Mario Party Superstars
A return to classic boards and minigames from the N64 era.
Released on the Switch in October 2021, Mario Party Superstars is a party game from NDcube and Nintendo. It is the twelfth home console Mario Party and the second for the Switch, following 2018's Super Mario Party. The game brings back five boards from the N64 trilogy and 100 minigames chosen from past titles.
Quick Facts
- Publisher
- Nintendo
- Director
- Takeru Sugimoto
- Producer
- Toshiaki Suzuki
- Toyokazu Nonaka
- Kenji Kikuchi
- Atsushi Ikeda
- Designer
- Tsutomu Komiyama
- Karin Kawakami
- Ayumi Takimura
- Programmer
- Yuuki Konno; Takumi Namba
- Artist
- Susumu Kuribayashi
- Keisuke Kasahara
- Takamitsu Manabe
- Saori Yamashita
- Composer
- Masayoshi Ishi
- Toshiki Aida
- Satoshi Okubo
- Series
- Mario Party
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Gameplay resembles the first eight Mario Party entries, without the vehicle mechanics of the previous two numbered console games. Four characters, controlled by humans or AI, traverse one of five boards collecting coins and stars; the player with the most stars wins. Stars cost twenty coins from Toadette but can also be obtained otherwise. Each turn, players roll a die (one to ten) and may use items. After every round, a randomly selected minigame from the pool of 100 is played. All 100 minigames come from previous entries, with 55 originating from the Nintendo 64 trilogy. "Mt. Minigames" mode allows free play of minigames without boards. Playable characters include all from the first four entries plus Birdo and Rosalina.
Release
Nintendo revealed the game during the Nintendo Direct at E3 2021 on June 15. The presentation showed remakes of "Peach's Birthday Cake" from Mario Party and "Space Land" from Mario Party 2, with Polygon's Ryan Gilliam noting that the boards included events not in the originals and that the game borrowed assets like the user interface from Super Mario Party. Birdo was confirmed as a returning playable character for the first time since Mario Party 9 (2012). "Woody Woods" from Mario Party 3 was announced on the game's official website. On September 23, a Nintendo Direct revealed the final two boards: "Yoshi's Tropical Island" from Mario Party and "Horror Land" from Mario Party 2. Minigames requiring rapid analog stick rotation from the original Mario Party return with a warning not to use the palm of the hand, due to past hand injuries.
Reception
Mario Party Superstars received "generally favorable" reviews on Metacritic, and OpenCritic reported that 76% of critics recommended it. IGN's Mitchell Saltzman gave it a "great" rating, calling it "the best Mario Party has been in a very long time." In its first week in Japan, it sold 163,256 physical copies, becoming the week's best-selling retail game. As of March 31, 2025, worldwide sales reached 14 million copies, making it the 18th best-selling game for the Nintendo Switch.
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