The mayhem of Mario Party: A primer on Nintendo's party game dynasty

With 19 games over released over 25 years, here's all you need to know about this long-running, but frustration-inducing series.

Mario Party in one picture. That time one of my friend’s punched my character (Yoshi) out of the way to win a mini game.

This weekend I dropped spiky blocks on my mates' heads, attempted to cherry-pick them off a conveyor belt and ultimately defeated them by stealing their stuff.

It was all in the name of a good time, of course. Surely they enjoyed it as much as me? And to be clear, it was done virtually, through playing the latest Mario Party game.

There's perhaps no other video game series quite like Mario Party. It's accessible for new players, yet can be incredibly frustrating for any who pick up the controller. It's formulaic, yet creative. It's also a game series where each sequel isn't necessarily an improvement.

Curiously, there are very few other games like it in the market. That's remarkable when you consider that almost every big title these days has a doppelganger floating about.

With Super Mario Party Jamboree — the 19th game in the series — out late last week, I wanted to delve into what makes this really unique form of game tick and map (with data) how it's played out over the years.

Hold on, what even is Mario Party?

At its core, Mario Party is a digital board game. You pick a character, take turns rolling a die, move across a board and then at the end of each turn play a mini game for currency (coins) to use on the board. You then spend these coins on stars, and the player with the most stars and coins at the end of a set number of turns wins. Each board has its own twists and complications, but this gameplay loop is at its core.

The franchise started with the first Mario Party in 1998 and has since gone on to release 19 games across Nintendo's home and handheld consoles.

Are there any other games like it?

There are other board game simulators. There are many digital versions of Monopoly. And there's also Tabletop Simulator, which helps you play other board games online.

But in terms of straight copies, not many. Crash Bash (2000) and Sonic Shuffle (2000) are the only two remarkable ones. These games take a lot of work given the number of mini games contained within them, and their middling sales (with occasional highlights) have likely deterred competitors.

So, why not just play a board game?

Well, it's a lot easier to set up and pack up than a board game for starters. But also, the mini games are generally quite good and are really interactive.

Mario Party is essentially my go-to game for when I'm playing with people who don't game, aside from an assortment of mobile-based Jackbox games. It's the one game that no matter how much I play it, any level of skill won't guarantee that I'll win. And I think that's a great thing for playing with a broader group, as if you win all the time, it's really not very fun for everyone else.

That being said: Having prior knowledge of how a board works is helpful. And many of the mini games are skill-based to an extent. But nothing guarantees that you'll win the actual win a round.

Why are there so many Mario Party games?

These games often sell enough copies to justify the next one. As you can see in the chart below, game sales of Mario Party are often tied to the success of the console they are released on. The first Mario Party on the Wii (Mario Party 8) and the first on the Nintendo Switch (Mario Party Superstars) outperformed their peers. (The same goes for Mario Party DS, which sold 9 million units, but I excluded portable console games from my data work to contain the data here).

These games perform well, but don’t hit the dizzying highs of Nintendo’s A-list titles. To put this data in perspective: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time which released a year before the first Mario Party shipped over 7 million copies. Smash Bros Ultimate, which released in the same year as Super Mario Party sold over 34 million copies.

Metacritic data isn't reliable enough for me to graph for each game, however, at a surface level there isn't really a correlation between sales and review scores. For instance: Mario Party Superstars — which was a throwback title to the original Nintendo 64 Mario Party games — is a better title than Super Mario Party, but still sold significantly less copies.

How have the games evolved over time?

More often than not they've gotten bigger. As you can see below, the total number of mini games in each mainline release has almost doubled over more than two decades.

Yet, the number of game boards in each title has somewhat stagnated, with the first game actually having the most of all titles. This is typically because Mario Party games come packed with a heap of other modes and games. Most are somewhat forgettable and aren't repeated, but the amount of additional boards often fluctuates in line with the number of additional game modes.

Perhaps one of the fundamental challenges in designing these games is making each title unique enough to warrant a new purchase, as these games generally do age pretty well. Back when there was a gap in new release Mario Party games, my mates and I would play Mario Party 2 on the Switch's Nintendo 64 emulator. That game is still regarded as one of the series' best entries.

Sometimes, the developers go a bit too far and attempt to reinvent the franchise, but these games (Mario Party 9, Mario Party 10) often fall flat. Newer games (Super Mario Party, Mario Party Superstars) stick a bit closer to the original formula with a few small tweaks.

Are these games suited playing with others online?

Historically, no. Nintendo has really shunned online play with Mario Party for a good while now, despite the game lending itself towards it.

The past few games have flirted with online play. This latest rendition, Super Mario Party Jamboree, allows you to match-make online. The issue being: Playing a 90-minute (minimum), potentially frustrating, game online with strangers isn't great. It’s also supported with a global ranking system. Imagine being the best in the world at a heavily chance-based game!

There are other online modes focused around mini games, which play a bit better. But the game series hasn't really cracked a winning formula for this style of online play. It's still best enjoyed with people you know, all sitting in front of one telly.

Are these games good for kids?

My assumption would be yes, but I don't have kids. Patrick Klepek's Crossplay — a Substack for parents who game — notes that the randomness of the game actually ends up really upsetting children.

Take it from me and my years of experience playing, you can go from winning to losing very quickly in Mario Party. Another player can steal your stars. If someone lands on the wrong space, they can end up having all stars redistributed across players. Then, at the end of the game, it awards bonus stars for performance on the board, which can totally tip the balance regardless of how you played.

It takes a lot of maturity to not get salty when you lose, and conversely win graciously when playing a Mario Party game. Until that final turn, it really is anyone's game.

What makes for a good Mario Party game as opposed to a bad one?

For me: It comes down to how snappy the turns are and how fast the overall game moves. As with every board game, if one player’s turn soaks up a lot of time it drags down the rest of the game. You want the game to move at a pace, and I know from playing a lot of boardgames that it’s more fun when you are the active player.

In my years of playing these games, I’ve also found that Mario Party boards that go for around 15 to 20 turns each, but still take around an hour to 90 minutes to be the right balance. This means there’s an even amount of time between bouncing off mini games and playing the board. Too many mini games bogs down the board-based gameplay, and too long spent on the board is dull too. 

Again, I think Mario Party 2 is the best comparison here, and is still possibly the best in this over two-decade old series.

What are some memorable moments from your time playing this game series?

I've seen it all. I've had all my stars stolen through a random event that reallocated them. I've seen a commanding lead (3+ stars more than 2nd place) stolen by an event called 'Bowser Revolution' that redistributes stars and coins equally across all players (lovingly known as a 'communism event’ among my friends).

I've also had my mates gang up on me because I "own" the game, therefore I must be the best at it. I'll be honest, even as a veteran, playing Mario Party hasn't felt great all of the time. But the funny stories that often emerge out of playing it often trump the low-points of the hyper-competitive gameplay.

Nowadays, perhaps the biggest kick I get out of a Mario Party game is playing with non-gamer mates and seeing them win and have fun — often in spite of their initial hesitancy to play. So much of it is chance-based, you can win without any knowledge or prior skills.

And to prove that point, here's a video montage of Mario Party mini games where the person playing Luigi does absolutely nothing against computer-controlled players and still wins.

A good reminder that sometimes in life, turning up is all it takes.

Have you played Mario Party? If so, what are your fond memories of the game? And if you are new to gaming, would you give this a go? Let me know in the comments below.

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What I'm Playing: Super Mario Party Jamboree

Bowser’s not beneath stealing coins from his kids.

Is bigger always better? This latest rendition of Mario Party purports to have more mini games, more playable characters and more modes of play than any of its predecessors. There is likely something for everyone in this latest game. However, it's arguable that you don't purchase a Mario Party game for side content. The real focus is the boardgames gameplay and mini games, and everything else is window dressing.

So how do these core components stack up? I've played a total of three rounds of the game: one with a large group of friends, one with my housemate and one solo with AI-controlled players. I found the game to be pretty easy to pick up. All of the new boards were very straightforward. The fact my housemate — who has only ever played Mario Party once before — cleanly won our game shows that the balance is there in terms of being accessible for earlier players but still being fun for veterans.

My biggest quibble really revolves around the pacing. Turns take longer in this rendition of the series. A 10-turn game is slated to take 90 minutes (in all instances I played, it came in just under that). That's a lot of time spent on not a lot of game actions.

One of the biggest fillers of time is the Jamboree system — the flagship mechanic of this game. At a random point during the game, another character will float onto the board. If you get to their space, you trigger a series of mini games. Winning those sees that character follow you, and essentially double up your game actions on the board. When you hit a space that allows you to buy a star, for instance, with an extra character in tow you can purchase two instead of one. Each character also comes loaded with another unfair advantage. Mario adds to your die roll, Peach discounts your next star, and so on and so forth.

It's an incredibly powerful advantage. But to win it, you need to navigate a gauntlet of three separate mini games. The player who initiates this whole palaver gets an advantage in those games to reward them for getting to the Jamboree buddy first. I like the idea of the Jamboree system as a neat twist. But ultimately, I want the option to turn it off. It just takes so long to negotiate the three mini games (up to 10 minutes), and these days Mario Party boards are already sufficiently complex. That hard-won advantage can also disappear if another player simply passes you on the board too, as the Jamboree buddy will peel off you and follow them instead.

Super Mario Party Jamboree has recognised that there are long-running fans of the series and has introduced a more streamlined rule setup called Pro Mode. This takes some chance out of the game and lends itself to more strategic thinking. More importantly, it gives the player some agency in deciding the way they want to play. It's a step in the right direction. My question is why haven't they gone further?

The ability to extensively customise your games would be an excellent addition to the franchise. Want to turn off items? Why not. Want to play a chaotic game with even more Jamboree buddies on the board at one time? Go for it. Halve the coins for mini game wins to favour newer players? Sure. Will it break the game? Maybe. But you are breaking it on your terms.

As a legacy series, I think Mario Party is in a position where it needs to allow players to craft their own fun. Give us the framework and let us set own rules, rather than dictate their terms of engagement with the game. It’s not a new idea. This is often the way tried and true board games evolve. There's a fundamental set of rules that the game follows, and then players iterate on them creatively.

Again, this is a small qualm in what is a very strong package of games, boards and modes. It stacks up nicely against Mario Party 2 and the last entry, Mario Party Superstars. And in full fairness, this is really just an initial impression of the game.

Mario Party games are incredibly hard to review, as your experience with them is circumstantial and changes each round you play. I'm posting my hot take here for now, and may revisit (I’ll edit and link if I do) my view as I end up playing more games with friends and give online gameplay a crack.

Worth trying if you like: Mario Party, Jackbox Games or board games in general.

Available on: Nintendo Switch

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