They’re more charming than they have any right to be and will make communicating online easier for those without access to a headset. A flick of the right stick lets you scroll through the character-themed stickers, from a Bowser ‘Bwahaha!’ to a Birdo wink, along with an accompanying sound effect. Perhaps the most surprisingly fun new feature is the inclusion of emote-like stickers that can be sent at any point during the board game portion of Mario Party Superstars. The boards and minigames themselves may not be new, but there’s some new additions beyond the core game all the same. But Nintendo’s underlying archaic approach to connecting friends makes online play more clunky than we’d expect in this day and age. It’s a much-needed and requested feature. For those that like to indulge themselves with a longer Mario Party session, Superstars finally lets online games be saved if you need to take a break mid-game. It levels the playing field a bit and is much appreciated.Īs you’d expect from a modern Mario Party game, there’s also online play for up to four players. A smaller picture-in-picture version of a minigame fires up before the main event, letting you get some practice in before it truly counts. Those that always felt like they were playing catch up during a game with Mario Party veterans will appreciate the inclusion of a preview play mode before each minigame too. These are the boards as they existed in your head, and when compared to the blurry reality of the N64 originals, they’ve been polished up a treat.
Modern conveniencesĮach minigame and course has been given a fresh lick of paint to bring them up to the standard we’d expect from a modern Switch title, and Nintendo’s toy-like art style does them proud. This unlocks some stickers (more on these later) and lore cards, as well as customization options for your online profile, but not much else to justify a huge grind of investment from a player. While you can play against the computer, your main motivation to do so is to earn post-game coins for spending in an in-game store. Note that there’s no traditional single-player campaign mode here. Each lasts just a few minutes, and while the quality inevitably varies, it’s Nintendo magic throughout – inventive challenges that can’t help but bring a smile. There are some all-time classics back here, from Bumper Balls to the palm-blistering Tug o’ War. The minigame offering is even more varied, taking in 100 minigames from all Mario Party eras right up to the Wii U – though the N64 and GameCube games make up the bulk of the minigame library here. Woody Woods: A Mario Party 3 addition here, Woody Woods has plenty of space for exploration around its board, but includes a selection of Monty Moles that pop up to change your direction of travel, and trees that can bestow the odd bonus to you. It’s adapted a little from the original though to include more player choice on the pathing they take around the otherwise circular board.
Peach’s Birthday Cake: Another OG board, and one for the sweet-toothed. Yoshi’s Tropical Island: A beginners course from the first Nintendo 64 Mario Party, this beach getaway-themed board has you paying tolls to Thwomp blocks and chasing the star-carrying Toadette around the map as a Cheep Cheep fish keeps taking her away. But they’re all top-tier offerings, representing the best of the series. Depending on how you count them, this is the lightest Mario Party game in terms of the number of playable boards. Considering how relatively inaccessible some of these older games are now, that’s no bad thing, and Nintendo has done a good job of making the mixture of elements from different titles fit together in one cohesive game.įive boards are available to play through in the main game, all originating from the N64 era, and available to play from the outset in any order. Mario Party Superstars doesn’t really do anything new, though – this is a touched-up revisiting of some of the series' highest points, with some quality of life improvements thrown in. It’s flexible too, with customizable game lengths running from roughly 30 minutes to hours long, or even quicker minigame playlists. Don’t let Mario Party Superstars kid-friendly visuals fool you – multiplayer here is cutthroat. Games quickly become heated, and even less experienced video gamers will be surprised at how competitive and ruthless it will make them. While each board and minigame has different rules to learn, all can be figured out in a few minutes, and there’s little punishment for jumping in unprepared. Its turn-based format and relatively approachable minigames make this a genuine family game.