It’s funny to think that, despite the cutesy aesthetics and family-friendly appeal, the two longest-running multiplayer Mario franchises seem specifically designed to promote conflict amongst groups of friends. From blue shells to King Boos, Mario Kart and Mario Party have spent decades seemingly committed to fostering as much division among their players as possible–my wife once exclaimed, “I do not love you” when I beat her to the finish line of a flagpole minigame in 2018’s Super Mario Party. We are, as of the time of writing, still together.
Super Mario Party Jamboree–Nintendo’s latest attempt to drive families apart through play–is the third Mario Party game to release on Nintendo Switch, and the first to combine both traditional and motion controls. At a preview event last month, the key word Nintendo used was “more”–more boards, more minigames, more characters, more modes–and as such, there are more ways to drive your loved ones up the wall, too.
The nastiest of these is the new Star Steal Trap, an item that turns any chosen space on the board into a veritable landmine, stealing a Star from any player who happens to be unfortunate enough to stop there. This is Mario Party in a nutshell–a game that is, at any given time, simultaneously exhilarating and cruel, glorious and devastating, all at the mercy of a dice roll.