Mario Party: What Happened To Nintendo’s Competitive Series

When it comes to party games, nobody does it like Nintendo. The Japanese gaming juggernaut is famous for their lighthearted, family friendly games for people of all ages, which lends itself to the natural togetherness of a good party game. While Nintendo has a plethora of party games many could argue as their best, there is a clear-cut crown jewel; Mario Party. Originally released in 1998 on the Nintendo 64, the Mario Party series has seen 17 different entries across nearly every console or handheld gaming system Nintendo has released. The series is famous for its board game-style of play and endless supply of addictive mini games.

Early entries in the series, like Mario Party and Mario Party 2, are still considered two of the best, if not the best, parties games ever made. Unfortunately, while they are still entertaining, newer games in the series, like 2018’s Super Mario Party, lack a lot of the charms that made the original games so special. This wasn’t a sudden change, but the culmination of a gradual tone shift. Early entries in the Mario Party series were cutthroat and had a strong every-player-for-themselves atmosphere, while newer games feel more gimmicky and take away some of the competitiveness that made them such great party games.

It all started after Mario Party left the Nintendo 64. While the first two Mario Party games on the GameCube weren’t bad, the latter two, Mario Party 6 & 7, tried incorporating new ideas in an attempt to keep the series fresh. Nintendo is a company famous for their innovative new ideas, like handheld consoles or motion controls, but they’ve also had their fair share of misses. Both Mario Party 6 & 7 featured a new additional microphone that could plug into the GameCube console. There were specific mini games that would require the microphone to play, but the mic worked poorly, added little to the game, and just felt like a gimmick.

Mario Party Needs To Return To Its Cutthroat Roots

After the GameCube entries, the Mario Party series would become even more gimmicky as it incorporated the Wii’s motion controls. Mario Party 8 was the first game in the series to release on the Wii and while it isn’t bad – there really aren’t any bad Mario Party games – it focused too heavily on the Wii’s inconsistent motion controls, which could make playing a pain sometimes. The most egregious change in the series came with the next two iterations, Mario Party 9 & 10. Rather than compete against each other, these two games flipped the game’s core concept and had everyone move across the board at the same time and work together as a team. A Mario Party game that promotes working together rather than back-stabbing is sickening to think about for franchise veterans. Mario Party 9 & 10 still had enjoyable mini games, but almost every other aspect of the game didn’t feel like Mario Party.

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, but after Nintendo took such a stark change in direction with the previous two Mario Party games, they decided to get back to square one with Super Mario Party on the Switch. This was the closest thing to any of the original Mario Party games Nintendo had made in quite some time and while it is the best Mario Party title in over a decade, it also feels like a tease. All of the elements of the original Mario Party games are present in Super Mario Party, but they feel neutered. Maps are much smaller and a lot simpler, there are fewer items to buy in the shops, and stars cost half as much as they did in the original games, making everything feel too easy and quickly repetitive. It’s nice to see the latest entry in the series come so close to recapturing the magic of the original games, but it’s also heartbreaking to see how much they still missed the mark.

It’s disappointing to see what’s become of the Mario Party series. Between 1998-2007, eight different Mario Party games released on Nintendo home consoles. In the 13 years since, there have only been three. Fans lost interest due to gimmicky games, but if Nintendo can build on Super Mario Party, there’s hope the Mario Party series can return to its former glory.

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