Super Mario Party Review – United Friend and Enemy



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Anyone who has played a Mario Party game in the last 20 years has a good idea of ​​what to expect from Switch's Super Mario Party, but the latest Nintendo offer offers some new modes that add their own touch. creative with the proven formula. In many ways, Super Mario Party seems smaller than the previous games in the series, but extra layers of strategy and fun, smart mini-games help keep it alive and fresh.

The fierce competition from the first titles in the series is back, while Super Mario Party abandons the cooperative mechanic Mario Party 9 and 10 and opposes players against each other in a race for stars. The overall goal of Super Mario Party is to win five gems, obtained after completing each of the five main offline modes of the game: Mario Party, Partner Party, Road Challenge, River Survival and Sound Stage.

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The Mario Party mode offers the classic formula of the series, consisting of small games interspersed with board games. Your character is always placed on a board with three other players where you will race after Toadette and his collection of stars. The biggest change is the introduction of dice blocks of characters; While previous Mario Party games used 10-sided virtual dice, each character now has two dice blocks, one to six faces and the other unique, and you must choose which one to use on each turn . The six-sided dice throw one to six, while each character has its own strengths and weaknesses.

For example, Mario has a number three on three of his sides, while the other three are one, five, and six. In comparison, the evil player Wario has a special die where two sides make him lose two pieces, but the other four sides are six. For the first time in a Mario Party game, your character choice is more than aesthetic. Determining the best time to use a specific block of dice adds a level of strategy to what was usually a random act.

Each of the four boards in the game requires slight modifications to your strategy to reach the star, but they are tiny and most do not take advantage of their unique makeups. Whomp's Domino Ruins, for example, presents Whomps that will block you the way by some shortcuts. The board has only two Whomps, so you do not meet them very often, and even when you meet him, the board is small enough that the long distance traveled does not penalize you much. The four tips of Super Mario Party do not feel distinct, so your strategy for each of them will not be so different. And since there are only four tables to choose from, the Mario Party mode quickly becomes obsolete.

There are a total of 80 mini-games in Super Mario Party, which puts it right behind Mario Party 6, 7 and 9 in terms of quantity. Of the 80 mini-games, nearly half rely on the motion control or rumble functions of Switch's Joy-Cons. Do not worry; The movement and rumble functions work surprisingly well and are among the most cleverly designed games in the Mario Party series. For example, in Fiddler on the Hoof, you and three other race horses, and backing up with Joy-Con to simulate whipping the reins, increases your score if you move with the rhythm of the song played. In Nut Cases, you and your partner must outwit the other team by claiming the five boxes containing the most nuts. You have an idea of ​​the contents of a box by taking it and measuring the intensity of your Joy-Con's vibration. Since Super Mario Party only supports motion control with a single Joy-Con, you will not be able to play the game in handheld mode or with a Pro controller.

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Partner mode is the reinvention by Super Mario Party of the Mario Party 6 Team Combat mode. The rules are similar to the Mario Party mode, but there are more paths around the board, and you have to land on the spot. of Toadette to get a star instead of just collecting it by the way. Minor obstacles in the Mario Party mode become more difficult to work around in Partner Party because you need to stay aware of your partner and yourself. Paying to move Whomp on the way could get you to the star faster, but it could trap other players, including your teammate. There is the opportunity to win the next mini-game and earn enough coins to buy an item and release them, but this is not guaranteed. This type of consideration and foresight simply does not exist in Mario Party mode.

Two of the other major modes, River Survival and Sound Stage, are entering the Mario Party franchise. The first one asks you to work with three other people to survive a dangerous river descent while playing mini-games in cooperation, while the second is an energetic dance competition in which you only play mini-games rhythmic. River Survival and Sound Stage offer fun, albeit brief, alternatives to Mario Party's basic formula. The Coop and Rhythm mini-games are also among the best in the Mario Party series, especially Rhythm's Fiddler on the Hoof, which allows you to stand and move to keep pace with the characters in the game. Cooperative and rhythmic mini-games do not have the fierce competition of other mini-games face to face, but they swell a room.

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The last major mode of Super Mario Party, Challenge Road, is closest to the game of a single-player campaign, but it only opens when you have unlocked the 80 mini-games. The mode allows you to play each mini-game with specific handicaps placed on you to make them more difficult. For example, a racing mini-game can challenge you to get first place without encountering any of the dangers of the track. This mode is about to give Super Mario Party all the challenge that the game should face to increase its longevity, but unfortunately, it is deformed. If you fail three times in a challenge, the game asks you if you just want to skip it. You can always come back later and take the challenge if you wish, but the mode never punishes you for ignoring one of the mini-games. As long as you get to the end of the road, no matter if you've skipped a dozen challenges to get there, you'll still get one of the five jewels you need.

Super Mario Party also offers several modes and smaller features that are not related to obtaining the Super Star title. In Mariothon, you participate in five mini-games where your opponents survive in time-based games earns you extra points on the tournament ladder. There is also an online version of Mariothon, and you can play in a private lobby with your friends or compete in a global competition and fight to climb the rankings. We did not have any connectivity issues when we played online, but the private lobby was charging faster. Square Off is also a tournament based on mini-games, but after each victory, you have the right to claim a territory space. Owning pieces of territory on either side of another player's territory also gives you their space, and the game goes on until each space is filled. The winner is the one with the most spaces at the end of the match. Both modes give you a goal to achieve while playing mini-games, which creates additional levels of competition among a group of friends.

The new Partner Party, River Survival and Sound Stage modes add nice alternatives to the Mario Party mode – which at least regains its competitive roots.

There is also Toad's Rec Room, where you can play unique games that change depending on how you position your switch, and a room for stickers, where you can cover a wall with a mural of stickers that you have collected. Both seem stuck to Super Mario Party; the first to justify placing the game on a console that can be played on a horizontal plane, in kickstand mode or on a dock, and the second to give you a reason to go out and buy Amiibos to scan and get Special stickers are not winnable in the game. Although the opportunity to change perspective in the game room of Toad, such as watching a baseball field in flight of bird, casual air or at the Launcher view, be an interesting gadget, none of the games is really improved by adjusting the look at them. The sticker room is not worth investing.

Everything about Super Mario Party seems smaller than previous titles in the series. The Mario Party and Partner Party modes both play on small boards. Some modes, like Challenge Road, have clearly defined level points, which makes it easy to play small pieces. It is therefore all the more surprising that you can not play Super Mario Party while traveling in portable mode. Since you need a separate Joy-Con to perform motion-based actions in the game, this makes sense, but it's still strange to see a game on Switch that actively prevents you from doing anything. use the portability of the console.

Most of the 80 Super Mario Party mini-games are fun, especially if you have a full group of four players, because NPCs are neither smart enough nor competent enough to pose real challenges until you unlock the difficulties of the Master. The new Partner Party, River Survival and Sound Stage modes add nice alternatives to the Mario Party mode – which at least regains its competitive roots. And even if the single dice blocks do not upset the four boards of Super Mario Party enough to give Mario Party a certain longevity, they implement little strategy moments in a series that has been too long overdue for determine the winner.

Editor's Note: It was the origin of an ongoing review. Now that the game is launched, we have updated and finalized this review to reflect our experience with online features.

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