Super Mario Party Jamboree Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV Review

Like it or not, Mario Party is one of the more important pillars in Nintendo’s franchise mix and has been ever since it began life on the Nintendo 64. Like Mario Kart and Smash Bros., it’s a series of games that’s emblematic of the company’s social gaming philosophies, and like those other franchises, it’s had hits and near-misses. Last year’s Super Mario Party Jamboree represents the former, a creative and comprehensive iteration with a smorgasbord of top-notch minigames and twists on the typical boards.

But now there’s a new Switch! And so it is that Mario and friends have Jamboree’d their way onto the Switch 2 with a nu-gen-exclusive version in Super Mario Party Jamboree Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV. I won’t be typing it out in full again, if I can help it, but that title says a lot about the nature of this release. Rather than a “Switch 2 Edition” or “Definitive” release, this is essentially a bundle of full game and DLC expansion that brings with it not just a handful of upgrades, but a chunk of entirely new content. Knowing that helps to make sense of the $30 premium this new version commands,  but whether or not the inflated price tag makes this version of the game a compelling purchase is really going to boil down to how much you enjoy Mario Party. In particular how much you already enjoy Mario Party Jamboree.

Booting up this new version of the game, you’re presented with two mode options based on the two core components of the package. You can either jump into the base game as it always has been, complete with any existing progress, or you can enter the new Jamboree TV mode, which operates as an entirely separate affair where you’ll find all the new Switch 2-specific goodies.

Jamboree TV presents as a kind of televised game show experience in the front-end, which gives it a nice bit of personality and a point of difference from the main game. It goes all-in on the idea, popping your avatars in the audience and calling on them, “Come on down!” style when it’s time to play. The decision to have the thing hosted by one of the talkative flowers from Super Mario Wonder is inspired, though if you’re one of the few weirdos who didn’t like those yappy legends, you’ve got the option to shut them up. Rolling the staff credits against a cheering post-show audience whenever you quit the Jamboree TV menu is also chef’s kiss.

Pauline and DK lookin’ haggard here

Once the cameras are rolling, you’ve got the choice of three-ish modes of play. The first is Bowser Live, a team-based competition hosted by the King of Koopas himself. It’s a best-of-three-rounds situation where each round is a camera or microphone-based minigame (depending on whether or not you own a compatible USB camera). Then there’s Carnival Coaster, which instead puts a focus on new minigames using the Mouse Mode found on the Joy-Con 2 controllers. Here, you’ll pick from one of five themed coasters and ride as a duo, using the mouse controls to shoot down targets and stopping every so often to engage in a mouse-based minigame.

Both of these modes, as you might glean, are very short-form and designed around specific functions of the Switch 2, so they’re far from replacements for the traditional Mario Party experience but enjoyable enough asides. Should you hunger for the board-based, Mario Party proper, but you’re still after something more snackable, Jamboree TV does also offer some new ways to play the core game. Frenzy Mode chucks you into the deep end of a game with only five turns to complete – and some welcome twists to kick things off with a bit of heat – while Tag Team Rules finally sorts out a way to play regular Mario Party in competing pairs.

Each of these is great fun, particularly Tag Team which sprinkles in some satisfying strategic plays like partner-warping Rally Spaces and items that allow you to hold hands and double your opportunities. Frenzy Mode is perfect for that score-settling quickie or “one more game” when it’s already 2AM, though each time I’ve played it I’ve seen one player gain an early lead and quite successfully hold onto it for the paltry remaining turns. Not the most balanced way to play, then, but good enough in a pinch.

Regardless of the format of game you choose, any Mario Party experience will live or die by its minigames, and Jamboree’s assortment of new games – based on the Switch 2’s exclusive capabilities – is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the mouse control-based stuff is universally great, potentially even one of my favourite varieties of minigame at this point. One has you scooping different ice cream flavours to make orders, another sees you meticulously place dominos and topple them to reach a goal, or perhaps you might find yourself spray-painting Goombas, can-shaking simulation and all. The beauty of these is in how well the mouse stuff works, especially on the nearest available (consenting) thigh or couch cushion. There’s no need to rearrange your living room gaming situation to make it all happen.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the new camera and microphone minigames. Right away the necessity for a USB camera, like the $70 one Nintendo sells for the Switch 2, makes it an additional cost to entry on top of the more expensive version of the game. The idea of needing extra peripherals to access all the content in a purchased title didn’t go down well when folks were talking about the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, so I can’t imagine they’ll be thrilled about it here.

It almost makes it a blessing that the minigames that require the camera are a bit of a bust, anyway. Playing with friends, with the official Switch 2 camera sat on a coffee table and pointing right at the group, we struggled to play any of the games with anything approaching reliable input. That goes for the video-specific stuff, like a game where we tilted our heads to try and catch falling apples, or audio-based activities like yelling at a car to make it accelerate. That last one sounds like it should be a blast, right? But attempting to make it happen with any kind of consistency or feeling of skill seemed impossible for us.

Not pictured – me, yelling alone in my living room because I needed to take screenshots

This is one of those “your mileage will vary” situations, and the Switch 2’s ability to process multiple humans from a grainy webcam image is a cool trick, but it’s ultimately unreliable. There’s absolutely merit to forcing my friends to bob around and scream at my TV, I’ll give it that, and props to Nintendo for trying EyeToy/Kinect decades later. Mario Party can be serious business though, and serious business needs reliable tools.

Final Thoughts

Jamboree TV feels like going to your favourite restaurant for the twentieth time and the chef rewards your loyalty with a tantalising mise-en-bouche. It adds an exciting new element to a warm staple, and the shared surprise sticks in conversation among those at the table, even if not all of it was to your tastes. The table across the way though, new to the cuisine and budgeting out their orders, might be more inclined to measure their enjoyment at every course. Either way, we’re all punching on over Bonus Stars.