With just how formulaic and rigid Mario Party is, I wouldn’t blame you for feeling a bit along the lines of “played one, played them all.” I think Super Mario Party Jamboree is going to change some minds, however.
While at PAX West, I got a little over an hour with the game and got to play a few of the games modes, including checking out the classic Party mode of collecting stars around the boardgame.
Mario Party Jamboree Is Still Mario Party
As for that classic mode, that’s where Super Mario Party Jamboree will certainly feel the most familiar. We spent the least amount of time on it, and it’s going to be pretty much what you think it is.
Obviously, a lot of the mileage for Mario Party is just how much you enjoy the various minigames, of which I did have a good time. They’re bite-sized, and I did find myself enjoying quite a few more than I thought.
In one, you and a partner must align to cut a large piece of steak in half. The catch is, many of them aren’t symmetrical, so you have to make as good a guess as you can.
I’m not sure why, but seeing a high definition, very real looking giant slab of perfectly cooked steak next to a Boo and a Goomba is very funny.
Super Mario Party Jamboree’s Online Modes Are Very Fun
The most unique, and new, parts of Jamboree were in two new online modes we got to check out. They both mix up the Mario Party formula enough to make even minigames you’ve played before feel fresh.
The first we tried was Koopathlon. In Koopathlon, you and 20 people compete by completing the same minigames, seeing who can do the best in them. It’s a bit of a race in that you’re completing laps around a huge track, which is something like 100 spaces long.
Each minigame you move forward, or back, a certain number of spaces depending on how well you do (or coins you collect). There’s even a leaderboard that looks near identical to Mario Kart.
Koopathlon is not simply just playing some minigames and seeing who does the best, either, as there are some quirks.
As the Koopathlon takes place over multiple rounds, you’ll actually play the same three minigames each round. However, each round that same minigame gets more difficult.
In one, I had to shoot myself out of various cannons to collect coins in the area. The further the Koopathlon went along, the more complex the coin patterns, cannon movements, and obstacles in my way.
The other minigame I have to shoutout just has you push objects into a chute. Toys and stuffed animals stacked up to then just be poked over an edge and fall over. Genuinely the most satisfying gameplay from my weekend at PAX West.
The minigames have items you can get, a la Mario Kart, that let you get in the way of your of one of your opponents, too. Things like inking your opponent’s screen so they can’t see.
The ramp ups in the minigame difficulty were great, as some minigames definitely have a unique enough concept to see it used in more than just the one way. It was like playing a few games at once, competing against a bunch of people level by level.
The other quirk is that at the end of each round is a Bowser-themed minigame that you have to try to survive or you’ll be sent back spaces in the race. The higher your ranking, the more you lose.
Often, these are hard to survive, and only two of the twenty, usually some CPU characters, survived.
In one, you’re trying to keep ahead of Bowser who keeps destroying a platform as you run towards a screen. In another, you had to avoid standing on the wrong tile before it disappeared or be dropped to your doom.
These can be a good equalizer and avenue for you to mount a comeback if you’re behind. The punishments to those in the top rankings aren’t so devastating they almost guarantee you’ll be behind, like a blue shell, but they make catching up more achievable for those behind.
Kaboom Squad is Cooperative Mario Party
The other online mode is for up to 8 people. It sees you pitted against a “Imposter Bowser” in an attempt to defeat him.
The main part of the mode has you running around a map avoiding the giant while attempting to collect bombs to put in a cannon. Once you collect enough, they’re fired off to damage Bowser.
Once the round ends, a cooperative minigame involving the 8 players begins.
An example of one in ours is that one half of the team was collecting apples to make juice while the other half collected the packages to load up a delivery truck. It’s simple on the surface, but there is definitely efficient and proper ways to do it to have the best results.
Depending on how well your team does, you’ll get the opportunity to select some items to help against Bowser. One allows you to place pads that increase your run speed on the map, another increases the amount of bombs you carry, and so on down the line.
The more damage down to Bowser, the more difficult the rounds you’re trying to avoid him and collect bombs become. It’s a nice ramp-up of challenge that gets genuinely difficult and will be impossible without teamwork.
Kaboom Squad is great cooperative fun done well. The 8 player minigames are thoughtful, and you’ll never find yourself sitting around waiting for something to do.
As with all things Mario Party, my only big concern comes with the staying power of the game. The regular party mode, with its betrayals and chaos with friends, always has a certain allure no matter what.
However, These two new modes, Koopathlon and Kaboom Squad, rely pretty heavily on the minigames and will be as enjoyable as you find those to be. Will there be enough variety to keep people interested? We don’t quite know yet.
Then there’s the pesky issue of Nintendo Online. It’s come a long way, so hopefully this has a good implementation. Thankfully, in the case of at least Koopathlon, the minigames are played solo but just the results are shared. So, that shouldn’t run into some issues.
Super Mario Party Jamboree Preview | Final Thoughts
I walked away enjoying Super Mario Party Jamboree a lot more than I thought. The minigames were quirky and fun, the new modes a refreshing way to take in the minigames, and its as charming as you’d expect any Mario game to be.
Super Mario Party Jamboree is the first time I’ve been excited for a Mario Party game in a very long time.
Super Mario Party Jamboree was previewed at PAX West.
