I’m not go deep into the history of the console Mario Party games since that’s been done a million times before. First it was good and then it was weird and then it was bad and now it’s good again. But Super Mario Party marked a turning point for the Mario Party series.
After half a decade of weird to bad games, [Super Mario Party](https://youtu.be/by_XTria-mQ?feature=shared) was a breath of fresh air for the series; it returned the franchise to the classic “everyone moves on their own” board gameplay style of the first eight home console entries. It was also a shockingly good demonstration of the Joy Con’s unique features, including haptics, HD rumble, and 1-to-1 motion controls for each of the minigames. The presentation was also lovely, with brand new renders for all of the characters and real peppy hub world music to get you hyped for a party. I know I had a fun time whenever this game showed up at friend’s houses, and I’m sure that families around the world enjoyed it as well. It became one of the Switch’s top 10 best selling games of all time and still remains in that bracket today.
But the game was marred by several key issues. First was that you were forced to use Joy Cons for the entire game; no other controllers were supported, making the game literally unplayable on the Switch Lite without shelling out for more controllers. Second was the board selection; you get only four boards and all of them were grid-based, making them all bland and flavorless. Third and most disappointing was the online multiplayer; you could only play a selection of 10 minigames with people online and that was it. You couldn’t play the main board game modes online at launch, which I’m pretty sure killed the game in many people’s eyes. What’s even worse was that this was the first Nintendo published game to release after Nintendo made their online into a paid service, and let’s just say it wasn’t the greatest ambassador in that regard.
We thought this game was gonna get copious amounts of free updates like Mario Tennis Aces and Kirby Star Allies. But nope. Nothing at all. The board game modes [finally did get proper online play](https://youtu.be/o22mjNmuuJc?feature=shared) in early 2021, but by that time everyone was looking ahead towards a sequel. And when that sequel finally did come around later that same year, nobody paid attention to Super Mario Party anymore. And nowadays it just sits in that pile of weird Nintendo published Switch games alongside Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and Yoshi’s Crafted World, ones that nobody care about that still cost $60 dollars to this day.
by Asad_Farooqui
28 Comments
massive disappointment. it was literally fun for the first 2 or 3 games, not enough to even enjoy playing through all the maps, of which there aren’t enough. stagnant star spawns are bad, minigames weren’t anything special, but i liked the idea of the character-specific dice, i just wish they weren’t so prevalent, some are WAY better than others
The whole point of Mario party is that it’s repeatable and you can play the game multiple times, with multiple friends, and it doesn’t get old. Playing super Mario party got old during my first game.
Isn’t superstars the better game?
Superstars is way better. I will never touch this game again because of it. The balance is broken, only 4 maps none of which are particularly good, mediocre mini-games. Just lifeless.
It did so so so so much right. But it needed more boards. More boards and the ability to customize how much stars cost – they’re too easy to purchase
Superstars is the better game but I still find enjoyment playing it from time to time. I enjoy a lot of the mini games and the characters in the game. Is it the best party game? No, but it’s far from the worst one.
I’m surprised no one is bringing up the other modes. When I’d hang out with my friends, we’d play the music mode and water mode frequently.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the main draw for the devs over the actual board game aspect.
I still really enjoy SMP. I probably play it more that Superstars. I really like the two player on the grid boards tbh, I just wish Nintendo had updated the game with more boards. But I like the choice of characters and love having allies.
I can’t believe no one is mentioning how sloooww the game is.
I thought it was a terrible game and superstars while literally is just a remake is far superior to super Mario party.
Mind you, it’s the first Mario Party I ever bought and I kinda like it still – mind you we don’t play it too often. And I probably enjoy the “tactical” Team-Mode more then the normal board game.
But realistically the game desperately needs more content (apart from some grinding to unlock the additional characters it’s short) – like double the amount of boards. I think it’s quite a ripoff they released Superstars during the same console generation instead of just selling those boards as a DLC…
It wasn’t as good as it should of been, but I can’t like and say I didn’t spend countless hours playing this with my friend throughout college. Mario party was our shit we’d just get high and play team mode and devastate CPUs
Bought it at launch and only played it twice. Extremely disappointed.
The fact that there was only 4 boards included was a deplorable joke. There’s just simply not enough content. The other modes aren’t fun enough to justify the board shortage.
if i had friends i’d def play it
Needed more maps, but do love the game. The beat mode and river modes are also really fun
its fun but its way too slow
Superstars is way better.
Stars for ten coins is absolutely fucking nonsense and ruined the game economy. Coins didn’t matter and golden pipes were easy to get. It was basically candy land
Great alternative multiplayer modes, great roster, character dice are cool but some are busted, too few maps and the maps that exist are pretty lame. Overall it was pretty good
Good return to form, but mini games are more appropriate to kids/newcomers due to a focus on motion controls. It’s fun, but really easy. Mario Party Superstars is even better, especially for OG MP fans as the mini games are button prompts. Just wish it came with more boards.
i really liked it and played the shit out of it but it didnt have enough boards. 4 boards is anemic for a mario party game. games were also completely random and much more luck based, moreso than usual for a mario party game.
i also wish there was some form of DLC for additional mini games and more rhythm games. the rhythm game mode was a lot of fun and couldve used more games.
Felt kinda like a slap in the face when they released the next one knowing damn well it should have all been one game. We just need Mario Party Ultimate with all the games in one.
Joy cons being the only supported controller killed it for me because most of the mini games use buttons and using the joycons on their sides is uncomfortable without a grip
Honestly loved it at first, and then I got bored VERY quickly — I was SO over them explaining in a text box EVERY interaction or rule you’ve seen 50 times already.
Nintendo has this problem with nearly all of its first party games, with all the dialog taking forever and other unskippable elements. I couldn’t play Animal Crossing at a certain point because you’d dig something up and then you would spend 30 seconds with the text box of the same joke you’ve seen 3000 times. The Zelda games had serious problems with this — the unskippable shrine animations and the explanations of where your equipment went, what you’re supposed to do in the shrines, “your equipment has been returned.”
I can read fast, I want a fast mode in all of my games, I want to be able to skip repetitive noises. I’m old, my free time is way more valuable and difficult to find than when I was a kid, I don’t care about the thing that I’ve already seen three times, I got it.
Nintendo has the opportunity to go full ‘Mario Kart 8’ with this franchise and for whatever reason, they absolutely refuse.
Imagine how many copies of Super Mario Party would sell if it continuously got new characters, new maps (even old maps), and new mini-games.
Love the game but its too short.
So is Super Mario Party Superstars. Which should have been DLC for this game.
This and the sqequel need some serious DLC, perhaps combine them into a definitive edition and add like 8 boards from previous games
No.. it can’t be 5 years old. It just can’t.
it blows my mind that Nintendo doesn’t add more boards to these games in waves