Thank you Nintendo for sending this game for us to review!

Mario Party is a spin-off series that began on the Nintendo 64 in 1998. It was an unexpected hit for Nintendo, and has since become one of its main Mario spin-off titles, appearing on every mainline console since. It revolves around characters from the Mario series – including main and side characters, and even some enemies – participating in a party board game. The objective of the game is to gather stars throughout the length of the game, which can (usually) be set by the player (typically 10 turns). You buy stars with coins that you earn during play.

In the Mario Party game mode, up to four players start with a certain amount of coins which are used to purchase items and stars, with the turn order determined at the start by rolling a virtual die to see who gets the highest number in descending order. Each player takes a turn navigating spaces on the board by rolling a die, similar to playing The Game of Life or Monopoly, with the spaces you land on having different effects. Some reward you with coins, some take away coins, some can start minigames, some can give you items, and some can send you to bankruptcy. Most stages also have Event Spaces that do things unique to that stage, like a volcano erupting on a tropical island, a train moving between stations and sending anyone it hits back to the start, and so on. You can also find Shops while moving around, which will sell you items for coins. Most are single-use items like Double or Triple Dice that add all rolls to your total, Mushrooms that add a flat +5 to your roll, Cursed Dice that make it so a selected player can only roll 1-3, a Golden Pipe that teleports you directly to the star, and many more. At the end of everyone’s turn, a minigame will begin, which are short games inside of Mario Party that everyone can play. The minigames vary between each Mario Party title, but typically include flavors of memorization games, fighting games, carnival games, and more. There are also different categories of minigames like 1v3, 2v2, and Free-For-All before the game is picked. Sometimes you can also get Coin minigames, which are Free-For-Alls where the goal is to collect as many coins for yourself as possible.

But while the Mario Party game mode makes up the majority of the game, there are some other games to be found in Jamboree. Inside Motion Island, you can find three different games that let you use motion controls in longer, unique ways compared to minigames. The first two-player game has you flap your wings like a bird while tilting and turning to glide around an island (which is far more physically demanding than one would initially think). Another requires tilting the Joy-Cons up and down to raise platforms while guiding a ball to the end of a track. The final Motion Island minigame is a multi-player experience I’d describe as a Rhythm Heaven-like. You must do actions with motion controls to the beat of the music playing, and I had a pretty good time with it.

There’s also the Koopathlon, which pits 20 players against each other in a series of constant minigames about collecting coins. Each coin collected moves you one space, and each lap has 150 spaces. The first player to complete all laps wins! I also had a lot of fun with this one. Finally, there’s the Bowser Kaboom Squad, where 8 players must work together gathering bombs to load into a cannon while a massive, Godzilla-sized Bowser tries to stop them from doing so. There are 5 rounds each lasting 90 seconds, and at the end of each round a group minigame is played, where the overall performance of the team determines how many items each player can choose from before the next round starts. Items can help you gather bombs faster, outrun or stun Bowser, or help others recover quicker after being hit.

Mario Party games have tended to involve a gimmick with new titles. On the GameCube, it was a microphone; on the Wii, it was motion controls; and on the Wii U, it was the Gamepad. The Switch entries have been a bit of a mixed bag. Super Mario Party mandated motion controls in all games and focused on the HD Rumble, while Mario Party Superstars was mostly an ordinary title. Jamboree, on the other hand, took a middle-of-the-road approach. Some minigames require them, while the majority do not, and you can disable these minigames if you don’t have Joy-Cons on-hand. The one mechanic it does force upon you is the Jamboree Buddy system, a returning idea from Super Mario Party. Every game of Mario Party, one of ten characters can spawn as an ally somewhere on the board. If you manage to reach them before another player, you’ll be given a slight advantage in a series of minigames where you and all players compete for who gets the Buddy and the unique ability they have. For example, Mario adds 3-8 to your dice roll, Wario gives you 3-8 coins at the start of your turn, Daisy gets half-off all items, and so on. But if a player manages to pass you, they’ll steal your Buddy as they pass by! It adds a bit of variety to each game, but I do think some of the minigames you have to play to unlock Buddies can go on far too long.

Jamboree TV takes this a step further by introducing a new game mode utilizing the microphone and camera of the Switch 2, as well as a new game mode and new minigames to the Mario Party mode using the mouse controls of the new Joy-Con 2. The new games work…decently enough. Some of the mouse control minigames are really fun, while the other half feel like they could have simply used an analogue stick or motion controls, and I found the microphone games to not be functional enough for a good experience. They ask you to shout specific words, cheer, or clap to the beat of a song. I’ve played at two different houses, with players ranging from 10-40 feet from the console, and it always seemed to either be not sensitive enough or too slow to respond. They also allow you to use the Switch 2’s camera to show players inside the game. These are the only tangible additions with Jamboree TV, save for two new Mario Party rulesets (Tag-Team, letting you play 2v2, and Frenzy, which lasts only for 5 rounds).

The game has a polished visual style that was the epitome of Nintendo’s aesthetic from the Wii U through the Switch era. Characters are detailed and animated, and the game boards and minigames have a nice, clean look that feels grounded in the Mario universe. While mainline titles like Super Mario Odyssey or Donkey Kong Bananza have always pushed what Mario should look like with every new entry, Mario Party has always felt very connected to the central idea of the Mushroom Kingdom. It takes influence from the real world with factories, malls, cities, trains and so on, but they’re always presented in a way that feels like Mario. Factories are run by Toads, Wigglers rule the forest, and all sorts of Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Toads, and more run through the mall. It may not push the boundaries of technology or innovate within the universe Nintendo has crafted, but it is a visually sound and good looking game. If I did make one complaint, it would be that the menus feel sterile. Most menus are a boring mixture of black and white, with some grays in-between and a bit of color splashed here and there. Everything is very clean and very modern, but there’s little personality to it. I do hope that Nintendo Cube can take more inspiration from Hudson Soft’s titles, as this was something they did better, in my opinion.

This extends to the sound effects and music as well, but I do think it falls a bit flatter here. Everything is a bit safe in the sound department. Music is typically bubbly and with the energy needed to carry a party game, but the tracks are mostly forgettable and serve more as ambience. This is largely the same for the sound design, which although good, doesn’t exactly stand out. I think this is a holdover of the Wii U-era, and I do wish Nintendo Cube would be more experimental with their next Mario Party title both in visuals and sounds.

Lastly, if I had one final criticism to levy at Jamboree, it would be that there are far too many animations and menu delays that take up too much time. Each action (rolling dice, buying items, landing on spaces) takes an additional 3-5 seconds due to animations, text is slow to scroll, moving on the board is slow, and so much more. This was a common complaint with Super Mario Party, and they managed to improve things with Superstars, but it seems we’ve gone even further in the other direction with this new title. I know that the game can go faster because it’s possible to set CPUs to move faster which removes almost all of the animation slowdown, slow moving on the board, and slow text. It turns a fun party game into a test of patience, and multiple times during sessions with family there were comments from all players about the slowdowns. I implore Nintendo Cube that even if nothing else is taken from the fans’ criticism of the Switch games, please let the next title be faster to play!

But notice I’ve been using the term “Jamboree”. If you’ve read the long title of this game, you’ll know this is Super Mario Party Jamboree Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV. What does that mean? Well, when you first boot the game, you’ll get the option to launch Jamboree or Jamboree TV. Jamboree TV isn’t a new bit of content stapled onto the existing game—it’s treated as its own game, much like the 3D All-Stars collection, or Bowser’s Fury. This means that all of the content inside Jamboree can only be played inside Jamboree, except for the Mario Party game mode. Do you want to play one of Motion Island games, Koopathlon, or Bowser’s Kaboom Squad? That’s only inside Jamboree. Do you want to play the new mouse or microphone games, or Mario Party with the new rulesets (and all characters and stages unlocked from the start)? Well, that’s inside Jamboree TV. What’s the issue with that, you may ask? Jamboree, as of now, is locked to 1080p in both Handheld and Docked play. Mario Party does run in Jamboree TV at 1440p, but it’s only the Mario Party game mode. None of the other game modes, features like achievements, leaderboards, minigame records, and much more are inside Jamboree TV. Essentially, you must choose between a visually limited Jamboree with most of the content, or a sharp Jamboree TV with a limited set of content. For this reason, unless Nintendo decides to bump Jamboree to the same graphical fidelity as Jamboree TV or otherwise unify the differences between the two, I find this release very undeserving of the $80/$20 upgrade price-point.

Morally, there are no concerns to speak of. There is some slight cartoon violence, and perhaps the slightest bit of frustrated speech, but no language, blood, or anything else we typically look for. It’s a party game for kids, and it succeeds well at that.

In summary, Super Mario Party Jamboree is a very good Mario Party, perhaps even the best since the GameCube or Wii, with a solid core gameplay loop and strong visuals somewhat let down by a lack of character and overdone animations. However, I do not believe the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition or Jamboree TV is worth Nintendo’s asking price, both due to lack of visual upgrades with the SW2 Edition of Jamboree and below-average new additions in Jamboree TV. However, if you’re itching for some Mario Party fun, Jamboree is probably the best choice available on the Switch and Switch 2.