is a 2021

party video game Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games.Frankel, Lillia ...

developed by

NDcube is a Japanese video game developer and a wholly owned subsidiary of Nintendo based in Japan with offices in Tokyo and Sapporo. The majority of the company is made up of former employees of Hudson Soft. They have also been the developers of the ...

and published by

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...

for the

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

. It is the twelfth home console installment in the ''

Mario Party is a party video game series featuring characters from the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise in which up to four local players or computer-controlled characters (called "CPU (gaming), CPUs") compete in a board game interspersed with mi ...

'' series, and the second for the Nintendo Switch following '' Super Mario Party'' (2018). It was released on October 29, 2021. The game features five remade boards from the original

Nintendo 64 The (N64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and on March 1, 1997, in Europe and Au ...

trilogy and a total of 100 minigames curated from previous entries in the series, similar to the

Nintendo 3DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo. It was announced in March 2010 and unveiled at E3 2010 as the successor to the Nintendo DS. The system features backward compatibility with Nintendo DS video games. As an eighth-generatio ...

game '' Mario Party: The Top 100'' (2017). Unlike ''Super Mario Party'', ''Superstars'' can be played with button controls. Upon release, ''Mario Party Superstars'' received mostly positive reviews from critics who praised the game for its homage to the series' history with its classic minigames and boards, as well as its online functionality.

Gameplay

''Mario Party Superstars'' features gameplay similar to the first eight entries in the ''Mario Party'' series, without the vehicle mechanics from the previous two numbered console games. Four characters, played by either humans or AI, traverse one of five boards in the game, collecting coins and stars. The player with the most stars at the end of the game wins. Stars are bought for twenty coins from Toadette, though can also be obtained via other methods. During a turn, each player rolls a die, enabling them to move the result of the roll - one to ten. Additionally, items may be used to affect themselves or other players. Between every round of four players moving, a randomly-selected minigame of 100 is played. All 100 minigames are taken from the previous entries in the series, 55 of which originate from the original N64 trilogy. "Mt. Minigames" is another mode, allowing players to freely play minigames without boards. All playable characters from the first three entries return, while

Birdo Birdo, known in Japanese as , is a fictional character in the ''Mario'' franchise. Her first appearance was as an enemy in '' Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic'', which was localized for English-language audiences as ''Super Mario Bros. 2''. Since th ...

and Rosalina are added.

Release

Nintendo revealed the game during the

Nintendo Direct Nintendo Direct is a series of online presentation or live shows produced by Nintendo, where information regarding the company's upcoming content or franchises is presented, such as information about games and consoles. The presentations began i ...

E3 2021 The Electronic Entertainment Experience 2021 (E3 2021) was the 26th E3, during which hardware manufacturers, software developers, and publishers from the video game industry presented new and upcoming products. The event, organized by the Entert ...

on June 15. The presentation revealed and featured remakes of the boards "Peach's Birthday Cake" from ''

'' and "Space Land" from ''

Mario Party 2 is a 1999 party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The second game in the ''Mario Party'' series, it was released in Japan in December and worldwide in 2000. The game received mostly positive revi ...

''. ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

''s Ryan Gilliam noted that the boards included events not seen in the original versions; moreover, he commented that the game borrowed assets — such as the user interface — from its predecessor '' Super Mario Party''. The presentation also confirmed that

will return as a playable character for the first time since ''

Mario Party 9 is a party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The ninth main installment in the ''Mario Party ''series, it was announced at E3 2011 and released in Europe, North America, and Australia in March 2012, followed by ...

'' (2012). The third game board announced was "Woody Woods" from '' Mario Party 3'', which was revealed on the game's official website. During a Nintendo Direct broadcast on September 23, the final two boards were revealed, being "Yoshi's Tropical Island" from ''Mario Party'' and "Horror Land" from ''Mario Party 2''. A few minigames from the original ''Mario Party'' which required players to rotate the analog stick as fast as they could make a return in ''Superstars''; these minigames feature a warning not to rotate the analog stick with the palm of the hand. This was due to incidents where players sustained hand injuries from using the analog stick in this way. Overall, the game features 100 minigames, 55 of which originated in the first three games of the series.

Reception

''Mario Party Superstars'' has an average score of 80/100 based on 88 reviews on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Mitchell Saltzman of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

gave a favorable review, stating: "''Mario Party Superstars'' is an amalgamation of some of the best boards, minigames, mechanics, and quality of life improvements from the whole series, resulting in the best ''Mario Party'' has been in a very long time." It sold 163,256 physical copies within its first week of release in Japan, making it the bestselling retail game of the week in the country. As of December 31, 2021, ''Mario Party Superstars'' had sold 5.43 million copies worldwide.

Awards and accolades

Notes

References

External links

Official website
* {{Portal bar, Video games, 2020s 2021 video games Casual games Mario Party Multiplayer and single-player video games NDcube games Nintendo Switch games Nintendo Switch-only games Party video games Video games developed in Japan