Super Mario Party
A return to traditional turn-based Mario Party gameplay.
Super Mario Party, a 2018 party game for the Nintendo Switch, was developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo. As the eleventh main series installment and the Switch’s first, it was marketed as a complete franchise refresh, reviving older gameplay elements while adding new ones. The game features four boards and 80 minigames, received positive reviews, and became the best-selling Mario Party title with over 21 million copies sold by December 2025.
Quick Facts
- Publisher
- Nintendo
- Director
- Shuichiro Nishiya
- Producer
- Toshiaki Suzuki
- Toyokazu Nonaka
- Keisuke Terasaki
- Atsushi Ikeda
- Kenji Kikuchi
- Designer
- Tatsumitsu Watanabe, Takeru Sugimoto
- Programmer
- Yuhei Tsukami, Yuya Kumagai
- Artist
- Keisuke Kasahara
- Takamitsu Manabe
- Tomoaki Watanabe
- Saori Yamashita
- Composer
- Masayoshi Ishi
- Toshiki Aida
- Satoshi Okubo
- Naruki Kadosaka
- Series
- Mario Party
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Super Mario Party brings back the classic turn-based board game format that hadn't been seen on a home console since Mario Party 9. Each player needs one Joy-Con to play, so extra controllers are required for multiplayer. The story kicks off when Mario and his pals throw a party to pick the Super Star. Bowser shows up with Bowser Jr. and his crew, insisting they deserve the title too. Toad, Toadette, and Kamek (who's there at Bowser's request) step in as judges, and the game begins. In the main Mario Party mode, up to four players take turns moving around the board. On your turn, you roll a dice block to see how many spaces you go, and items you've collected can change that number. Different spaces do different things: blue spaces give you three coins, red spaces take three away, and good luck or bad luck spaces trigger helpful or harmful effects. After everyone has taken a turn, all players jump into a minigame that hands out coins based on how well you do. These minigames come in many styles, like four-player free-for-alls, two-on-two or one-on-three matchups, and some use motion controls or HD Rumble. Across all modes, there are 80 minigames total, with objects colored the same way as in Mario Party 7. You can play any of them separately in the Free Play section. A single star appears at a random spot on the board; if you get there, you can buy it for ten coins. The winner is the player with the most stars and coins when the game ends. Coins also let you buy one-use items that give you an edge, like boosting your own dice roll, cutting another player's roll short, or using a golden pipe to warp straight to the star.
Development
Super Mario Party was developed by NDcube, who have handled every Mario Party title since Mario Party 9. Nintendo revealed the game on 12 June 2018 during their Nintendo Direct presentation for E3 2018, announcing a release date of 5 October 2018 exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. In August 2018, Nintendo stated that the game would not support the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and in September 2018 it was revealed that it would not support handheld mode, as the game supports one Joy-Con per player.
Reception
Super Mario Party received generally favorable reviews according to review aggregator Metacritic, becoming the highest-rated game in the series since Mario Party 2. OpenCritic assessed strong approval, with 60% of critics recommending it. In Japan, four Famitsu critics gave a total score of 34 out of 40. Samuel Claiborn of IGN called it the best Party in two console generations, delivering the couch multiplayer experience the series is famous for. Jordan Ramée of GameSpot praised the inclusion of character-specific dice blocks for adding small moments of strategy. Evan Slead of Electronic Gaming Monthly welcomed the removal of the car mechanic from Mario Party 9 and Mario Party 10. Alex Olney of Nintendo Life commended the overall presentation and the new hub world for adding charm. Game Informer's Brian Shea noted that the minigames' highlights shine bright enough that occasional duds do not matter. The game sold 142,868 physical copies in its first two days in Japan, outpacing its two home console predecessors. It debuted at #5 on United Kingdom sales charts for physical copies. By 31 October 2018, total sales reached over 1.5 million copies, making it the fastest-selling Mario Party game since Mario Party 6. As of March 2019, it sold 1.22 million copies in Japan, and by 31 March 2025, 21.16 million units.
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