Mario Party Superstars Review
Nintendo has released over a dozen installments to the Mario Party series. Some were homeruns while others flopped hard. After the poor reception Super Mario Party received Nintendo went back and looked at what was so great about the past Mario Party games. On October 29, 2021, Nintendo released Mario Party Superstars on the Nintendo Switch. This installment features boards from Mario Party 1,2, and 3 as well as minigames from all other titles to create an almost perfect party gaming experience.
In this Mario Party installment, the player can choose between ten different characters; Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Birdo, Wario, Waluigi, and Rosalina. There are five boards each with a difficulty higher than the previous one starting with Yoshi’s Tropical Island, Space Lands, Peach’s Birthday Cake, Woody Woods, and Horror Land. During Party Mode there are new and returning items to help players collect stars and prevent the others from getting one. This game has new options to save your game so you can return to it as well as adding more turns during the game. To help speed up the players' turns there is an option that allows the characters to move faster around the board. One great small feature that was added to Party Mode is that when a CPU lands on a minigame space the player does not have to watch the computer play. This may sound like nothing but in other installments the player would have to watch CPU characters play the minigame which was quite annoying.
Mario Party brings back 100 minigames that have been played in previous games. If playing the party mode is not your cup of tea Mario Party Superstars offers a minigame mode called Minigame Mountain. In this game mode you can battle computers, friends, as well as online play. This game mode gives you the option to choose your minigame or play random games. The players compete to win the most minigames and set records along the way. Many of the minigames are easy to understand because they only use two to three different buttons. The minigames are easy to pick up due to the practice mode.
Mario Party Superstars, like most games, does have some flaws with it. The big problem with this game is the shop mechanic. The player can earn coins in party mode which can be used to purchase items in the Toad Shop. These items are lack lustered and don’t offer the player much. The player can purchase stickers, music, card details, and encyclopedia entries. There are no additional characters, outfits, boards, or minigames which is a letdown. When playing the game, it feels like you have earned a lot of coins but are left with no reward.
In addition to the shop problem with this store, another problem this game has is that once you start your first game the player already has access to all the boards, characters, and minigames. There is no sense of achievement other than winning the minigame or party. Yes, beating all your friends is fun when it's happening but after it's finished there is no surprise of unlocking anything new. Hopefully DLC will be added to this game that includes characters or more boards.
Mario Party Super Stars Gameplay
Overall, Mario Party is a blast to play; it runs very smoothly, includes lots of minigames and several cool but boards, but lacks total game content. IF this game had more boards characters or unlockable in general this game would be near perfect, but I recommend Mario Party Superstars as a game to play when friends are over.
