Party · 2024 · Nintendo Cube · local · online
Super Mario Party Jamboree
A board game with minigames where you mostly play against each other — and in four modes expressly with each other.
What it is about
Seven boards, 112 minigames and a die. You take turns moving across a board, collecting coins and buying stars with them; after each round a minigame decides who gets a little extra. Whoever has the most stars at the end wins — and until then anything can happen.
Alongside that sit four modes in which nobody plays against anybody. In Toad's Item Factory the two of you guide a ball through thirty obstacle courses, in Rhythm Kitchen you cook in time against the clock, and in Flight School you flap your arms. Bowser Kaboom Squad sets eight people together against an impostor Bowser — though that one is online only.
On a shared screen up to four sit at one console, and one copy is enough. Online it gets more awkward: each of you then needs your own device, your own copy and a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Our verdict for couples
The whole game is built for several people; on your own almost nothing of it is left. Four modes are explicitly co-operative, in the rest you compete, and for a shared evening both count equally — rolling dice against each other is still something you do together. The catch lies elsewhere: a board lives on congestion, and with four players there is simply more going on than with two. If it is the co-operative parts you want, Toad's Factory and the rhythm kitchen are made for exactly two and carry an evening on their own.
Pros
- Four modes are expressly cooperative
- 112 minigames, each explained in ten seconds
- Seven boards, each with a rule of its own
Cons
- With two, the board misses the friction of four
- The buddy system can turn a game around at the last moment
- Some minigames require motion controls
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Relationship test
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 30–45 minutes
- How long it lasts
- No ending
What other co-op fans say
On Metacritic the user score sits at 8.2 from 425 votes, and the comparison almost always runs against the two Switch predecessors: this one counts as the more complete package, with more boards and more to do. What gets praised is the sheer number of minigames and that newcomers and returners both keep up. Two objections recur — the new buddy system, which many find unbalanced, and individual minigames playable only with motion controls. About playing as two the community says little; where it does, it is about the full group.
- “The best Mario Party on Switch! It feels like Mario Party Superstars, but more complete!”
- “This is a great game for both returning and new Mario Party players! There is so much to do!”
- “Pretty good Mario Party game. My only problem with it is the weird buddy system.”
Summarised by machine from 425 Metacritic user reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
If you like this one
Runs on the same devices as this game.
Two paper figures snip each other into whatever shape the puzzle happens to need.
You build the course you then have to run yourselves — and the other one is building too.
Tennis with special shots, four on one console — and as a doubles team together rather than against each other.
Carry furniture out of flats as a pair, as fast as possible and with as little regard for the windows as you can manage.