Mario Party Superstars - Review
Mario has been throwing parties for two decades now. After stagnating following a few gatherings that were just a little too similar to each other, he began attempting to reinvigorate his shindigs with an increasing assortment of gimmicks to varying success, but in the process lost sight of what made each hootenanny fun in the first place. Thankfully he’s seen the light and returned to his roots, throwing a nostalgic party for the ages that celebrates the best of all that has come before.
Mario Party Superstars is a greatest-hits collection of boards and minigames spanning the entire series and marks a return to the core mechanics that made the early entries such beloved classics. This back-to-basics approach ditches the much-derided party car, character-specific dice blocks, motion controls and a host of other more modern Mario Party flavourings. What we’re left with is a joyful reminder of the simpler times, doing exactly what this series does best – old fashioned, chaotic fun, to be enjoyed gathered around the TV or with friends online.
If you’ve never attended one of Mario’s parties, the premise is simple. Players roll a ten-sided die and navigate around a life-size board game board. Along the way, you’ll collect coins that can buy you power stars, with the player sporting the most stars at the end of the game being crowned the victor. Each round is capped off with a minigame where you’ll fight either form teams or fight free-for-all to win some extra coins. It’s a simple formula filled with plenty of fun twists and turns along the way.
Mario Party Superstars brings back five fan favourite boards from the first three Mario Party games on the Nintendo 64. They may be relatively safe choices compared to some of the more extravagant boards seen in later games, but they’re all excellent, nonetheless. From the colourful Yoshi’s Tropical Island to the saccharine Peach’s Birthday Cake and the eery Horror Land, each level oozes charm and personality. Everything that has been brought back has been lovingly reimagined with vibrant facelifts that look spectacular (particularly if you’ve nabbed a fancy new OLED Switch), and the new musical arrangements of all the board’s classic tunes are of equally high quality. There isn’t a ton in the way of unique gameplay elements to each one outside of some novel occurrences that move you around the board in certain ways. What’s here is fun, but even just one more inventive board with a bit more variation would have gone a long way to fleshing out the package.
The star of any Mario Party though is undoubtedly the minigames, and Superstars does not disappoint. Spanning the history of the series, this party has a selection of 100 minigames from all ten numbered entries. Some real gems from the past have made the cut, such as Crazy Cutters, Slot-Car Derby, Hot Rope Jump, and even notorious controller and palm destroying games like Mecha Marathon and Tug o’ War. It’s an impressive line-up with nary a dud entry among them. You can also visit Mt. Minigames to play them at any time, and even compete for high scores locally or online. In my testing I suffered the occasional slowdown when playing online, which is fine for some games but posed some issues for others that required precision timing, however, your experience may vary.
It makes for one of the most well-rounded collections we’ve had, and it’s all interspersed with the perfect number of random elements that makes these games (in)famous. Everything is still impacted by the roll of the dice and falling one space short of a star only for your opponent to then use an item and move it to the other side of the board is the kind of chaos on which the game thrives. Other chaos spaces like the Bowser spaces or Chance Time can turn the tide of a match in the blink of an eye. There’s always a chance that being forced to surrender all your hard-earned stars to the player coming dead last may frustrate some, but if you’re going to have a good time with this game you need to learn to accept the chaos and roll with the punches.
If there’s one area where the game falls somewhat short it’s on the extra goodies, of which there is almost none. There are a handful of items you can purchase from Toad’s Shop, such as card designs you display online, encyclopedia entries in case you somehow don’t know who Waluigi is, and extra music tracks to listen to at your leisure. More importantly, you can buy new stickers that you can rapidly spam while it’s not your turn in the main game, much to the delight of your friends. Unfortunately, there’s no other unlockable characters, minigames, boards or modes to speak of, with only some mostly pointless achievements to work towards unlocking. It’s far from a deal-breaker, but a little extra something to work towards would have provided some bonus incentive to keep coming back.
Mario Party Superstars is a thoroughly entertaining collection of some of the best pieces from the series’ history. From the stunning boards to the excellent assortment of minigames, it’s a return to basics and a return to form for Mario’s party antics and is the most fun I’ve had with the series in years. Gather a group of friends for a game and you’ll be hard-pressed not to have a rambunctiously good time. Just be prepared for the roll of the die to giveth, and the roll of the dice to taketh away.
The Score
8.0
Review code provided by Nintendo
The Pros
+Mario Party at its purest and best
+Great selection of minigames
+A chaotically great time with friends
The Cons
-Could have used one or two more boards
-Little in the way of unlockables or frills
-Online lag can make some minigames challenging
