Super Mario Party Jamboree review – the definitive entry on Nintendo Switch
Three times the charm as the Nintendo Switch's third Mario Party instalment had also turned out to be its best, packed with plenty of new modes, boards, and gameplay twists to keep everyone entertained.
There ain’t no party like a . And finally, after seven years of the and two previous entries that were good not great but for different reasons, has finally found a way to prove it on the hybrid platform thanks to the arrival of Party Jamboree. Sure enough, this latest instalment doesn’t outright evolve the way Mario Party is played or the fun-but-frustrating randomness of obtaining game-winning Stars too much, but it equally doesn’t break the classic ruleset either. Rather, Super Mario Party Jamboree is a more refined (and dare I say slightly braver) take on Mario Party formula that offers up a great selection of boards new and old, a boatload of fun mini-games, and plenty of small but appreciated twists that makes every move around the board a good way to make or break your relationship with fellow players.
A huge shakeup this time around relates to the presentation. True, nobody comes to a Mario Party hoping for a deep or enthralling narrative, but Super Mario Party Jamboree purposefully goes out of its way to give the Mushroom Kingdom’s inhabitants context for duelling it out with dice. It does so by making almost every mode of play a different resort your party of characters can visit via hot air balloon from the central Party Plaza hub, at which point you can elect to jump into traditional Mario Party, Minigame Bay’s self-explanatory contents, as well as a series Mario Party riffs and motion-based spin-off endeavours. Because yes, unlike 2021’s before it, motion controls are indeed back for Jamboree – with mostly exquisite results.
The main way they’re obviously utilised is within any one of the seven Mario Party boards themselves, allowing each individual player to land on their dice roll number by literally punching the block in the air using a Joy-Con controller. It’s a small touch, but one that a lot of players such as myself missed the last time around, as it really helps sell me on the fantasy of having some
Realistically, though, Super Mario Party Jamboree finds a good middle ground, most evidently seen from how five of the seven boards are totally fresh for this game, while two make their return from the Nintendo 64 days. The basic goal of gaining the most Stars on a board to become the winner remains, of course, but there being five new boards – all with drastically different layouts, themes, and ways events can go awry – helps always keep things interesting. My favourite of the new bunch is unequivocally Rainbow Galleria, made in the style of a shopping mall complete with a surprise flash sale at least once per game, where every item store’s contents become cheap for a pre-defined number of turns. Roll ‘Em Raceway, meanwhile, offers a handful of methods to boost the number of moves you can make, while Mega Wiggler's Tree Party sees the titular caterpillar move to literally shift the makeup of the board around.
Admittedly, returning boards Mario’s Rainbow Castle and Western Land struggle to match the creativity and invention on display from the five new boards Nintendo have made, but they’re charming enough in their own way and still benefit from the new Jamboree Buddy system that applies to all. Unlike Super Mario Party’s character-specific dice that upped your chance of landing on a certain number, Jamboree Buddies grant individual players the chance to enjoy much greater effects should they land on them when they appear. Luigi, for instance, will increase your chance to hit large numbers on the dice, whereas Wario gifts you three to eight coins at the start of every round. The catch is landing on a Jamboree Buddy isn’t enough to have them come with you, as you’ll need to beat each one’s specific set of mini-games too.
I can see a lot of people hating the Jamboree Buddy system for all the ways it adds even more randomised annoyance to an already chaotic format. However, for me personally, it’s a great method in which to inject modern Mario Party with another engaging wrinkle. Besides, having to beat each Jamboree Buddy’s set of mini-games to enjoy their benefits ensures that the player who comes out on top has had to endure a test of skill rather than luck, keeping everything fair for the most part. If you want to almost eliminate the randomised elements of Mario Party almost completely and play a more traditional game on any of the boards, new Pro rules scale these aspects back, mainly by revealing which Bonus Stars will be gifted at the game’s end ahead of time rather than keeping them a mystery.
Super Mario Party Jamboree quite literally goes for broke by way of its mini-game selection too. Featuring 112 in total this is easily the most the series has ever featured in a single game, but with that comes the inherent risk of providing quantity over quality. That’s why I’m pleased to report that, for the most part, Jamboree’s mini-game collection is as fun to play as it is eclectic, whether it involved trying to dodge around a giant, incoming log in Lumber Tumble, lifting up my Joy-Con faster than opponents in Fast Fashing, or bashing nails into a board perfectly in Hammer It Home. Most are absolute winners, with the exception of most 3-versus-1 mini-games that always tend to favour one team over another in terms of how likely one is to win. Free-for-all mini-games are well balanced perfectly fine, but others less so when the scales are suddenly tipped.
The final way Super Mario Party Jamboree packs a punch is in the avalanche of other modes available to play in the Party Plaza. Bowser Kaboom Squad is perhaps the biggest shakeup to the usual format, largely because it emphasises co-op by having up to eight players team up against an oversized Bowser. What’s called Koopathlon has its merits too, removing the importance of stars by challenging a whopping 20 players to win the most mini-games Battle Royale style. If you can’t wrestle more than four friends over a single Switch you can rest easy knowing that both modes support CPU characters as well as online play. For what it’s worth I don’t see either mode replacing standard Mario Party, but it’s good to have more unique ways to play with others alongside the motion-specific game modes like Rhythm Kitchen and Paratroopa Flight School that Nintendo has also included.
What could have been an overstuffing of gameplay styles old and new has quite literally turned out to be a jamboree of a good time for Mario’s most chaotic franchise. A few unbalanced mini-games and over-talkative tutorials aside, Super Mario Party Jamboree strikes a good balance between giving players options with how they’d like to play while also providing a good sprinkling of board game twists – most obviously through the new brilliant Jamboree Buddy system. If you’ve been previously left disillusioned by previous Mario Party games on Nintendo Switch, this is easily the best entry on the platform, guaranteed to give family and friends a fun but frenetic time.
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