After nothing but radio silence for the past couple of years, Super Mario Party got a new update that returned it to the realms of relevancy by making its party modes playable online. Switch owners all over have taken it as an opportunity to breathe new life into this title during the global pandemic and are having a blast. However, Mario Party games have mostly failed to innovate and create fresh new ideas since the original sequels on the N64. For the next entry in the franchise, Nintendo should focus on making some changes that would amount to the ultimate Mario Party experience – and, judging from the success of games like Smash Bros., it’s something fans would enjoy.
Super Mario Party’s online update was a huge change of pace for fans of the series. Over time, it has begun to feel as if each new Mario Party game was Nintendo’s least ambitious offering of that year. The GameCube had four very similar Mario Party titles to choose from, and the N64 had three. Mario Party 9 and 10 were infamous for introducing a car mechanic which bundled everyone together, something that was seen as an unpopular change for series fans. The lack of online support until very recently was also extremely frustrating, since players had been clamoring for such a feature to be included since the Wii’s Mario Party games.
It’s great to see that Nintendo finally added online play to Super Mario Party because it’s a big step in the right direction in the eyes of series fans. Before that, Nintendo had also listened to player requests and brought back the traditional design of boards in which each player independently controls themselves with dice. Super Mario Party looks much more like the classic GameCube and N64 titles than the Wii and Wii U games did, which has pleased many players. Fans are finally getting things that they want from Mario Party, but Nintendo certainly could add more content that would make fans happy.
What The Ultimate Mario Party Game Looks Like
Obviously, players want a bunch of maps and minigames to choose from, but one of the elements of Mario Kart 8 that was extremely exciting for fans was the inclusion of crossover characters like in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Being able to race around as Link or the Inklings was a great time and it shook up the game in a small but effective way. Including some similar crossover characters in Mario Party would be a great change of pace since it would also open the door for crossover items and stages. Perhaps players could plant Pikmin on a space as a trap and steal coins from the next player who passes it, or throw Poké Balls to steal ally characters from nearby opponents.
Super Mario Party introduced character-specific dice that made choosing a character a strategic choice rather than a purely aesthetic one. Nintendo could take this to the next level by adding crossover character-specific abilities that can only be used a finite number of times per game via a cooldown or by being extremely expensive, for example. Animal Crossing’s Isabelle could have an ability which allows her to pocket offensive items like Poison Mushrooms or Coinados so she can use them later. Maybe Kirby’s ability could be a copy, which allows him to copy the actions of the player before them by rolling the same number on Mario Party dice and using the same items. It would be hectic, yet strategic, as well as a celebration of Nintendo’s many other franchises, which is exactly what the ultimate Mario Party experience should be.
