This latest entry in the Mario Party franchise is the best yet. My friends and I played a 15-round game, and we had a blast. Jamboree improves greatly on the formula set by past entries in the series. Superstars was great, sure, but had too many recycled maps and minigames and made it feel a bit stale to me.
The number of playable characters totals 22; the largest ever and each one has their own unique jingle when their turn starts. They could have made the characters harder to unlock, though. Oh well.
There are 110 total minigames that are a fantastic mix of old and new. My favorites so far are Sandwiched and Hot, Hot Hop. Roughly half of the mini games are in the base rotation while the rest are featured in Jamboree, item, and dueling mode. Additional mini games are also featured in multi-player games.
Speaking of which, there are two unique multiplayer modes with their own unique minigames. The first one is a co-op player online mode where your objective is to defeat a supersized Bowser. The other is a competitive Fall Guys-like mode for up to 20 players.
Jamboree improves over Superstars with its five beautiful brand-new boards and two original ones. Each one has not only unique stage features, but items as well. For example, on Roll 'em Raceway, the characters all drive karts and can use the turbo dice, which allows you to roll 4 separate dice, albeit at the expense of passing every space as you move, including stars.
There's a new rules system that gives players the option to modify the party settings however you like, such as the number of turns, setting bonus stars on and off, choose to select minigames either by vote or random, and toggle motion control. This reintroduces the same strategic styled gameplay first introduced in Super Mario Party.
The game's best new component is the Jamboree Buddies, who randomly appear on the board and, if you acquire them, can grant you bonuses, like collecting double coins or stars. Unfortunately, they're very easy for other players to steal by simply moving past them.
This is definitely an improvement over some of the more questionable entries in the past decade, like Star Rush for the Nintendo 3DS. Plus, it's a great final Mario Party entry on the Switch as the system's life draws to a close and a must play for Mario fans in general.
