Super Mario Party Jamboree Review: A Real Hootenanny

Super Mario Party Jamboree

Recommended

Platform reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Pros

• A great and broad selection of boards
• Entertaining motion and standard minigames
• Myriad ways to mess with friends
• Improvements for solo and online players

Cons

• Jamboree buddies feel too powerful
• Core minigame pool could be larger
• Some bonus games aren’t great

ESRB Age Rating: Everyone
ESRB Content Descriptors: Mild Fantasy Violence

It’s a wonder anyone turns up to Mario’s get togethers. You’re liable to be bludgeoned, bullied, and robbed blind – usually by your friends. But as Super Mario Party Jamboree ably demonstrates, they come because the red-capped plumber’s celebrations remain a rollicking good time. And with so much luck involved, there’s every chance you’ll be the one doing the stomping.

In my first game of Super Mario Party Jamboree, I was thoroughly outclassed. Left languishing on a solitary star while everyone else had two. Then, at the end of it all, the game awarded me two arbitrary bonus stars and declared me the winner. This is Mario Party in a nutshell. A lawless playground in which fair play and competition are crushed by a Thwomp upon entry. You either accept it or sink ever further into despair.

By now, the series’ guise as a legitimate digital board game has long since slipped. Yes, you still roll dice to trundle around a board, completing mini-games in an effort to earn coins and buy as many stars as you can. But all of that is a front. The real goal of Mario Party is to find as many ways as possible to leave those sitting with you around the TV howling in rage – and Super Mario Party Jamboree is more than happy to act as your arms dealer.

Take Star Traps, for example. A new item addition, they can be slapped down such that anyone who lands on one is forced to hand over a star to the placer. The odds of stopping on that specific space are extremely low. But the stark fear they induce whenever it’s time to roll past them is worth the price of purchase alone. Alongside Boos, Wiggler Bells, Chomp Calls, Dueling Gloves, Chance Spaces, and more, they jam Jamboree with a feast of fiendish ways to tilt your friends. Even the introduction of a pro rules set to trim some extraneous elements (including my precious bonus stars) can only go so far in mitigating Lady Luck’s dominion over your rise or downfall.

Board bliss

Super Mario Party Jamboree’s greatest strength is its board selection. The generous total of seven features a mix of new and old, and each one is a uniquely different delight. The debutants are the fitting stars of the show. Mega Wiggler’s Tree Party is an ideal starter board. Its simple layout is easy to learn, but there’s an entertaining addition of a central shortcut that can be shifted by event spaces or items.

In contrast, Rainbow Galleria is a dazzling and convoluted shopping mall. Though initially bamboozling, it comes crammed with thematic extras like a stamp collection game, a raffle based on how many items you purchase, and flash sales that reduces the cost of all goods – even stars – for a single turn.

My favorite theme by far arrives in Roll’em Raceway. Here, the course is set up like a Formula 1 racetrack, complete with a pit lane. You tear around it in cars, and the item selection is revved up with speed-boosters to get you going. It’s a more direct course than most, but the sound effects and visuals are an absolute treat. In classic Mario Party style, several of the later boards aren’t unlocked from the start. Earning them requires progressing through a rewards track by earning achievements. These can be picked up through normal play but are also expedited by trying out other modes.

You’re better with a buddy

One of Jamboree’s biggest shakeups is the addition of the titular Jamboree buddy. Intermittently throughout a game, one character not present in the current match is balloon-dropped onto a space of the board. If someone passes them within three turns, everyone gets to compete to earn them as an ally.

There’s some great thinking behind this inclusion. The Jamboree buddy offers an alternative to aim for instead of always hounding after the current star. Each also comes with their own unique power and mini-game challenge required to earn them as a Jamboree Buddy. Some are better than others, but it’s a great way to bring a different spin to repeated games on the same board. It’s also amusing how fickle these allies are. Even if you earn a buddy, any player that passes you on the board will take them immediately. Thanks for winning that game, Luigi, but I’ll be off with my girl Daisy now!

Jamboree Buddies are also broken. Hilariously so. With one by your side, the rewards from any space you land on are doubled. So too are your opportunities to purchase items and take part in some board events. More importantly, having a Jamboree Buddy allows you to buy two stars in a single turn. Or, more brutally, steal two should you have enough coins when passing by a Boo. Secure one in the latter stage of a game, and you’re likely to rocket well out of reach of the competition. Love Mario Party’s inherent unfair nature? You’ll probably dig the Jamboree buddies too. But if you’ve a more competitive sensibility, they may prove party crashers.

Solo and online adaptation

With Super Mario Party Jamboree, it feels like Nintendo has made a concerted effort to offer a slightly better experience for solo and online players. Matches with bots rumble on at a decent pace thanks to CPU-only mini-games and events being skipped. There’s also a dedicated single-player mode in Party Planner Trek. This sees you setting up the boards for the main Mario Party mode. Beyond a handful of boss stages, it largely boils down to hopping around the level, chatting to characters, and completing simple mini-games against CPUs.

It’s far from special, but there’s an engaging charm to the writing. When I played as Bowser, his minions regularly commented on how excited they were to meet their King. One adorably exclaimed: “Just wait until everyone hears who helped me!” Progressing in Party Planner Trek also unlocks decorations with which to adorn the opening Party Plaza environment.

Taking matches online has also been made straightforward, with minimal need to return to the main menu or reset proceedings before jumping into a game. That said, it’s still difficult to recommend Mario Party to anyone without a group of equally mini-game-mad friends nearby. The raucous nature of same-room matches isn’t quite replicated when playing online, and the randomness can quickly turn to frustration when competing with unknown players from across the globe.

The biggest online draw is likely to be the new Koopathlon mode. Clearly inspired by the success of games like F-Zero 99, this sees 20 players competing in a cycling series of three mini-games. Earning coins in a game moves you around a race course in real time. The aim is to complete three laps before anyone else. After each set of three games, everyone is thrust into a Bowser survival round. Lose there and you’ll be shunted back a large number of places. It’s an amusing and frantic addition with some great games included, but not likely to entertain for hours at a time.

Extra helpings

Much like 2018’s Super Mario Party, Jamboree comes with a selection of additional modes to fill your time. Rhythm-based motion games return, this time under the guise of preparing food for three Yoshi chefs in Rhythm Kitchen. Toad’s Item Factory brings a second co-operative serving, demanding you each shift elements of a 2D course in an attempt to carry a ball to an end zone.

There’s also the bizarre and exhausting Paratrooper’s Flight School. Holding Joy-Cons out to your sides, you flap your arms to collect creatures or ferry characters around sky islands. Finally, Bowser Kaboom Squad is an elongated co-op game in which a group of players scamper around an arena, avoiding a large, stomping Bowser and collecting bombs with which to take him down.

It’s an odd mix of games, most of which feel like ideas Nintendo employees whipped up but didn’t have the interest in developing into a full package. Rhythm Kitchen and Toad’s Item Factory are by far the best of the bunch, and it’s great to see Nintendo eagerly experimenting with quirky ideas. But when Jamboree features such a great group of boards in the core mode, I’d happily trade all of these extras for a wider pool of core mini-games.

Join the party

Thanks to a stellar selection of boards and a mix of both motion and traditional mini-games, Super Mario Party Jamboree stands as the best of the series’ three Switch outings. The mini-game pool can feel a touch repetitive with extended play, and not all of the extra offerings feel worth their space. But Jamboree is a brilliant excuse to gather a group of friends for a delightfully chaotic showdown. Provided you don’t particularly mind who the game decides to chuck out on top, you’re guaranteed to have a good time.

Super Mario Party Jamboree

Release Date: October 17, 2024

• Nintendo SwitchBuy