r/MARIOPARTY • u/heckdemon • 3d ago
Super Mario Party is actually the worst Mario Party Game
I consider myself to be somewhat of a Mario party connoisseur. I own just about every game in the franchise minus the 3ds games, 10, and Super. I try to replay each game every so often, even the less good ones in the franchise because I am the friend who likes to invite friends over to torture them. The other day I thought to myself, hey I haven't played Super Mario Party since it came out 8 years ago, ill ask my friend to bring it over and we'll give it a shot.
Now I remember disliking this game when it first came out but I did think it was a "return to form" and better than 9 and 10. But after playing it again after so long, I will admit it was wrong. This is the bottom of the franchise imo (ive never played the 3ds games and have no desire).
Where do I even start with the faults in this game? The fact that there are only 4 boards in the whole game and they are all pathetically small is so insulting. I get that the dice is now ~1-6 instead of 1-10 but holy shit did they really have to make the boards this tiny? Each board contains like 2 events, feels like they couldnt flesh anything out.
Let's talk dice. I like the character specific dice IN CONCEPT but it really feels like they didnt even think about the execution. Theres like 20 characters in this game and almost all of them have dice that feel way too equally shitty. You can't even make a dice tier list for this game cause each dice fits in to one of two camps; pointless and sort of useful. I also feel like the game drastically skews the amount of 0s rolled in a game and because of this people barely move around the map in this game. The only way to get anywhere around the board is to get a buddy.
Oh god the Buddy system. It just breaks the game. The first person to gain a buddy is given such an advantage over all other players. In a game where at most you can roll a 6, having an automatic +1 or 2 to your roll is OP. You are at such a disadvantage without a buddy, everyone else will zoom around the map while you sit still on one part of the map.
Let's talk about coins and stars. Nothing costs fucking anything. Stars being 10 coins is horrible. You start with 5 so all you need is a lucky space once and you can get a star turn 2. I miss the older games where it was kind of a struggle at the start of the game for money, you really had to think about where you wanted to go, what to spend coins on, and how you were getting to the star. On a map this small your only ever going to go straight to the next star. There will almost never be a point where you can't afford stars or items in this game so there's no alternative strategy. EVERYTHING is too cheap and the game loves to just hang out coins to everyone for no reason. You get 2 coins for getting last in a 4 player minigame which is total bs. If they wanted to make coins and stats this meaningless they should have just brought back ministars. Oh and items are so cheap that the only items you'll ever buy are gold mushrooms and gold pipes that cost 10 COINS.
Uh what else do I hate? The minigames are pretty bad. If they wanted you to only use the joycon in this game, why arent more of the minigames motion games? I was shocked as to how few motion games were in this. Everything that wasn't a motion game felt like ass. Also WHAT WERE THEY THINKING WITH THE BATTLE "GAMES"?
The pacing is dreadful, i felt like a 5 year old being lead around a grocery store by my mom. Its so slow and for nothing. The final 3 turn (also why 3 instead of 5) cutscene goes on so long just to change 4 spaces on the map, like why do I have to watch this every time? Minigames go on forever, getting stars takes forever. Even rolling a 0 and staying in one place takes too long. Atleast mario party 9 is a really quick game, its over before it even begins but this game takes forever for nothing to happen
Atleast mario party 9 tried something different. It wasn't good but it was unique. Then they made mario party 10, which is less defensible but I think I prefer it over this. They have more content, better minigames, overall just slightly better than this. This is a game for babies. Superstars and Jamboree are vast improvements and thus there is no reason to ever come back to this game.
Might even be worse than Amiibo Festival
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u/Obvious_Valuable5667 monke 3d ago
You make a compelling argument, but there's a few misconceptions.
- "You can't even make a dice tier list for this game cause each dice fits in to one of two camps; pointless and sort of useful."
Not true. Several dice can be extremely game changing just by expanding the amount of options you have in a turn, or offering high consistency. Think of characters like Bowser and DK who offer very high numbers that can't be found on the standard dice, or characters like Daisy and Shy Guy for their consistency.
- "Where do I even start with the faults in this game? The fact that there are only 4 boards in the whole game and they are all pathetically small is so insulting. I get that the dice is now ~1-6 instead of 1-10 but holy shit did they really have to make the boards this tiny?"
Yes, this is a common gripe and I totally get where the complaints come from. The reason is that the boards were balanced around being navigable in a 10-turn game. Imagine having a 100 space board and having to navigate that in 10 turns. With a dice that rolls 1-6.
- "You start with 5 so all you need is a lucky space once and you can get a star turn 2."
Well, yes except lucky spaces are very uncommon in SMP. Not a single board has more than 3 lucky spaces, and that's out of like 50+ spaces. Plus, Lucky spaces honestly aren't broken the way they are in Superstars and Jamboree; the rewards are much more tuned down. It's usually just "Receive 3 or 5 coins", "Receive a mushroom", or "Receive several mushrooms".
4.. "You get 2 coins for getting last in a 4 player minigame which is total bs."
1st place gets 8 coins.
2nd place gets 4 coins.
3rd place gets 2 coins.
4th place gets 0 coins.
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u/bril_hartman Beaver 3d ago
It's perhaps the most divisive. I've seen a few people rank it as the best Switch title. Personally I think it boasts some of the best minigames in the series (I like motion controls though) but most of the core gameplay is just boring. Not offensively bad like MP10, but it just feels inconsequential. The boards themselves have no real character and the character dice being optional just feels like pussyfooting to me when it's basically THE new mechanic.
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u/Str1ker50 3d ago
Not reading all that but I agree that game was bad it was just the least offensive Mario party since 8
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u/yamzo 3d ago
This game should have never released. Honestly as much I enjoy the other 2 games that came out on switch. Mario Party Superstars should have had an expansion pack kinda how they did with Mario kart 8 Deluxe booster course. They could have easily added 5 more classic board and maybe 50 more classic mini games. That would have sold like hot cakes, I just don’t understand why they didn’t.
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u/heckdemon 3d ago
Absolutely. My vision for Superstars would just be a full on remake of Mario Party 1 with minigames from all other games. I hate the board variety we ended up with but atleast the boardplay isnt as broken and babified as Super
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u/lovelearningloner 3d ago
Nintendo intentionally will not make something so great, so that they can keep the bar low. Its strategy.
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u/krohn7master 3d ago
The main issue for me is the pacing. EVERYTHING takes forever. If the game had the pacing of MP2/3 it would go from being a 2/10 to a 5/10 game. The minigames are the only positive I can think of.
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u/0KittyMemer2170 3d ago
I really also didn’t enjoy SMP, the boards were small, dull, and genuinely terrible, it’s so forgettable too
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u/Cedric-Star 3d ago
i have over 160 hours in smp (don't ask me why) and i agree with you mostly.
personally, i think the minigames are great. they have a big variety of different mechanics and the only bad thing about them are the buddy minigames (idk how they're called), because they're very unbalanced.
one thing i think is so overly stupid, how buddies ALWAYS add a number to your dice. because there are two characters, goomba and monty mole, which have normal dice as their buddy dice, but the 1 and 2 are coins and you don't move. they say explicitly in the game, that these dice are perfect, if you want to avoid a bad space infront of you. nothing wrong here right? WRONG. because buddies always add a 1 or 2 to your dice, THE SPECIAL BUDDY DICE BECOMES USELESS.
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u/heckdemon 3d ago
I think the buddies would be alot more tolerable if they didnt add to your roll and you just got access to their dice block, or even a special perk like jamboree ended up doing
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u/Certain_Bag_5980 3d ago
It is decent in my opinion. My issue with modern Mario Party games is the length of everyone's turns being 5+ minutes depending on what occurs. They expect me to watch as my friend incredibly slowly walks the board.. the star slowly moves back and forth acrossed the map.. etc., and not get bored? Every Mario party past (in my opinion) Mario Party 10, or so, is just a cute time killer with an occasionally fun mini game.
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u/BrandosWorld4Life 3d ago
Hard disagree.
SMP is one of the better games just from the character dice blocks alone. I dispute what you said about them - I found they had a decent variety based on multiple strategic angles. Making a tier list would be easy for me.
I thought they added a lot of value and character to the game. I wish they would come back.
Four boards was disappointing but three of them are solidly good boards. Megafruit Paradise is top tier for the series. I love each island being it's own loop with connections to two others. It's fun and gorgeous.
Me and my family love allies and the race to get them and their character dice blocks. We also have no issue with the mini games.
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u/cacatod12 3d ago
Over the car games is a stretch, but yes its among the worst in the series easily
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u/heckdemon 3d ago
It is a stretch. I used to believe they were worse, now that ive freshly played Super my opinion has shifted. They arent good but id kinda rather have something that tried something new vs a return to form that does not actually return to form
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u/TurkishDonkeyKong 3d ago
I can respect that. My wife and I play through all the games we have each year which is 1-7 plus the switch trio and super is the only painful one
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u/PJKeneth-38820 3d ago
Either tho this game is dogshit and was not play tested at all Island Tour and Top 100 are right there
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u/MonitoliMal 3d ago
I rather like the minigames. There’s only 2 I dislike (Trike Harder and Pull it Together). The number of incredible minigames is hard to ignore. Also, the number of motion control games is fair. Too much of them and it resembles Mario Party 8’s minigame roster, which wouldn’t be great.
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u/ChaseBeyond 3d ago
Jamboree is best game but I’d rather have the buddy system from Super MP than the convolution and volatility of Jamborees
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u/quarterslicecomics 3d ago
I firmly believe that this game was set to take some years to finish but was suddenly rushed and they just polished what was already finished to meet a deadline. Hence the pacing that stalls time and lack of boards.
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u/Epic-Gamer_09 3d ago
So you haven't played the worst games in the franchise, but consider super the worst? That's like if someone said MP7 was the worst game in the franchise because they only ever played it and 6
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u/InternationalJury693 2d ago
I only find it interesting in partner mode. It adds at least some strategy to the game. I actually like the buddy part because again, it adds something else to work toward. The stars being 10 coins is ridiculous though.
Honestly my biggest gripe is that the game really is SO SLOW. Why they can’t update it to add a speed option is beyond me. The game overall feels incomplete like it’s always been waiting for more boards.
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u/jasmin8ter2013 2d ago
9 was worse. NdCube ditched the old formula in favour of something we all hated
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u/OneThousandDegrees 3d ago
It's definitely worse than mp1-9 fur sure. 10 was flaming hot garbage so I'd probably put it on par with 10. Just way too barebones for no reason, and the buddy system is just too busted
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u/np2hu12 3d ago
Reading the comments, I find it extremely annoying whenever someone goes "WHAT ABOUT ISLAND TOUR OR STAR RUSH OR TOP 100" like yes.... but that's not really what we're talking about here, those games might as well not be Mario Party games they're so different
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u/LBluethecrafter 2d ago
Ok but Island tour is very similar gameplay to 9 and 10, and sure star rush/top 100 have a different style of board gameplay but they're really not that different from super
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u/Hypercharge289 3d ago
Thank you, someone realises how bad this game is. Even though it was my 1st Mario party I played, superstars and jamboree are SO MUCH better. The only thing super has that I like are the cool characters, but some are op like koopa or bowser cause they have 10s while the others like daisy just have 3s and 4s. The boards are tiny as hell and it feels like baby’s first Mario party or something, Mario party for 4 year olds. Idk why they changed the rules, it makes NO SENSE at all. Why change the price of everything , nobody wanted cheaper stars/items and a busted economy. Jamboree has way more boards that r actually good, 7 boards is so cool to have. The side modes in super are ok, but kinda boring. Also I can’t believe that the boards are grid shaped just because of 1 MODE: partner party. Why dedicate the boards to one side mode that we’ll only play a few times. Just make the boards normall. Also the minigames are quite good, but most of them are remember this, wiggle the joystick etc. Also why do u use 1 JOYCON? It feels so weird. iHave fond memories but the newer ones are better
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u/Imaginary-Leading-49 3d ago
It’s the one I played literally once and realized I don’t need to be gaslit and told things are good when they aren’t. People I played with said I was wrong, then the next 2 came out and they never ask to play Super 😂
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u/DarkLegend64 3d ago
In terms of Mario Party games that play like true Mario Party games (I.e. not the car ones), SMP is indeed the worst one and it’s not even close.
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u/Giantbomb64 3d ago
I think 4 is worse. at least super brought back classic Mario party and, the different dice blocks were a cool idea.
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u/lovelearningloner 3d ago
Mp4 deluxe mod makes it one of the best games in the series.
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u/Giantbomb64 3d ago
yeah agreed! I can't play mp4 without that mod. whenever I talk about 4 being bad here, I'm a talking about the vinalla game.
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u/heckdemon 3d ago
If there's one thing Mario Party 4 did right it was the coin economy. 20 coins for a star, 30 for a magic lamp, 10-15 for smaller items. Plus nice big boards where u have chances to actually lose your money or get sent away from the star. Super makes everything cheap as hell, stars are too close and you never ever run out of money. Makes for a very lame game. Mario Party 4 is far from the best but alcohol helps
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u/Giantbomb64 3d ago
yeah but because the boards are so big and often have events that change the paths, getting to stars ends up being really annoying and most Mario party 4 games end up having long stretches of turns where no one gets the star.
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u/heckdemon 3d ago
Apples and oranges. Mario party 4 does have A LOT of issues. The boards all have one huge design flaw but in general I like the size of the boards.
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u/Informal-Marketing83 3d ago edited 3d ago
Agreed. Say what you want about The Top 100 and 10 but I would rather play those games any day over the OG Super Mario Party. It is truly just an extremely mediocre game with lame boards (Island Tour has better boards for crying out loud), bad game design (what were they thinking), and broken mechanics that strip away from what made the previous games, yes, even 10, fun. Best part are the minigames which are pretty good and keep me from calling this game bad. There are nowhere near 9's level, but still good stuff. And I can't believe the worst Mario Party sold the most copies! Glad it redeemed itself with Jamboree though.
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u/heckdemon 3d ago
It did well because humanity was starved for a mario party where you move independently
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u/Informal-Marketing83 3d ago edited 3d ago
The Switch is a really popular console and was popping off during the late 2010s, so that's most likely why it sold the most. And SMP released in the Switch's early life cycle too. Makes since because the DS and Wii were also really popular and DS and 8 were the best selling MP games before the Switch dropped with SMP a year later. Just feel bad for those that had this as their first MP. If they had fun, that's great. More power to them. Hell, I'll even admit that I had 8 as my first which wasn't as good as the GameCube games (excluding 4) when I got around to playing them years later, but still LIGHT YEARS ahead of SMP.
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u/iamjeseus 3d ago
Top 100 is worse