Not quite on the anniversary day, but Mario celebrates 35 years this year as it was around this time that Super Mario Bros. was released all those years ago. It's been a long time coming and since then, he and the gang have gone on to become some of the most iconic characters in gaming with more than 200 games and still going strong today. Of course its had a few misfires here and there, but overall it's a franchise that is beloved and keeps on giving even if most games are just remakes, ports or remasters of older games and using the same ideas over and over again. But of course that's not to say that he is a one trick pony as Mario and gang have ventured into many genres including 2D, 2.5D and 3D platformers, racing, fighting, sports, RPGs, creative and in the case of Super Mario Party, party and board games. He's even gone into other territories such as films, real physical board games, mobile apps and even LEGO. So its the eleventh main party game so let's see what the fuss is about this time:
So Mario and the gang decide to host another party. But this time, Bowser and his minions also join in the fun. You get the usual "Party" mode in which up to four characters go across a board to win the most stars and coins and compete in a series of minigames. Each minigame takes advantage of the Joy-Con and its capabilities as the new Wii Remote. There is also another mode called "Partner Party" in which you can free roam across a board with two characters per team which also involves finding stars. If your friends, family or colleagues have a Switch of their own, you can create multi-screen environments with the consoles in a mode called "Toad's Rec Room". A first to the series is online multiplayer in which you and people all over the world can play in all the minigames as a sort of marathon. Unfortunately the boards are unplayable in this mode, but that's OK. The character roster consists of a majority of the Mario characters that you normally see in games like these (with some exceptions) with some being playable for the first time. For some newly playable characters, they had been previously playable, but never in the same way as the other characters. While others were playable in all but the main games and most had been NPCs previously.
The game is good. It's not the absolute best game of the series, but the minigames are great as are all the modes that the game has. Though I do wonder if it could have done with some more boards because the selection we have here is good, but could be bigger, and we could have more than just four. I mean if Super Smash Bros. Ultimate managed to get all the veteran fighters back and add a few newcomers to the already huge roster, then why can't Super Mario Party have more boards. But you know, it is what it is and is still good fun despite the limited selection of boards. It is perhaps the most innovative of the series so far and still good fun at that. 8/10
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