First Look: Super Mario Party Jamboree Offers Much More Than a Digital Board Game
Super Mario Party Jamboree is out now, bringing the latest version of Nintendo’s digital board game experience to players on Nintendo Switch.
Super Mario Party Jamboree features multiple gameplay modes for solo players and groups, with both offline and online play being available. In addition to the standard Mario Party digital board game mode, Jamboree features a Minigame Bay mode for playing the game’s 110+ mini-games without the board game experience, a Party-Planner Trek mode for completing single-player activities with a specific character, and modes like Rhythm Kitchen and Paratroopa Flight School, which offer larger mini-games in their own standalone experiences that utilize Joy-Con motion controls for gameplay. There’s even a Bowser Kaboom Squad mode that allows players to team up and defeat Bowser.
The main attraction, Mario Party, challenges players to collect as many stars as possible in a turn-based game for up to four players. There are 22 playable characters and seven game boards to choose from, with each board having a different theme and offering various tweaks to the gameplay experience. The Roll ‘em Raceway board, for example, will see players drive around the board in karts, rather than walk on foot.
Games can have as few as 10 and as many as 30 turns, or rounds, depending on the desired length. A game with 10 turns has an expected play time of 90 minutes, but this can vary wildly, depending on the outcome of each dice roll and the decisions players make on their turns. Thankfully, players can pause a game once it’s begun and come back to it later if they want to take a break.
During each turn, or round, every player will take turns rolling the die and making their way around the board. A variety of outcomes can occur after each roll, with positive, negative, and neutral possibilities all being in play. Throughout each game, players can collect and use items that can give them an advantage or mess with their opponents, such as one that will give them two dice to roll on a future turn, rather than one. Players can also come across special encounters along the path, like one that allows Boo to steal coins or a star from a rival player.
©Nintendo / Restart
At the end of each turn, the group will play a mini-game to earn coins, with some games pitting every player against one another, and others splitting the group into teams that compete against each other.
At the end of the game, the player with the most stars wins. However, the outcome shouldn’t be assumed just because the final turn is over, as bonus stars are awarded at the end of each game that can change the standings.
As players progress through the various modes in Super Mario Party Jamboree, they’ll earn currency and other rewards, like decorations for changing the look of the game’s Party Plaza hub. Currency can be spent on things like songs at the music shop, reactions that can be triggered in the middle of games, and more. These reactions allow players to communicate with their opponents using icons and short phrases like “Good game!” and “Betrayal!,” among many others.
Check out some gameplay from Super Mario Party Jamboree below to see how a few turns in the game’s Mario Party mode play out.
Disclosure: Game code provided by the publisher.