Hands-On Preview: Super Mario Party Jamboree Might Actually Get Me Back Into The Party Game Series

I'll admit up front: I am not the biggest Mario Party fan. I remember playing the very first Mario Party with family and friends on the Nintendo 64 back in the late 90s and having a blast with it, but the next few entries didn't quite stick with me as I got older. It gave me a Monopoly-vibe, where at least one player would end the game pretty upset with how the proceedings went. 

I've dabbled in the series since, especially when at parties or events where it was available, but I've never felt the urge to jump back into the series itself, until Jamboree was announced.

Super MarioParty Jamboree feels like Nintendo has taken all its learnings over the last two decades and poured them into this one game, bringing about the largest roster of Nintendo greats to the table (22 playable characters, including newcomers Pauline and Ninji), new game modes, and much more.

As someone who would rather play the minigames and not the full Party experience, there are 110 minigames to dive into with its free play mode (as well as Mario Party Jamboree moving closer to the MMO-world with its rotating Daily minigames), but where I really found myself enjoying things was the new 20-player multiplayer mode, Koopathalon.

This is effectively a race against other players where you compete to be the first to complete five laps around a track, playing a rotation of mini-games along the way to help determine your place. It's hectic and back-and-forth nature got me and my fellow press at my hands-on session competing with each other, trying to, if not come in first, at least be the first among each other.

The minigames themselves were pretty simple, from a game that saw us shooting into the air out of a cannon to collect coins or a Whack-a-Mole style game where you whack Monty Moles with a hammer while avoiding Bob-ombs (I was not very good at either of these). 

I can see myself and the rest of my family spending a ton of time in this mode personally, as it also feels a bit more fast paced that