Who said party games are dead? Many software houses have tried to give their own interpretation of these light and fun games, necessarily to be played in a group, but every time something was missing. If you are wondering what, the answer is the atmosphere. Who better than Mario then can create an atmosphere suitable to bring you into minigames and a board to live with stolen dice and coins? Here is the review of Super Mario Party.
A brand that does not need innovation
Since 1998, the year in which Mario Party originated on the Nintendo 64, the series never stood out for innovation - every iteration of the game featured minigames fun but similar to the previous ones, different scoreboards but with the same dynamics and gameplay that did not differ too much from the previous one. Yet it has always gone well this way: among the few games that fall into this list, Mario Party can afford to present similar formulas: after all, the goal is not to innovate, but to entertain. Super Mario Party is no exception: despite some welcome additions, the game formula presented is always the same, strictly to be played in a group. Scoreboards, minigames and lots of fun color the already lively game world, becoming a great way to spend the evenings with friends.
In the game we will be inside from the beginning Party Square, which will function as a Central Hub and which will showcase challenges in which you can participate. The main mode is called Mario Party Mode, and basically it is the classic game of the goose: 4 players (if you are less, the empty seats will be occupied by the AI) will collide between dice rolled, minigames and cursed boxes, with the sole objective of accumulating stars and coins to win the scoreboard. Next to this we find a variant called Partner Party, which instead will present a scoreboard with non-predefined paths, will be played 2vs2 and will always have the aim of accumulating stars to beat the opposing team.
Close to the two main ones, numerous different secondary modes appear, capable of entertaining in a short time: in River Survival the team of 4 players will have to row in sync to make the dinghy advance on the river, in Sound Stage you will find rhythmic mini-games, and in the section Minigames you will be able to see all the ones you have unlocked and replay them separately. However, one of the most interesting modes remains the Toad Recording Room, where through the use of two consoles and two games, you can create a multiscreen scoreboard. If local multiplayer is king, online only presents challenges dedicated to minigames, without using a board but playing on groups of 5 random minigames to complete and win.
A matter of dice
In Super Mario Party each character, in addition to owning the classic six-sided die, will have at his disposal a special die, different for each of them. These dice will have advantages and disadvantages, which will only be decided by your luck after you roll them. You can therefore find dice with 3 sides of 1 and the others with the values 7, 8 and 9, or dice with high values but also capable of making you lose coins. We are only at the tip of that iceberg called variability.
I scoreboards they will also have special boxes: the object spaces will give away new gadgets to use to facilitate your experience, the spazi partner they will give you an adventure companion who will give you advantages and an additional die to roll, and finally the lucky and unlucky spaces that will start slot machines that will give you bonuses or malus (always based on your luck). The board, despite not hiding huge secrets, will change every time you cross them event spaces, which will change some game dynamics of the match.
In Super Mario Party you will have to stay until the minigame you manage to complete
After all, in the world of games there is a proportional bar made up of two values: skill and luck. While some games are purely skill-based (such as soulslike), others such as card games remain very focused on luck. In both cases, a little pollution of the other is present, almost to balance the type of gameplay. Super Mario Party he does not care: Most of your victories - or defeats - will be due to your own luck or that of others, and you can't worry about that. On the other hand, the fun is guaranteed.
