Something is Missing in Mario Party: Superstars

Mario Party: Superstars is about to land on the Nintendo Switch, and for as many ways that this latest entry is doing things right, there are things it’s most definitely going to do wrong, in the eyes of EVERY single person who plays it. And it’s really not a fault of the development team, but more so an issue with creating remastered collections. You ultimately will forget something.

What’s Going Right?

There are a ton of things going for Mario Party Superstars! No need for motion control and Joy-Con means that even those on Nintendo Switch Lite can enjoy Mario Party! This also means that games originally released on the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube – where motion control wasn’t a thing – are going to be kept in their truest form. Get ready to break some controller buttons and control sticks, folks! If you didn’t, it wouldn’t be a true classic Mario Party experience, right?

The game is also adding new quality of life features that are sure to be hits with fans. As IGN pointed out in their preview of the game, you can now save games and reload them later, making a 30 round turn more accessible than ever before. You can also add turns to a game as the last place player, as long as others agree of course. And all minigames are avaialbe to play from the get-go, meaning you won’t have to unlock them as you play. Another bonus.

But with so much seemingly going right, what could possibly go wrong?

What will be wrong?

Something. Something will be wrong. For me, what the development team got wrong was not including my favourite board in the collection, Western Land from Mario Party 2 on the Nintendo 64. And when I finally get my hands on the game on Friday, I’m sure there will be a mini-game or two that I greatly adored not present in the collection.

To be fair, that’s not really an issue that can be helped – this plagues all games that try to remaster and franchise in one go. Unless you are bringing EVERY board and EVERY mini-game to the new experience, someone somewhere is going to have an issue with what was selected and what was slashed on the cutting room floor.

Still, we can hold out for DLC packages that will bring more boards and games, right? At least that is what I’m hoping for. Let’s begin the Western World 2021/2022 campaign, friends!