Super Mario Party Jamboree has greatly improved on the Mario Party franchise formula that Nintendo fans have gotten used to, for good or bad, over the past 26 years. The latest entry in the series has streamlined gameplay, introduced great quality of life updates, and completely eliminated poorly balanced features from previous Mario Party games. One of the worst features of previous games forced players into an unbalanced character meta.

The premiere feature to be removed in Super Mario Party Jamboree is the character-specific dice that was present in 2018’s Super Mario Party. That function, alongside the previous ally system, made the chaotic gameplay tradition of Mario Party tip into frustrating waters. Thankfully, the newest game introduced a much more balanced system for players to compete for game bonuses rather than the system where a game depended almost entirely on which character was chosen at the start of a match.

Unique Character Dice Make Previous Mario Party Games Unpredictable

An Unbalanced System That Took The Fun Out Of Certain Characters

Super Mario Party games had a rather limiting system where each character had their own unique dice, in addition to a regular d6. For example, Donkey Kong’s dice sides in Super Mario Party were +5 Coins, 0, 0, 0, 10, and 10, while Shy Guy had 0, 4, 4, 4, 4, and 4. The more traditional choices for characters had accompanying basic dice, as Mario’s dice sides had 1, 3, 3, 3, 5, and 6, and Luigi had 1, 1, 1, 5, 6, and 7. Any players that want to play a riskier game may choose a character, like Bowser, that has almost an equal chance at losing coins or moving forward on the board.

This mechanic sounds fun on the surface level, with zany characters using dice with potentially ridiculous outcomes, but becomes frustrating when players realize that playing as their favorite character may lock them into a die set with wildly unbalanced outcomes. For more competitive players, the most important part of Super Mario Party becomes the character select screen rather than any of the minigames. Any player that wants to play as Yoshi is forced to play with a middling dice set that peaks at 7 on one side.

This unique dice mechanic was slightly balanced by the ally system, but even then, it was possible to pull an ally that has an equally annoying dice set with more risk than reward. While the feature did lend to the chaotic nature of all Mario Party games, it also created an unhealthy meta for a game that should primarily be about beating opponents at Bumper Balls. While Mario Party as a series should also be unpredictable, the unique dice system added another layer to the games that functioned more for frustration rather than fun.

Jamboree’s New Buddy System, Explained

A Massive Improvement On The Ally Mechanic

Thankfully, Super Mario Party Jamboree has removed the unique dice feature and instead reworked the ally system to be more fun and competitive. The new buddy system will work completely differently from how allies worked in Super Mario Party. Now, a buddy like Luigi or Donkey Kong will drop into the match at a random place and time and Toad will announce that players can now get them as an ally.

The first player to reach the new buddy will trigger a showdown minigame, but whoever wins the minigame gets the buddy, but whoever triggered it gets some advantage in the minigame, so it’s worth trying to reach the buddy first. Each buddy has their own special minigame tied to their character history. For example, Luigi’s minigame features a maze of rooms inside a spooky mansion, while Donkey Kong’s game has players compete in a bongo rhythm game.

Every buddy doubles whatever actions a player takes.

Once the buddy has been obtained, they each give the player a unique bonus power. Luigi gives players a higher chance to roll bigger numbers on their dice, while Princess Peach allows players to purchase stars at half price. In addition to their special bonuses, every buddy doubles whatever actions a player takes. If a player purchases a star with their buddy, they’ll purchase two stars. However, if a player lands on a Bowser space with their buddy, they’ll be facing double the consequences.

The buddy system won’t be too overpowered, as each buddy only lasts for three turns, so their benefits are fairly short-lived. Another wild card in this new mechanic is that buddies don’t have much loyalty to whoever won the showdown minigame. Players can lose their buddy anytime another player es them on the board, at which point the buddy will tag along with the moving player.

Mario Party Jamboree Has Improved The Franchise Formula

The Best Mario Party On The Nintendo Switch

The Mario Party franchise has been going steady for over two decades, which means that the formula has been fairly finely tuned. But Super Mario Party Jamboree has proven that even after more than 20 years and 12 mainline games, any series can keep getting better, even if it did stumble a few times in the past. The update to the ally system and the removal of the character-specific dice are massive improvements, but altogether, this latest Mario Party game brings back the fun and chaos that made the original Nintendo 64 game iconic.

Is This The Best Mario Party Ever?

26 Years Of Partying Has Brought Us Here

Screen Rant's review of Super Mario Party Jamboree goes into more detail, but this may just be the best Mario Party game ever. If it’s not the best of all time, then it’s certainly the best Mario Party released on the Nintendo Switch. The main game has been streamlined, with smaller boards and cheaper items, so that no match overstays its welcome. All the new boards are fantastic, with themes that directly impact the match, like Roll ‘Em Raceway encouraging players to make fast laps around the board to get items and Stars.

Any players that want a more competitive game can turn to Jamboree's Pro Rules, which reduce the number of random events and actually reveal what players need to do to earn the Bonus Stars at the end of the match. This addition makes Super Mario Party Jamboree the best game for any longtime fans of the series who want to seriously compete against friends without a random Bonus Star throwing the game.

Source: Nintendo of America/YouTube