Dated Review - Super Mario Party Jamboree

A long time ago, in a galaxy about fifteen minutes away from my house, my friends and I decided to get drunk and play Mario Party 3.

It was a glorious day.

I wasn’t a big Mario Party person growing up – my sister preferred to play the Legend of Zelda, and so Mario Party in all its forms passed me by. But that day, playing MP3 awakened something within me.

From then on, my inner circle of friends tried all the various forms of Nintendo-branded snakes and ladders – we tried 4, 5, and 6, the trainwreck that was 10, and eventually when Nintendo pulled its finger out, we tried Super, and then Superstars.

Now, Mario Party is a unique review case for me. With a normal game, I'll play it to completion and offer thoughts based on the entire game. Good, bad, ugly, etc.

But Mario Party is, as the name implies, a party game. It's something to do with your mates on a friday night. And that's exactly what happened - my mates came around on a Sunday afternoon before Christmas, and we hammered out two fifteen-turn games.

And, not to spoil the rest of the article, but it was incredibly fun. Because playing a party video game with your mates is a level of euphoria that is rarely topped.

So, let's talk about Super Mario Party Jamboree.

Before I rip the lid off, dear reader, I am somewhat of a traditionalist – I think Stars should cost 20 coins, I think the boards need to be large and interesting, and I think the minigames need to use full size controllers.

But the miracle of Mario Party as a party game is how flexible and adaptable it is. Don’t have four pro controllers? You can use joycons. Don’t like motion control games? Fuck ‘em! It’s your party, you can cry if you want to.

For what it's worth, Jamboree is closer to Superstars and traditional Mario Party titles than Super. Super is by no means a bad party game (especially not when it’s next to Mario Party 10…) but it came up short in depth of items and board design. Both Superstars and Jamboree have more depth to them as party titles, which is important for keeping games interesting.

What I liked from Super and Superstars has been carried over – the visual design is as appealing as ever, and the boards are interesting, both to look at and play on. Our two boards were set in a shopping mall and a tropical island paradise, which featured a balanced mix of board-specific interactions, and franchise staples, like access to Boo the ghost.

In terms of where the board design sits – I’d say better than Super, which felt too simple, and on par with Superstars – though Superstars can’t take credit for good board design because they took *most* of the good boards from Mario Party’s early years, and so the rose tinted glasses cover plenty of sins.

Gameplay hits all the right notes, too. There's a deep roster of items, and the minigame rotation is varied between tests of skill, praying to RNGesus, and combinations therein. I will bring up again that motion-control games can be disabled, as that allows you to use pro controllers, something that will be helpful for longer games to avoid hand cramp.

Jamboree's item roster sees favourites like the Warp Pipe, Double and Triple die, alongside a few more exotic items which allow you to move the star and swap places with an opponent.

As a personal preference, I would like to see the Boo Bell return, something that has been omitted from all three games. Being able to steal a star on demand adds just a pinch more nutmeg to proceedings. Nothing starts more fights and tilts more people out than having their star stolen. Although to the game’s credit, Boo can be found on most boards.

With all that glazing out of the way (I’m hip and with it), let’s talk about the stuff I don’t like.

First, the emote system returns from Superstars. It’s just as annoying here as it was there, particularly when you play the game with three edgelords who make it their sworn duty to irritate you as much as humanly possible.

And that’s… it!

Here's the thing.

Mario Party in all its forms (except for the Wii U titles which were awful) are fantastic titles that are utterly unique in what they do. They’re the games you play when you need to remind yourself that the game industry, in between being unspeakably evil, can still make games that are fun for all ages.

I recommend it – just like I recommended Super, and Superstars. Literally fun for all the family, just be prepared to give in to the madness.

Catch you next time,
Vulkan

Did you like this article? Did you hate it? Go over and keep the discussion going on the official Vulkan's Corner facebook page! - whilst you're at it, leave a like!

Hey, hey, you’re reading the bonus section!

Mario Party is a series that gives me strong feelings. I have opinions and feelings about it, that aren't neccessarily related to the games. It feels unfair to include a criticism of the playerbase in the actual review, but it's also not substantial enough to justify it's own article.

So here we are.

When I reviewed Super, I had a little bit to say about people that complained about the game not rewarding playskill enough, and being so random that anyone could win.

Apparently, Nintendo listened to those people, and discovered two new features in Jamboree - “Pro” mode, and a setting which removes all the RNG-based games out of the minigame lineup.

I’m not sure where along the line Nintendo identified that it was mission critical to add competitive settings to its children’s board game. And you can certainly make the argument that it doesn't affect me, and can be safely ignored, as they are optional settings.

And trust me, I will safely ignore them after this.

But I can recall visiting the Mario Party subreddit when Super launched, and reading several posts about how the game was unfair, didn't reward skill, and how they lost to their little sister thanks to RNGesus abandoning them. I didn't go back when superstars launched, I had learned my lesson.

To which my response is:

Yes, that’s the fucking point.

The randomness and bullshit of Mario Party which allows anyone to win, regardless of their skill level is integral to its design. If you’re a perennially online loser who plays ranked Mario Party, it’s time to go outside and meet another human.

Let me be clear. A ranked mode for Mario Party played exclusively with games of skill removes all the fun. game is no longer fun after playing a game with those settings, you only have yourself to blame.

Yes, I am telling you how to play Mario Party, and if you get indignant about that, you deserve a punch in the throat.