Mario Party Superstars – Review
The Mario Party series has been actively ruining friendships since 1998 when it was first released on the Nintendo 64. These games became iconic, not only because of the fun minigames, and the super unfair RNG, but also because of the many broken N64 controllers and children who got actual blisters on the palms of their hands from having to rotate the controller’s stick as fast as they could to beat some of the minigames. The franchise has evolved over the years, where new boards, mechanics, characters and items were introduced. The most original ones in this aspect were Mario Party 9, where every player moved across the board together, but also Mario Party 10, where players could play as Bowser versus their friends. The recently released Super Mario Party received a lot of positive reviews thanks to its meaty content and newly polished mechanics. Nonetheless, many fans were hoping to see a few classic boards being revived, including many of the fan-favorite minigames that have been released over the years. This brings us to Mario Party Superstars, which allows us to play some of the old-school boards we saw in Mario Party 1, 2 & 3, and many minigames from Mario Party 1 up to 10.
Story
Even though the game gives you a fun little introduction, including the explanation of each game board, there isn’t any overarching plot to be found here. Everything just has a nice theme going for it, and that’s more than enough. You’ll have the option to listen to some of the rules and that’s basically it. Games such as this don’t really require a story, as it’s all about the party gameplay.
Graphics
As this release could easily be called a collection of 10 installments of the Mario Party series, these familiar boards and minigames have never looked this good. Each minigame has been properly remastered to match the quality of other Nintendo Switch titles, and even the boards have received a well-deserved new lick of paint. The game is very colorful and we did enjoy seeing the spruced-up versions of the boards and minigames. We do have to mention that the character models felt a bit more wooden than those in Super Mario Party, and we couldn’t help but wonder if the developers used the old models under their new coating. We noticed some clunky character animations on the different boards, as well as many rough edges that were visible on the character models.
Sound
The overall quality of the soundtrack is, as always for the franchise, very high. We enjoyed the upbeat music, and even the character-specific sound effects were a fun touch. Other than that, nothing truly special is being done here, as the game doesn’t really have any voice acting present.
Gameplay
Mario Party Superstars is a very traditional Mario Party experience. The game combines minigames from the first ten console installments of the franchise, while you’re able to play on five different game boards. As always, the game will consist of traditional board game gameplay where a minigame is normally played at the end of every turn. Of course, slight variations may occur, where players duel among themselves, or where other events may happen. Nonetheless, it’s a very straightforward affair. This game ditches the motion controls from the last few installments and thus presents you with controller-only minigames. Those who want to dive into the minigames, and not deal with the RNG of the board game portion, can also opt to just play the minigames themselves.
Truth be told, there is not that much more to say here. The minigames all use traditional controls, and they work fine for the most part. There are a few games where the controls are not completely responsive and this may cause some annoyances. This was very noticeable during the minigame where you have to reel in treasure with a fishing rod. Other than that, there are a decent number of minigames present, but we would have loved to see more boards and more characters to choose from. We were a bit disappointed with the toned-down cast, as well as the limited number of boards available. We did like the online function, and even enjoyed playing the game with total strangers. The game also doesn’t crash if an online player leaves, as this player will then get replaced by an AI opponent. AI-controlled players are a bit unfairly programmed at times, making this game a lot more fun when you’re able to play it with friends or online with other players.
Conclusion
Mario Party Superstars is a fun blast from the past and will certainly be amusing for fans of the series. We very much enjoyed seeing the old boards getting a new lease on life, as well as the many minigames that were thrown in the mix. Sadly, we felt that not every minigame was as polished as it should be, and we hoped the game would have presented us with more characters and boards. That being said, the core gameplay loop is a lot of fun, especially when playing with friends or even online. Those new to the series might have a bit more fun with Super Mario Party, but longtime fans, or those looking to fire up the old games, will also find this an amusing experience.
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