Given the lack of DLC for Mario Party Superstars, it was obvious that some sort of new game was on the horizon. After all, a game like that rarely goes without DLC unless there’s a reason, with said reason usually being that the game is treated as an annual deal rather than a once per generation type of title.
So, everyone predicted some sort of Mario Party game was on the way. That somehow, NDcube was going to follow up Superstars with a brand-new game, likely with mini games and boards inspired by the older ones they’d remastered.
But no one thought it would be this insane. You see, Super Mario Party Jamboree is something we never expected in a million years. Something that we questioned if NDcube were even capable of providing.
Namely, a full-blown return to form for the series with all the amazing elements from prior games! Here’s the trailer showing the title in action:
And as you can see, it really nails the board aspect this time. You see, Super Mario Party was technically a traditional Mario Party game in spirit, with classic gameplay mechanics and board setups…
But it floundered due to a few obvious shortcomings. It had too few boards, with only 4 available in the whole game…
Plus said boards were kinda boring, with very few spaces, and a complete lack of interesting obstacles and theming.
Super Mario Party Jamboree seems to fix those issues entirely. Now we have a whopping seven boards to play around with (two remade and five new), all of which seem to be designed like those from games past. They’ve got alternate routes, interesting obstacles and gimmicks, use classic items like those from 2 and 3…
An awesome looking new board from Mario Party Jamboree
And generally do everything fans could ever want board wise. It’s great to see, and a much better showing that what we got in either of the last two games.
Which is also true of the characters. Okay, unlike the boards, the characters in Super Mario Party were incredible. We had Bowser playable for the first time in the series, and numerous other newcomers were added too, like Spike and Pom Pom.
So on a character basis, it worked well.
But Super Mario Party Jamboree looks to blow that game out of the water there too. Now not only do we have most of the characters from said game revealed off the bat, but it seems like there are even more newcomers too. Like Ninji, who’s suddenly playable again after his first playable appearance in Mario Golf: Super Rush.
Hence assuming Pom Pom and Diddy Kong are two other hidden characters again, it seems like this game will have the original Super Mario Party’s roster and then some.
Finally, we get to the mini games.
And if the series’ history is any indication, those are going to be awesome anyway. Even in NDcube’s worst titles, the mini games were the highlight of the whole affair.
So, we’ll get to see even more of them than ever, likely including a few remakes as well.
It’s all very promising to say the least, and a recipe for what could become the best Mario Party game ever made.
But then there are the new features. The ones new to Jamboree which could make things even more interesting than ever before.
Namely, the online multiplayer modes. Those look absolutely insane in this one.
Like the Koopathon, where up to 20 players can compete online! Yep, it’s a 20 player online Mario Party experience, with what seems like both unique boards and mini games to go with it. That’s an amazing addition in our book, and one that could be an absolute blast to play if done well.
So yeah, Super Mario Party Jamboree looks promising indeed. It’s got more content than any other Mario Party game in the series, seems to have been designed with the same philosophy as the older games, and mixes in just about every character and mechanic from Super Mario Party and Mario Party Superstars on top of all that.
Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype when it’s launched for Switch on October 17th 2024!
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