Let’s Party Like It’s 1999!
A Superstar collection of classic Nintendo 64 boards – Calling all Superstars! Mario Party is back with 5 classic boards from the Nintendo 64 Mario Party games. Frosting meets flowers as you race to get the most stars (and sabotage your opponents) on the Peach’s Birthday Cake board from the original Mario Party game. Or watch the countdown that unleashes Bowser Coin Beam and hold onto those coins on the Space Land board. The tides can turn quickly in Mario Party, so stay vigilant, partygoers. This and all other modes can be played online, too! 100 classic minigames return from the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube games and more!
I’ve been playing Mario Party ever since the original came out in 1999 and yes, it’s caused many an argument with it’s mini-games and the godforsaken Chance Time which could make you give all your stars away in one moment…but it has always been fun and to revisit some of the classic boards like Peach’s Birthday Cake or mini-games like Handcar Havoc, Mushroom Mix-Up and Bumper Balls has been a blast.
The game comes with 5 classic board games: Yoshi’s Tropical Island and Peach’s Birthday Cake from Mario Party 1, Space Land and Horror Land from Mario Party 2 and finally Woody Woods from Mario Party 3. These are all classics in their own right and have each had a new lick of paint given to them. Koopa Trooper even shows you photos of what it used to look like back in the day and each has their own gimmick like Peach’s Birthday Cake has a “Flower Lottery” that could direct you to Bowser or the Horror Land board that switches from Day to Night.
It would have been great to get some extra classic boards like Mario’s Rainbow Castle or DK’s Jungle Adventure, but maybe we’ll get them in the form of DLC? I doubt it but I always like to hope for extra content when it comes to Mario Party. Superstars comes with 100 classic games that go all the way through the games up to the 10th game. These have all been given updated visuals and controls, plus you don’t need to wear the skin off your palm in Tug o’ War anymore, even the game tells you not to play that way now.
There are some omissions like Skateboard Scamper, Team Treasure Trek and Snake Block Party but these and other missing games were usually ones that didn’t appear in other games in the series so I can’t say I’m that surprised and to be fair, the best of the bunch definitely made the cut. I also love how the main hub for the game looks identical to that of the original Mario Party for that nostalgia effect.
The game does add something also new in the form of “Stickers” that can be used to express emotions during turns on the board, you get a default set but can get more from the Toad Shop using what coins you earn through playing. You can use these by moving the left stick or tapping the shoulder buttons, but I found myself bringing up the list of stickers on someone’s turn by knocking the left stick accidentally and that distracted them, which could be a good tactic unless you’re sitting next to them, and they suddenly hate you for it…still might be worth trying during online games…
The visuals are a great improvement from the original Mario Party games and the framerate is consistent throughout. Voice-acting and music is typical of Mario games, while load times were also short.
The Verdict
Mario Party Superstars takes the best from previous entries and combines it with improved visuals and quality of life improvements, making it the must have Mario Party experience.
Score: 9.0