an apple pie in her view, well… I’m not one to argue, but I’m pretty sure there aren’t any piranha plants in an apple pie..).
Board-tastic!
Yoshi’s Tropical Island is great for the younger players since it has fewer branching paths than the other boards, and the Star can be in one of two places, which might be too simplistic for long-standing players. The same goes for Peach’s Birthday Cake, a spiral board where the whole process feels like running around the board as quickly as possible. Perfect for the younger players and offers a decent challenge with both the Piranha plants and Bowsers area, but less challenging for the hardcore Mario Party enthusiasts. Excellent addition for both those with kids or a busy work-life is that you have the option to save up to ten active games at once. This way, you can play ‘half a game’ before bedtime or in between those annoying zoom-meetings, but quickly hopping back in one of those games is easier than ever. On the other hand, it’s also possible to extend the game, to extend the game beyond its original lifespan up to the maximum of 30 turns. This helps with the randomness of Mario Party since sometimes the border between winning and losing a game can be decided by two turns.
Another addition I loved was the option to increase both text speed and game speed in general. Player movement is far faster than it has been in the past, particularly for CPUs. Playing a few games in solo mode for the sake of this review made my time with Mario Party much less of a session of torture – I wasn’t watching some random AI’s dueling it out, but I blinked my eyes, and I was already loading up the next end-of-turn minigame. And while we are on the subject, the minigames are great! They added games from every Mario Party (up till Mario Party 10), which should be a trip down memory lane for many people. They upgraded many older games into more… suitable versions for people to play without destroying the controller or their hands, but the skill level is still there! You can even opt for a more family-friendly or skill-based minigame pack when deciding on a board to play.
Missing?
Still, it feels like something is missing. I love Mario Party Superstar, and it’s way better than the last addition (I’m looking at you, Super Mario Party). Is it a step back in the formula? No, on the contrary, but I would have loved to see something tweaked or … added on top of the old nostalgia wave this game is riding. Of course, I might be nitpicking since I started this article because Mario Party fans wanted a throwback at the old formula – so, yeah, it sounds a bit … contradictory? Maybe I should describe it more as ‘safe,’ instead of ‘missing.’ But when it all comes down to it, Mario Party Superstars is just entertaining.
The game looks terrific – and I can’t even imagine how this looks on the Nintendo Switch OLED (I don’t own one, so let me know!) The main menu is one of many callbacks to the first game in the series, the classic board music has been re-recorded to be much more modern on the ears (although you can choose to listen to the classic N64 tracks instead if you wish), and every character and environment is just gorgeous. The whole animations of the characters are on point and have those little nudge wink’s we know and love. One of those things was the addition of Waluigi, who is depicted as a Romeo figure, and I only played as Waluigi as a statement against Sakurai and not to include him in Smash. Even the minigames that load nigh-on instantaneously boast some jaw-dropping vistas used as nothing but a backdrop.
Conclusion
So to conclude! Mario Party Superstars is a love letter to the parties you remember attending 20 years ago. It’s a safe addition to the party, with a somewhat slim addition of boards, but room to grow (and hopefully it will). No new ideas feel like a missed opportunity; You are invited to a better safe than sorry party, and there’s nothing wrong with that. This arguably is one of the best-looking Mario games on the Nintendo Switch console, and it offers a wide range of fun for everyone. The game is filled with small throwbacks to old boards and games for returning players, but for newcomers, the game feels fresh and shows where Mario Party came from. It grew up into an adult version of itself, losing everything it had during puberty and growing into a beautiful game for everyone to enjoy. So yeah – enough with the parent metaphors – Mario Party Superstars is fun.
