We tested “Super Mario Party Jamboree” on Nintendo Switch

Finally a Mario Party with more than substantial content on Nintendo Switch, what a pleasure! Here is our test.

Calypsoy / jvmag

More than 110 mini-games, seven boards including five new ones! New cooperative game modes, a single player mode, unlockable characters and many other things, this is what the new Super Mario Party, entitled: Jamboree, offers us.

You have what it takes to spend great evenings with your friends or family! Although you will need to be careful, this game can also break relationships. What would you say if your best friend stole your two hard-earned stars in one action?

You probably wouldn’t be very pleased. But don’t panic, Bowser will be there at the turn to steal them from him. On the other hand, have you paid attention to Kevin, owner of one star who in a master stroke obtains two by pilfering your sister’s partner? This is the kind of madness that awaits you in Super Mario Party Jamboree. Let’s find out together in a little more detail what awaits you.

Lots of new stuff

First, let’s talk about the new game modes. Bowser brings two games to be played only online or against artificial intelligence and not against friends on the couch. Unless they have brought their own Nintendo Switch and your valiant WiFi can withstand eight consoles connected simultaneously.

The first mode is “Koopathlon”. In this one, you will race with 20 other players. Your goal is to reach the end of the race first. Mini-games will occur and the last ones will be eliminated. It’s a sort of Mario Party version of “Battle Royal” mode.

The second mode “Anti-Bowser Brigade” is a boss fight against Bowser. Here you must load cannons to destroy the fake Bowser who will seek to crush you. Regularly, mini-games occur in which you can obtain objects to help you. Very nice, I had more fun in this mini-game than the Koopathlon. In real collaboration with friends, he must have interesting potential at the strategic level. There are several different maps and obviously difficulty levels to choose from.

Modes for playing “locally”

I’ll leave Bowser aside to tell you about three other new modes that use movements. Contrary to what I mentioned just before, here everything takes place locally. Not being a particular fan of these modes in which the Joycons do not reproduce what I want, I will try to be as objective as possible. The levels are colorful, very varied and offer several hours of entertainment.

_{A little less colorful and entertaining:}

The first mode, Madness in the Kitchen, is a rhythm game playable with up to four players locally. Then, we find Toad Factory which takes us behind the scenes of the making of dice and other elements of the game where you will have puzzles to solve using blocks. In the last mode, playable with two players locally, you will take off into the clouds in “aerial adventures” which offers three different mini-games.

One last new mode

After talking about five modes, all very different, I approach a final mode which is intended to be new to the license called: quests and mutual aid. Here, you will have the opportunity to discover the Super Mario Party Jamboree boards and their universe by confronting characters in the mini-games or by helping them. The goal is to collect stars to finish preparing the game boards.

In addition, if you come across playable characters, they can help you at the end of the star hunt to face the boss of the board! Yes, a boss-fight mini-game! Very nice, a little epic atmosphere, I just regret that it’s only a single player mode. In addition to its fun side, this mode has the advantage of presenting us with the mini-games and the boards of the main game through an interesting single-player mode.

As rewards for these quests, you will get decoration pieces for the main square.

The heart of adventure

Finally, let’s talk about the main mode of the game, simply named: Mario Party. As a reminder, it is a board game in around ten rounds. In the latter, you must collect stars which are scattered one by one on the board. Once you reach a star, you must buy it for around twenty coins. You obtain the coins either on the squares on the board, or by winning the mini-game at the end of each round. So far, nothing new.

Now I want to talk about what’s new. There are two major ones that really change the game in my opinion. The first is the diversity of the platforms. They all have their specificities and on each, you will adopt different strategies. Between the labyrinth that is the shopping center or the course track where the star has two predefined locations, or the Wild West with its train which takes you across the entire board in one turn, you will quickly realize that the games are very different depending on the board!

The second main new feature is the “Jamboree Comrade” system. A character may accompany you during your game if you meet him and win his mini-game. It brings you a lot of bonuses: its personal bonus, double action on each of the boxes as well as the possibility of buying two stars instead of one.

It brings other bonuses, but with these alone you can already see that it is more than interesting to have a comrade. However, this bonus only lasts three turns, and if a player overtakes you, he will steal your friend!

Mario Party with two modes

I think you will have understood, this is my favorite mode. That’s not all yet! Indeed, Mario Party, the main mode, offers two approaches. A classic twistmore focused on luck – especially at the end of the game – with two stars distributed according to hidden criteria until the end of the game. And the professional twistin which the criterion of the star distributed at the end is indicated from the beginning. You can also determine in classic mode the number of rounds, as well as other parameters so that the game suits the whole group.

The Marina, a place to train

To finish the tour of modes, I want to talk to you about the Marina mini-games. Here, alone or with friends, you can play all the mini-games in various modes which I leave it to you to discover. This is the main place to master all the mini-games to shine at your Super Mario Party evenings.

The most fun

To conclude, I will say that Super Mario Party Jamboree is the most fun on Nintendo Switch. It is so varied, so innovative in its modes, and its musical universe always hits the mark. Unfortunately, once again I felt that the console was running out of steam. Weaknesses that are very noticeable on the sets. However, I didn’t notice any slowdown, just dated graphics.

When is my next game of Super Mario Party Jamboree? Very quickly! In the meantime, I’m going to train at the Marina, ciao!

Super Mario Party Jamboree releases October 17 for Nintendo Switch.