Today Nintendo showcased several new features coming to Super Mario Party during Nintendo Treehouse Live at E3. While the franchise has been around for over 20 years now, designers are still managing to develop new mechanics and creative minigames.
First, we were able to see one of the game boards, Whomp’s Domino Ruins, and got a peek at the updated menus and board spaces. These are not the only things that are new. The live demo revealed new ways to play the game using the Nintendo Switch, several minigames, and more!
One of the biggest reveals is the new character-unique dice blocks. Players can choose between two dice blocks during the game: a regular one and one with different sides depending on whom you’re playing as. Each dice block also matches the appearance of its character. Luigi’s dice block has several 1s for when you’re just one space away from where you want to land. Mario’s dice block has several 3s, raising your chances to get a decent roll. Bowser’s dice block has several high numbers, allowing you to get ahead of the competition. However, there’s also a chance you could lose coins instead of moving, so you have to decide if it’s worth taking the risk. This feature adds a new strategic element to the game when selecting your character.
New items were also revealed, including the Buddy Phone. This allows you to call an ally to roll with you, combining your dice to get a higher number. The Golden Drink turns you into gold and gives you a coin for every space you move, while the Coinado steals 5 to 10 coins from a rival. The Warp Box will allow you to warp to a space near a teammate, and the Fly Guy Ticket will send Fly Guy off to steal a rival’s item. All players start out with no items and they can be collected around the board as you play.
Several mini-games were also shown. There’s Slaparazzi, a game where you push other characters out of the way to get in front of the camera before the photo is taken. Smash the Crab is a 3 vs.1 game where you either steer the crab, attack the single player with giant hammers, or are the poor soul avoiding these attacks. Another 3 vs.1 game is Dust Buddies, where you compete by trying to vacuum up the most dust in the time limit, with the single player getting an enhanced vacuum and the other players sharing one with multiple nozzles. The Sizzling Steak and Trike Harder minigames both take advantage of Joy-Cons by using motion controls.
The game will contain 80 minigames including Gridiron Gauntlet, Fish Food, Off the Chain, Candy Shakedown, and many more. They also briefly mentioned the Plaza space where you can navigate through the different games and game modes, however, they said they didn’t want to show it yet since it could give away some surprises.
Another exciting feature is Toad’s Rec Room, where those with access to two Nintendo Switch devices are able to play Super Mario Party in a whole new way. Players will actually manipulate the two devices physically to complete games in this mode. While this was shown briefly in the launch trailer at E3 yesterday, the demonstration showed a game where you have to line up a photo of a banana as fast as possible by sliding the Switches around on a table. Although this is an optional area in the game, it adds a new, unique way to play with friends who also own a Nintendo Switch.
Super Mario Party is coming to the Nintendo Switch October 5, 2018. To see gameplay of Super Mario Party for yourself, you can watch the demo on the Nintendo Twitch channel here, starting at 01:34:15.
Does the sound of these minigames and the character-unique dice block interest you more in Super Mario Party? Have you played many Mario Party games over the years? Let us know in the comments section below!
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