Mario Party often evokes a range of emotions. Some who grew up with this particular brand of star-grabbing, mini-game fueled mayhem love the randomness and friction – the feeling that a comical series of mistakes can send you from first to last place or vice versa at any moment. Others find it maddening. If a party could win some hearts, I guess Super Mario Party Jamboree might have a chance.
Super Mario Party Jamboree arrives as the third series entry on the Switch. The first, Super Mario partywas innovative but divisive, and its sequel, Mario Party Superstarswas nostalgic, but felt a bit safe, with an emphasis on the basic elements of boards and mini-games. The legacy of these two predecessors is palpable in the third: Super Mario Party Jamboree it feels like it has learned the good and the bad from both Super And Superstars.
In his board game, Super Mario Party Jamboree keeps the core Mario Party mechanics focused. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving around the board, and each turn is interrupted by a mini-game. Get the most stars and you win. Although each match starts slowly, it gradually escalates as more items and events enter the mix, resulting in surprise, chaos and sometimes huge swings in the race for the top.
There’s a wide range of characters, from Mario staples to crazy little guys like Spike, Ninji and my personal favorite, Monty Mole. There are seven boards, with five new layouts and two returning boards in Mario’s Rainbow Castle and Western Land. They’re all pretty solid, with some really great individual board mechanics.
For example, Roll ‘Em Raceway is a race track with a fantastic lap mechanism and some really fun Turbo Dices that make racing for the Bonus Star with the most spaces very competitive. Goomba Lagoon was a surprise hit in local multiplayer; the rising and falling tides can create secluded pockets on the board, forcing players to use more movement items like Pipes and Warp Blocks if they don’t want to be left stranded. And in terms of classics, Western Land is still as good as I remember from my N64 days. Not all of them are bangers, but the board quality is generally above average.
A welcome revision is how Jamboree revises the ally system of Super Mario party. Now if any Mario character falls on the board as a potential helper, all you have to do is pass it on, just like a star. Once you do, a mini-game begins to gain their loyalty, with the passing player getting a slight advantage for getting there first.
These particular mini-games are a highlight of that Super Mario Party Jamboree. Fast-paced puzzle rooms to rescue Luigi from a creepy mansion or playing Waluigi’s predictably over-the-top, self-aggrandizing pinball game are great against computers and friends alike. Others are just a few normal mini-games strung together, but a fun activity nonetheless for an ultimately huge reward.
Jamboree Buddies are powerful Super Mario Party Jamboree and can radically change the balance of the game. Having an ally gives you their passive ability, doubling everything; two rewards from fields, buying two items in the shop, and even the chance to get two stars from a spot instead of one. The friends are also extremely fickle, causing you to run past the second for one passing player. It’s not strange to gain an ally and then immediately see it stolen by a passing player.
Especially thanks to the double star mechanism, your chances of winning can increase drastically Super Mario Party Jamboree. Comeback mechanics exist, whether it’s items or just letting a Boo steal some coins or a star, but I’ve had a few games where players took a lead very early and held it until the end .
However, there are some ways to mitigate the randomness. The new Pro Rules option eliminates most of the randomness and limits Mario Party to something that, dare I say, feels strategic. Items have a limited supply in the stores, players vote on mini-games, and random odds slots only offer specific options that you choose, to name a few. Heck, even the Boo that steals coins only takes a set amount, instead of provoking a battle between the ghost and the chosen player.
It’s an interesting take on Mario Party, although I felt the Pro rules were more of a novelty than something I would fully use all the time. While controlling the chaos is interesting in its own way, and I liked some of the settings enough to move them into my regular Mario Party setup (voting for mini-games is a lot of fun), I just love classic chaos too much.
What’s actually surprising about it? Jamboree is how much it offers beyond motherboards. There are a few different defined minigame options, be it the classic Minigame Bay or other, sometimes strange side activities, given their own custom-made party island in the rotunda. Toad’s Item Factory is a fun little puzzle collection where players move their Joy-Cons to operate machines and ultimately build the items they can purchase on a Mario Party board. Playing in a group can be fun, but take it from me: soloing this whole section is like stroking your head and rubbing your belly after a while.
Paratroopa Flight School feels completely torn from another game, allowing players to hold their Joy-Cons perpendicularly out of their bodies and turn the Mario brothers into Daedalus and Icarus, flying around in competitive or cooperative modes. It’s fun, but the novelty wore off quickly. Maybe not bad as an alternative arm training Ring fit people anyway. And Rhythm Kitchen puts a cooking competition spin on beat-driven parties, where you have to spin flapjacks and spicy sauces to the beat. Most of these feel a bit bizarre for a Mario Party game, almost like a hand-me-down 1-2 switch concepts, but they are fun gimmicks for groups that don’t want to compete with each other.
Into the meatier side options Super Mario Party Jamboree are the Koopathlon and Bowser Kaboom Squad. In the first case, up to twenty players race around a course, completing quick mini-games to progress. It’s really hectic at times, and it’s been great. I could see this being a better option for someone who wants a quick online battle, rather than a full board run.
Bowser Kaboom Squad, meanwhile, has players working together to feed bombs into a cannon and take down a rampaging impostor Bowser. More co-op options are always welcome, and dodging the angry Bowser as he rained fire and stomped around was insanely fun. I could see this working well for parties where people don’t want to worry about winning or losing, and just want to work together to take down Bowser – a cooperative feeling that Mario Party doesn’t always evoke.
Take on a decent, albeit short, solo tour of the new game boards in the single-player Party Planner mode, and Super Mario Party Jamboree is filled to the brim with things to do. Previous Mario Party games sometimes felt pulled between two ideas: playing the hits that made Mario Party the chaotic, exciting party game that it was, and doing something new with a decades-old concept. Jamboreethrough both the quality and quantity of the offering, it has managed to do both.
There is one lot to do, but that doesn’t mean it will take particularly long to see everything. Many of these side games and solo modes can be completed in a few hours. It rather feels that way Jamboree want to make sure that no matter what kind of party you bring it to, you’re sure to find something here that people will want to play. Compete with a standard Mario Party board, or just mess around with some fun mini-games in the bay. Slice up some veggies to get everyone moving and laughing, or take down Bowser in a cooperative PvE effort.
The extensive number of boards and modes, and the solid selection of characters, are probably enough to make Super Mario Party Jamboree one of the better options to play these chaotic board games on the Switch. And nothing really gets lost in the pile. Some modes may feel a little thin after half a dozen hours, but they’ll still be a lot of fun to complete every now and then for new players. Jamboree is something I’ll probably leave on my Switch for a while so I always have it at hand.
If this is the last big celebration for the Nintendo Switch, then this is a fitting farewell. Super Mario Party Jamboree has plenty of ways to keep the party going, as long as the Switch still shows up at parties.
Super Mario Party Jamboree was released on October 17 on the Nintendo Switch. The game was reviewed on the Nintendo Switch using a pre-release download code from Nintendo. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links. Additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.