A blast from the past makes Mario Party Superstars the best the series has been in years.
Do you remember the first time you bumped balls in Mario Party? Bumper balls, that is – the classic minigame from the 1998 Nintendo 64 original. For more than 20 years we’ve cursed at unlucky dice rolls, delighted in stealing stars and enjoyed madcap sessions of minigames in Nintendo’s take on the board game genre. And with Mario Party Superstars for Nintendo Switch, we’ve finally got something like a greatest hits package for the series as a whole. Taking five of the best boards from the N64 era of the series along with 100 great minigames from the N64 through Wii U eras, Nintendo has polished up some of the greatest moments from across Mario Party history and delivered a multiplayer gem, just in time for Christmas. It may not have much brand new content for those that have stuck with the series since its conception, but for everyone else. It’s the gaming equivalent of a chocolate box. For the uninitiated, Mario Party Superstars carries on in the tried and tested tradition of the series – four players join a Nintendo-themed board, and roll dice to move around it. The object is to collect coins by moving around the board and by winning the minigames that take place at the end of a turn, in order to buy more stars than your rivals and win the game. Each board has its own unique style, challenges and multiple paths to the star, with everything from a giant Cheep fish appearing to steal the stars to a giant laser beam fired by Bowser to blast away your hard-earned coins. Landing on certain spots on the board can trigger these events, change the minigames from 1v1v1v1 to 2v2 or 3v1 battles, or even summon Bowser himself to bestow some penalty on players. Its turn-based format and relatively approachable minigames make this a genuine family game. While each board and minigame has different rules to learn, all can be figured out in a few minutes, and there’s little punishment for jumping in unprepared. Games quickly become heated, and even less experienced video gamers will be surprised at how competitive and ruthless it will make them. Don’t let Mario Party Superstars kid-friendly visuals fool you – multiplayer here is cutthroat. It’s flexible too, with customizable game lengths running from roughly 30 minutes to hours long, or even quicker minigame playlists. Mario Party Superstars doesn’t really do anything new, though – this is a touched-up revisiting of some of the series’ highest points, with some quality of life improvements thrown in. Considering how relatively inaccessible some of these older games are now, that’s no bad thing, and Nintendo has done a good job of making the mixture of elements from different titles fit together in one cohesive game. Five boards are available to play through in the main game, all originating from the N64 era, and available to play from the outset in any order. Depending on how you count them, this is the lightest Mario Party game in terms of the number of playable boards. But they’re all top-tier offerings, representing the best of the series. Here’s a quick rundown of each: Yoshi’s Tropical Island: A beginners course from the first Nintendo 64 Mario Party, this beach getaway-themed board has you paying tolls to Thwomp blocks and chasing the star-carrying Toadette around the map as a Cheep fish keeps taking her away.
