If you were somebody who thought Super Mario Party Jamboree’s new modes might be Fall Guys-esque, I’m sorry to report that it isn’t the case. Maybe part of that feeling for me is the perspective, as Fall Guys is consistently third-person while SMPJ is all over the place, but having actually tested it out, I can now report that SMPJ feels like a very different beast. Not better, not worse, just different, and that’s good.
What’s specifically different this time, though, is that the digital board game core of Mario Party takes a back seat to the minigames and new online modes. Admittedly, part of that may be the time-consuming one-player-per-turn model the series has stuck with (outside of Mario Party: Star Rush where turns were taken simultaneously), making the lack of ruleset options for online play with randoms stand out in a big bad way. But we’ll get to that later. Let me lay out my experience with Super Mario Party Jamboree’s online modes specifically.
 
Lay of the boardgame lands
Now, for reference, this isn’t going to be a discussion of every aspect of the game. To be upfront, I haven’t touched the single-player/offline only stuff, like the decorating story mode for the plaza. I will note that I love the nice big roster, the callback to a couple of retro maps, and the fact that the Mario Kart board is quite on-point in terms of accurately representing the ideas from a whole other genre as a board game. I know some people dislike the new boards, but the MKÂ and mall-themed boards are very on the nose in terms of theme. But today, we’re all about online gameplay.
While it’d be nice to have it in English, the official Japanese game site confirms that only four people can locally play per console, though you can bring people with you in some limited capacities. It’s not unlockable or anything, so your in-person parties will just have to go online for more than four players. That being said, if you want to play with randoms, you do have to jump through a few hoops.
Unlike setting up matches with friends (accomplished via searchable/password protected “rooms”), here you can do online match-making only with bots as “training,” and then go online once that’s done. It’s disappointing that you can’t jump in faster, but at the same time, it does get annoying when you do group minigames and a team member clearly is new to that minigame. It’s a design choice I may not like but I do respect.
That being said, I don’t think I unlocked online match-making until I hit 10 achievements, which was about four games, but even then it seemed as if a few of my online games had bots in them. Admittedly, I was in the Koopathlon and Bowser Kaboom Squad, the non-traditional modes, but since the other “players” sometimes didn’t hit their ready button until right after I did it (or after the one kind of slow person did it), it seemed obvious when my fellow players weren’t human.
Again, while you do have traditional Party Mode where you play a virtual boardgame with minigames between rounds (or as triggers require), there are new online modes that make this a much more massive Mario Party than past entries, and I don’t just mean having a larger player pool thanks to being online.
New online modes
Koopathlon kind of feels like a mastery boardgame: You focus on only three random minigames that get progressively more difficult per round. You don’t roll dice to move in this game, though. Instead, coins collected during the minigames move you across the board to complete laps while 19 other players are doing the same thing. While all modes allow for some pre-formed communication, you can see that it’s extremely limited in Koopathlon, which is probably for the best because people already spam those four options for the few permissible moments between rounds.
At least for the first round or two, after you complete a set of the three minigames Imposter Bowser will come in and do an elimination-type game that may send you back 25 spaces or more depending on how you place (or you get a single item if you survive). It’s truly a great equalizing moment, but it also means you have to stay on your toes and hope that the item drops can save you should you fail.
Speaking of items, I want to point out that the game has a Mario Kart-like mechanic in that if you’re further back, the timer that generates random items seems to go faster, your items seem better, and you get more coin bundles in your minigames – or at least that’s what I’ve observed so far. The comeback feeling from several rounds when I thought I did “OK” when in actuality I jumped up several ranks is worth mentioning.
While SMPJ doesn’t have the largest collection of minigames, it does have a few winners, but Koopathlon seems to get some exclusive ones, so be mindful of that. The minigames are simple in terms of ideas and controls (such as avoid spikes and collect coins, or grab the pieces of bread before they burn), but with each rotation making the games a bit harder, the repetition makes some sense. On the one hand, if you messed up the first time, you can do better the next rotation and make a comeback, which is nice and helps prevent players from feeling overwhelmed.
At the same time, I expect a lot of chaos in the Mario Party series, so this felt a little too safe. Imposter Bowser’s minigames, while punishing, are spicy both in mixing things up in terms of playstyle and also in shaking up the board rankings by sending players back tens of spaces in some cases. The whole experience can take 10-20 minutes depending on how high you place, as you can go into your next match once you’ve won, but the time just flew by for me. Not getting first isn’t great, but I must admit that fighting for 4th or lower is more interesting since your opponents can stand out from the crowd more. Plus, a loss is a lot easier when the matches aren’t that long. It’s a fun mode that’s easy to recommend, even if it’s a bit of an odd duck in terms of Mario Party.
If Koopathlon seems like too much of a departure from board games, well, there’s also Bowser Kaboom Squad, a kind of boss battle mode. Eight players collect bombs and other items to defeat Imposter Bowser, all while switching between the battle board and multiple minigame rounds that allow you to collect items. While your held items only last one round, any placed item (like revival hearts or dash pads) remain, along with the location of supply crates, bombs, and gold coins that activate a bonus damage mode. It’s barely board game adjacent, but so far so fun.
Again, while there’s no free-form chat, the context specific option is more than serviceable. If you get KOed, you can call for help; if you find a crate, you can call for help; if you see someone do something cool and there’s nothing else going on, you can toss out a “nice!” It would be great if we could use some of our reactions (think emojis or stickers), but those are limited to Party Mode proper.
Having a free-form area where you can drop power-ups and lure Bowser around like some Monster Hunter boss that keeps switching targets is an interesting call. It finally nails down the co-op stuff other MP titles have tried but largely failed to culture. Obviously it’s not long-term persist in the way MMO non-instanced housing is, but match-persistent co-op item dropping is not something I thought I’d ever see in a Mario Party game.
Each match lasts about 20 minutes and that length feels just about right. It is a bit disappointing when players in your game may not understand a minigame, as you work together to earn extra supplies, but at least right now, the only “progression” you get in the game period is Achievements and their associated ranks, unlocking music options, emoji/reactions, and stickers for your player card. It’s nice to not be playing for a power grind, and Kaboom Squad really feels like it’s just right in terms of being accessible but also fun for a series veteran like myself.
Party pooping
I do have to say that the usual Party Mode is the biggest disappointment in SMPJ, especially in terms of online play. If you’re disconnected from a match, you’re replaced by a bot until your next turn – if you reconnect. However, a long-enough or wrong type of disconnect deletes any and all trace of that match. And I say that having barely gotten a first-place win from a two-hour match, only to lose all the data because I accidentally sent my system into sleep mode. For that reason, especially on the go (where a two-hour match is just madness), I don’t recommend doing Party Mode online.
However, the new “Pro Mode” cuts that time down to about 100 minutes, which is long but feels more manageable. It’s also far less chaotic: 12 turns, only one star bonus at the end and it’s announced at the start of the match, item shops have limited items (but you do get to pick a free item to bring to the match, like double dice or a coin-thief trap), Imposter Bowser always takes a star, and simplified options for certain spaces (such as two outcomes for exclamation point spaces and voting on one of three potential minigames at the end of rounds). All of these help speed up the matches, so it’s not uncommon to pay for more like 70-90 minutes.
I also think the name “Pro” scares off some of the newbies, as my groups skipped tons of dialogue and tutorials. In fact, my first Pro Mode game was closer to 75 minutes than the estimated 100. I think the only one that went on for nearly the full 100 minutes occurred because of a Jamboree challenge.
Jamboree Buddies will occasionally spawn on the map. Passing them will give that player five coins and activate a minigame challenge, and the activating player will get some bonus to help the win. Winning grants that Buddy to the winner, giving him character specific bonuses (like Wario granting coins, or Bowser Jr. adding traps on your landing space), double coins on blue spaces, and the ability to buy double items, including stars. Yes, that’s powerful, though you can also lose your buddy just because someone passes you, and buddies last only three turns.
I’m on the fence about the buddies themselves, as I play MP for the chaos, but buddies may be too much. Their character specific minigames, such as escaping a mansion for Lugia, are cute in concept, but some, such as Waluigi’s pinball, just take forever, and when someone activates a Buddy Challenge towards the end of the game, it’s more annoying than exciting most of the time.
The other issue here is that all the effort to get a buddy can be lost simply because you got passed. This feels especially painful if your turn is last, as everyone can blow through items to take what you earned before you even have a chance to defend yourself. And no, you can’t disable buddies, which also feels weird.
For me at least, it’s an odd position to find myself in. I like the shorter matches of the Pro mode, but I miss the chaos of the non-ranked mode. If Nintendo could just allow players to play with the settings a bit, it wouldn’t feel as if I need to seek out Discord channels yet again to play Mario Party my way. That being said, the short and sweet nature of Koopathlon and Bowser Kaboom Squad still make the game feel like a worthy purpose – just not a wholly Mario Party feel.
Massively OP’s Andrew Ross is an admitted Pokemon geek and expert ARG-watcher. Nobody knows Niantic and Nintendo like he does! His Massively on the Go column covers Pokemon Go as well as other mobile MMOs and augmented reality titles!
