It’s almost hard to believe that Mario Party has been around for almost 25 years, and yet by this point we’ve gotten 12 console entries and 5 handheld ones (with some stragglers here and there). The original Mario Party for the Nintendo 64 was brought to us by Hudson Soft and has been destroying friendships and controllers since all the way back in 1998. The series continued its patented board game formula on the GameCube, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Wii. It was like seeing a rockstar going with hit after hit enjoying their prime.
But then said rockstar started getting addicted to controlled substances and desperately needed to go to rehab. When NDCube took over the series starting with Mario Party 9, it took a long time for things to get back on track. The 9th and 10th entries brought in the universally loved and in-no-way-controversial car mechanic, and the less said about the 3DS entries they also made the better.
But things finally *did* get back on track with the Nintendo Switch and Super Mario Party, which became the best selling and most critically acclaimed game in the series in a very long time. But although it was a huge step in the right direction, not everyone found it fulfilling. The game boards were bland, there were way fewer of them, and you couldn’t even play the core party modes online at launch. Fans were generally left thinking “that’s disappointing, oh well maybe next time.”
And it finally happened! At E3 2021 right in between the announcements of Kazuya for Smash and Metroid Dread, Nintendo and NDCube announced [Mario Party Superstars](https://youtu.be/2jEq0F656aY) for later that October. This was the true return to form that everyone has been waiting for, complete with 5 remade boards from the N64 era, 100 remastered minigames from across the series, full online play right out of the box, and a bevy of game modes and quality of life features. Reviews of the game eclipsed those of Super Mario Party, and fans and newcomers have been begging for DLC ever since. Well at least we’re getting the N64 trilogy on NSO, so that’s something right?
by Asad_Farooqui
41 Comments
Nintendo kill It with no post lounch content
imo it’s probably the best Mario Party’s been since Mario Party … I dunno, 8? I feel like that was the last decent one before the series kinda went off the rails (ironically, by literally going *on* rails). I thought Super Mario Party was a good step in the right direction, but Superstars feels like ND Cube finally has a solid handle again on what people actually want from a Mario Party game.
And yeah, I’d absolutely kill for some DLC. Obviously Superstars being a year old with no news on that front and now the N64 games coming to Switch would seem to be the final nail in the coffin for that dream, but personally I’m still not gonna *completely* give up on that just yet until we know for a fact that ND Cube is just working on a brand new Mario Party instead. I mean, hey, the Switch versions of Mario Kart and Captain Toad both got DLC pretty late, and there’s still always the Gamecube games that they could pull from instead.
This is one of those games I enjoy popping in every so often to play with my girlfriend. It’s fun. But it feels like (and I say this as someone who is FAR from an expert in Mario Party) that there could have been…more, somehow. More boards, maybe? More playable characters? I dunno. But like, it feels like a game that was begging for a some DLC, or something.
Does that make it bad? Heck no. Do I still absolutely enjoy going on Mario Party Adventures as Yoshi and Rosalina? Heck yes. Does it feel like…something is lacking? A little.
I feel like the last good Mario party was the one with the candy.
It’s great. I play with my kids. I only ever played Mario Party 1 and 2 as a kid (played them a lot). Was disappointed when I got the first one for the Switch but superstars made up for it 👍
Love it. Needs more boards though.
This is best Mario Party since 8. I agree with everyone else that it lacks boards and characters. But I think there’s more. The era of mario party from 4-7 was a golden age for the series. Each entry was packed with content and charm. The games weren’t afraid to experiment and be a bit weird. I feel like the modern mario party is too polished and the UI has the feel of an iphone instead of a game. The game feels overly safe.
I would love a fresh take on mario party with a bit of the warioware flaire. Let there be more strange and novel elements. Bring back the large labrythian boards from mario party 6-7. Try even experimenting with art style!
I hope the series gets given to a more interesting developer.
Didn’t you ask the exact same question a week ago?
I love it and I wish they’d add more content to it. Why do these half-finished Nintendo sport games get regular updates when nobody cares, but then something like Mario Party which people frequently come back to gets nothing? Not a single new map. I really am still hoping they surprise us with SOMETHING down the line.
I wish it had more content because GOD is the core game great! I honestly just can’t get enough of popping this one in whenever I have a chance. Everyone I’ve played it with has loved it.
Yeah it obviously heavily reuses content from previous titles but it’s the best Mario Party title in nearly two decades, going back to its roots and initially what made the series so beloved and successful. Changing the formula and significant parts of the gameplay for the sake of change doesn’t necessarily mean a better game. Some extra boards, characters and mini game packs will take the game from great to glorious.
That isn’t to say the others in between the Wii-Switch eras are necessarily bad though. 10 was not great and although Super was a step forward in the right direction again, the character/dice aspect was not implemented well at all and created gameplay flow issues.
It’s great. Easily the best one after years of disappointment. (Super Mario party was ok though, just all the maps were pretty bad save for the king bomb-omb one)
But eh… I have a few notes.
It feels like to me that the devs tried so many things that just didn’t work out… and they just sort of gave up, and instead of trying to make a new game using what made the old ones so great, they gave up and just remade the old ones instead.
I really wish this game had a few more maps. It feels like to me that they were going for a “compilation” game – you know, honoring the games of the past, but they didn’t go far enough, and just sticking the old sound tracks in as unlocks doesn’t cut it. Perhaps instead of trying to honor all the games, they should have stuck to the first three.
Either way, I feel like the game needed at least one more map… then you have 2-2-2 from each game, instead of this weird 2-2-1. Feels like one game is underrepresented. And also, because the games are smooshed together but had their own mechanics, it can feel a little jarring when one map has different items than another. I feel like the maps should have been tweaked or rebalanced a bit to be more consistent, but that shows I think how little confidence the devs had in their ability, or lack thereof, to change any one part.
That said, I’m happy the game came out. I can’t believe I’ve been playing MP for 25 years. I just wish that we had a few more maps, but at least 5 big ones are much better than 4 small, bad ones.
I just played with my girlfriend. It’s always a fun time!
I Play it every other day with my friends, but a dlc with more board would be nice
Content light, but overall a very tight and fun experience. Far superior to Super Mario Party.
Really good, the only thing stopping it from being truly great is only 5 boards (to be fair, Mario Party DS also had 5 but this is like how many years later?)
WAY better than Super Mario Party, but similar to Super Mario Party it just needs DLC, more boards and stuff.
I would say “Sadly it will never get the DLC it deserves” , but we are speaking about Nintendo here. Unreasonable stuff years later can always happen with those guys lol.
Ay i love it. I atill play a few rounds every now and then online. Just sucks that the online can be quite bad at times..
People being AFK and you just have to wait like 5 minutes for their turn to end, Random disconnects, people with bad internet will compleatly ruin all the minigames.
I really wish we would get dlc in ythis though.. More characters and boards.. But thats been said for EVERY mario party and has never happend 🙁
No joke, MPS is the best thing to happen to the series since the early 2000’s and it is definitely a Top 5 Switch game. It’s a big love letter to the N64 Mario Parties. MPS gushes with so much love and charm that it is hard not to be smiling while playing it. And it is so awesome to finally be able to play these games online with my friends from college! We would regularly have MP1 or MP2 nights, so it made me really sad when I moved away to New England and had nobody to play with (until MPS!).
I also love that the online multiplayer in MPS is completely competent and effective, rare for a Nintendo game. If we are disconnected, we can hop right back in on the next turn instead of the whole game being ended. Making a room with friends is easy!
The achievements are fun, especially the mini-game ones. And the selection of mini-games is so good that my wife and I sometimes will just play random mini-games for fun!
Some complaints would be that the boards are not the best ones from MP1, MP2, and MP3 (except Horror Land); the choice in Coin Mini-Games sucks (or maybe Coin Mini-Games are just bad in general); there is overlap in a lot of mini-games from different Mario Parties (like the beanstalk one and the Paratroopa one–too similar!); and while I love the trans rep I think Birdo was a bad choice for a character slot.
Overall, MPS is one of if not the best Mario Party game, trimming a lot of the fat while keeping what made the original three games work so well. I think I can speak for many people when I say that it is great to finally, *finally* be excited about Mario Party again. For me, until now I haven’t liked a single one since MP8; and even then, I thought MP7 and MP8 were just okay. MPS is fantastic and leaves me thoroughly entertained and hungry for more!
One of the best Mario Party’s of all time.
Wish it had a bit more to it, but I’m honestly not too upset by the amount of content we got.
My main gripe is that we didn’t get a sixth board. I mean, the series average is 6 boards per game, and we got 2 boards from MP1, 2 from MP2, but only 1 board from MP3. Feels odd they didn’t round it out to me.
I might be in the minority but I like Mario Party superstar and super mario party both!
The game is begging for dlc. Its good now but it would erupt if it got the Mario-Kart-8-Deluxe-treatment where they release segments of dlc progressively over the year, with each drop giving us 1 new board, a handful of mini games and maybe a new character to enjoy.
Bonus points if at some point we get koopas tycoon town from MP8.
It was a return to form after 9, 10, and Super.
Fun boards and mini-games, even if they’re rehashed. Super had some good concepts, but boards were too small, and everything took too long.
An additional 2 boards would have been nice and a single player mode akin to previous games.
it would be my favorite if the turns weren’t so slow. your character rolls and walks around the board so slowly compared to superstars. seems like a small complaint but makes the game take way too long
The 5 boards and small roster are definitely felt more now, but it’s still a brilliant Mario Party experience, for me it’s a main stay right up there with 1-8 + DS.
its fun but the only boards that are enjoyable are woody woods, horror land, and to an extent space land. wish they added more. my friends and i like mp3 the best and will probably just play that instead when it comes to virtual console
I haven’t played in a while tbh, but this game is really good with friends/family.
My favorite thing about this game was the unique dice for each character
They should’ve added more boards. Felt kinda repetitive playing them otherwise.
Love the idea of it though.
Its a shame its not bigger. I want more maps that have mechanics like the Train or Hotel maps on Wii mario party. The power-ups are really basic and uninspired, again the wii mario party did good on this with the candies. I think it was a good call to use previous games’ minigames and I think they should do this with each game and add in more ontop of new ones. Lastly the cast of playable characters is a bit underwhelming, mainly because the 2019 just had more. I hope we get another and that its got some more oomph behind it!
It’s fine, but Super Mario Party being a letdown hurt this game’s reputation. I bet some fans opted not to buy this one because of that.
Fun game but I wished they did more with it like more characters and boards via updates like they do with their other Mario spin offs.
They nailed everything, except that the amount of boards, there was not enough considering there aren’t even new ones. I feel like at least two more would have helped.
Desperately needs DLC.
Me and my mates have a great, but brutal drinking game to go with it, I need to write down the rules properly.
But always a good time, wish we had some new boards, may try and see if it works with 1 and 2 on N64 Switch app.
Best game in the series in years because it went back to its origins, but really needs to have more boards and mini games added
It’s good but I do not understand why Nintendo refuses to do DLC to add boards and minigames to Mario Party. They could make so much money even with a small budget.
The presence of the lucky space completely ruined the board gameplay for me. I mostly played the online minigame-only modes, after a while, which was very fun. The game needed more boards, customisation (different rules) and minigame modes were necessary in order to make the game great, in my opinion.
A very solid game and the best Mario Party in years.
But I still feel they missed a major opportunity with not making DLC for it.
👍🏼
Definitely needed DLC for this game. Hopefully that means we’ll atleast get a sequel sometime in 2023. With more customizable gameplay like 2v2 or turning off specific mini games.