Mario Party Superstars Review

November 5, 2021

Mario Party Superstars is the second compilation Mario Party game after 2017’s Mario Party: The Top 100 on Nintendo 3DS, bringing 100 nostalgic minigames from the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube to the new era of gaming on the Nintendo Switch. Get your board-game on as we take a look at everything Mario Party Superstars has to offer and let you know whether it’s a dicey investment or if it’s a star that deserves your coins.

Mario Party Superstars

The first huge change to the 100 N64 and GameCube minigames is an option given to you as soon as you load up Mario Party Superstars – Online Play. Local play between multiple Nintendo Switch devices is also available, as well as the traditional offline play on the single Switch. Given the simplicity of the minigames, we found there was no disadvantage playing with a single joy-con versus any other variety of Switch controllers, including the Pro, though online gameplay did prove to be very competitive at times.

Jumping into the game, Mario Party Superstars has no menu and instead brings back the little riverbank hamlet called Mushroom Village from the original Mario Party to lay everything out where each mode is represented by a structure. On the left of the village is Toad’s Shop where you can spend your hard earned coins on stickers, card designs, encyclopedia content and music from every previous Mario Party game. As you play through the different modes of the game, your profile gradually levels up and unlocks more items to purchase in Toad’s Shop, so it’s a good idea to pop back in there every now and then. Next up is the Friend House where you can meet up with your Nintendo Friends to play together, which helps to simplify the online experience.

In the middle Mushroom Village is the main Mario Party mode which is represented by a green warp pipe taking you back to the N64 and GameCube era with remastered gameplay and graphics. Koopa Troopa helps set up your game as you warp through the pipe to your game board of choice, with your first choice being to choose from ten iconic Nintendo characters including Mario, Luigi, Peach, Donkey Kong, Yoshi and yes… Waluigi! If you’re playing with AI then you next choose their difficulty settings before choosing from five game boards from Mario Party 1, 2 & 3 which also range in difficulty. Finally before beginning the game, you get to choose how many turns the game will have, whether you want the bonus stars at the end for things like most coins, most Bowser visits, most wins, etc. and also whether you want minigame assists and handicaps on which is great if you’re playing with young children or newcomers. Then Koopa Troopa lets you choose from different minigame packs where you can decide if you want every minigame available, or purely just the N64 or GameCube minigames, or if you want the most skillful or action oriented ones, or if you want family friendly games.

Once you’ve set up the game, it’s time to get into the action. If you’re unfamiliar with Mario Party then it’s not very hard to learn. You roll a dice when it’s your turn and move around the board landing on green, red or blue spaces, each providing varying results. The main aim of the game is to collect coins by landing on good spaces, winning minigames, or taking them off your opponents, but to win Mario Party and become the Super Star, you must collect the most stars. This follows the same format as it always has, and experienced players will work towards securing the bonus stars at the end of the game if they want to have a chance of winning.

Mario Party has always been about having fun on the couch with your friends and family, and Mario Party Superstars does a great job of presenting this. The Mario Party games of the N64 and GameCube generation were some of the best, so having them available on the Nintendo Switch with all the modern day luxuries of fast loading, quick resume, high resolution and detailed animations makes Mario Party Superstars possibly the best game of the franchise.

Coming back to Mushroom Village, the next option is Mt. Minigames where you can pick and choose from the 100 minigames and just have fun without the stress of collecting stars and getting ripped off by Bowser. This is a great place to start if you want to practice some of the games before jumping into a full board-game session, but that said, most of the minigames in Mario Party Superstars (as with all Mario Party games) aren’t exactly complex and often require more luck than skill. The Mt. Minigames mode is also a great way to recall how many times you’ve played certain minigames, as well as make sure you’ve checked out everything that F has to offer. You can also create your own favourites list, and practice some of the more competitive ones such as the duels and 1v3 minigames.

One thing that still bugs us with Mario Party games is that there has to be four players at all times in the board game mode. It would be great if Nintendo could expand on this to allow you to remove the AI or if you’re having a larger party then be able to play with five, six, seven or even eight players. Having to wait for each of the AI to have their turns every round and then even watching them duel each other is definitely the most boring part of the game, and it would be great if Nintendo changed this in future Mario Party titles or at least toyed with the idea.

Finally, there’s an Options House where you can adjust various aspects of the game (the most important perhaps being to speed up the AI on the board) and a Data House where you can view your achievements earned as well as all other information about the game such as your favourite board, your level, and other profile details. Mario Party Superstars has quite a few hidden things to unlock as well, so it’s worth checking out different nooks of the game and keeping an eye out for characters wandering through Mushroom Village.

Mario Party Superstars’ most amazing feature is probably its visuals. We all have nostalgic memories of what the games looked like on Nintendo 64 and GameCube but until you actually go back and see what those games look like, you can’t fully appreciate just how much work has gone into re-creating the 100 minigames included in this title. Mushroom Village looks great, each of the game boards look fantastic with Peach’s Birthday Cake being our personal favourite, while the character model quality is on par with Super Mario Odyssey and the other main first-party Nintendo Switch games. Take a look at this graphics comparison by YouTube channel GameXplain:

 

Mario Party Superstars is one of the most nostalgic remakes we’ve played in this generation. The combination of two generations of console gaming brought to the Nintendo Switch has meant we can enjoy all our favourite games of times past with the younger generation of players. The luck vs skill gameplay plays a large role in every game, meaning it won’t be unheard of that your five-year-old will kick your butt in a couch co-op session. Nintendo has hit the nail on the head with Mario Party Superstars, and we expect it to be a hot item under the christmas tree in 2021.

Rocket Chainsaw reviewed Mario Party Superstars on Nintendo Switch with review provided by the publisher. For more information, head to the official website.

Positives:

- Some of the best couch co-op and multiplayer in general on the Switch
- 100 of the best Mario Party mini-games bundled in one and now online!
- The perfect 2021 christmas present for any Switch owner.

Negatives:

- Still no option to reduce or increase the amount of players
- Limited amount of unlockable characters.

Overall Score: