We already knew what a big focus there would be on the regular party gameplay inSuper Mario Party Jamboree, but it was such a fun surprise to find how many other modes there would be in this Nintendo Switch Mario Party entry!

Whether you’re looking to help the Toads make items, take Impostor Bowser down a peg with up to seven other players online, be the first to dart across the finish line of the Koopathlon, play minigames, or get up and flap about your living room with the JoyCon, here are our favorite Super Mario Party Jamboree islands.

As you flip between islands as you’re up in the Balloon, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for any odd happenings around the map - you’ve gota whole photo album to completeback at the Data House!

8Paratroopa Flight School

Paratroopa Flight School is a floating island just over the pair of islands that look like JoyCon, asking you to stand up, outstretch your arms, and take flight! In this mode, you’ll hold one JoyCon in each hand, joysticks facing down, and physically maneuver your body to help the characters take to the flies.

There are a few different game modes to experience in Paratroopa Flight School, each of which require you to flap your arms in real life to ascend and steer. There’s:

And though the gimmick is fun, it feels like just that. Paratroopa Flight School feels like a neat chance to laugh at your friends looking silly the first time you play Super Mario Party Jamboree, but we can’t see it getting much play once the novelty wears off.

Maybe to celebrate his arrival as a playable character, the Toad’s Item Factory island offers players a chance to play with motion controls to navigate balls through a JoyCon-based colored platform maze on screen. You’ll team up with troupes of Toads inten areas with 30 total puzzles. They’re broken into sets of three, with each requiring more precision than the last.

This game mode is vastly more interesting when played with multiple people than it is to play it by yourself. Solo players use two JoyCon, one in each hand, and the JoyCons each control a set of colored platforms on the screen, which you’ll need to move carefully to get the ball to the goal at the end of the maze.

The real shine is in themultiplayer modein Toad’s Item Factory. When playing with only one other person, both of you will play with two JoyCon in hand, each controlling one set of the platforms in the puzzle. When four players are working together, though, each JoyCon controls an individual color platform, requiring communication and teamwork.

For colorblind players, Super Mario Party Jamboree’s got you covered with some accessibility settings - each platform in Toad’s Item Factory is also labeled with the four suits from a deck of cards, in addition to one of four colors, so you’ll still be able to tell which platforms you’re moving.

6Rhythm Kitchen

If you’ve got some musical inclinations, if you find yourself toe-tapping to the groove on songs, give Rhythm Kitchen a try! This island, the second of the two JoyCon islands right beside Toad’s Item Factory, pits you against three other players (CPU or human) to compete in a series of food-based motion minigames.

Using a single JoyCon, you’ll need tofeel the rhythm of the music(and pulse in the JoyCon) in these games andmatch your motion to the beatin order to help some of the other characters -with Waluigi finally included in the foreground for once - as they create a series of delectable dishes for an esteemed panel of judges: three colorful Yoshis.

Team up to play a series of rhythmic minigames, each of which task you with some element of food preparation on screen. There arefour different difficultiesto explore, each featuring different minigames in different quantities. Feeling brave? The Remix option is a true test of cooking skill!

And while the theme is fun and the beats are groovy, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who says their favorite part of the Nintendo Switch is motion controls. While this console is leagues better with motion controls than other consoles have been in the past, it still feels like a flash in the pan gimmick (if you’ll pardon the pun).

5The Party Plaza

Sure, it’s not what you think of when you initially think of islands in Super Mario Party Jamboree, butthe Party Plazais where the whole adventure starts! Not only is the Party Plaza where you can go tobuy new reactionsor check your game data, it’s also the home of one of the more interesting single-player games:the Party Planner Trek.

Help Kamek and friends get everything decorated and ready for all your upcoming Mario Parties in a mode that allows you to roam relatively freely around the five original boards included in this game (no Western Land or Mario’s Cloud Castle levels for Kamek). Along the way, you’ll solve a series of small problems for character around the boards, which often ask you toplay minigames to earn stars, called Mini Stars, to progress in the Trek.

After you’ve collected 30 total Mini Stars, you’ll need to confronta unique boss battle, each featuring long-unused characters from the Mario canon. You’ll need to playsome of the Jamboree Buddy minigamesto unlock helper characters as you make your way around each game board, and they’ll assemble to help you take down each boss when it’s time.

You only need 30 Mini Stars per board to move on, but there are usually 60 of them total per game board, so it’s up to you when to move on. Sincethe Party Planner Trek is how you unlock new decorations for the Party Plaza, we’d advise sticking around and finishing all the tasks!

4Koopathlon

If you’re a fan of the Mario Kart games as well, then you’ll enjoy a nice taste of them (double) dashed into your Super Mario Party Jamboree gameplay on the island hosting the Koopathlon. Choose whether you’d like to face off against CPUs or real-life players online and engage in a series of coin-based minigames.

As you collect coins, your character willmove around the board, advancingone space per coin earned. The goal here is to complete a set number of laps around the game board through doing well in these coin-based minigames, but beware, since you’re also able touse items to sabotage opponents.

You earn items either from the game boards or from doing particularly well in the minigames, so set off traps as soon as you can to make sure you stay a step ahead of your opponents.

You’ll all play a series of three minigames per round, and after each of the three minigames,Impostor Bowser attacksand tasks you with working harmoniously with the players who were your direct competition moments ago.

If you’reknocked out of the Impostor Bowser game, you’ll beknocked back a set number of spacesdepending on which place you held in the race at the start of the game, but it’s a good way to make a comeback if you’re far behind. The first player to cross the finish line after the prescribed number of laps is the winner!

3Bowser Kaboom Squad

Offering something wholly different to game types we’ve seen before in Mario games, Bowser Kaboom Squad is an interesting new game mode in Super Mario Party Jamboree that tasks you and seven other players – either CPUs or other players online – withcollecting bombs to load into a canonto try and take out Impostor Bowser before he can cause too much damage.

You find these bombs inloot crates that periodically fall from the sky, and you’ll need to bust them open with your teammates and haul the bombs inside back to the central canon. When you’ve got a set number of bombs loaded into the canon, the toads helping your team out will fire at Impostor Bowser as he rampages.

The goal is todeplete Impostor Bowser’s health before the end of five rounds. Rounds are timed, and after each round, you’ll vote on and play a minigame that unlocks a few potentialitems that can help speed things upfor your team in some way (like hammers to break crates even faster or dash panels that make you faster for a moment when you run over them).

The better your team does in the minigame, the better items you’ll have to vote on at the end of the round, and whichever item gets more votes will be added to the next round. You can also choose to play the minigames that are unique to this island, too, if you want some practice.

Along the way, Impostor Bowser will grow even stronger, and if he hits you, you’ll need to be revived by a teammate before you can return to hauling bombs. This game mode is one of the more unique we’ve seen from any Nintendo offering, especially as a side-game in a Mario Party entry. Good job, Nintendo!

2Minigame Bay

Mario Party games have always offered ways to enjoy the plentiful minigame offerings included in each entry, but none have nailed the number of different ways to do so than Super Mario Party Jamboree’s Minigame Bay. Set sail for adventure infive different game modes, each offering a variety of ways to enjoyyour favorite minigames.

From left to right, the five game modes in Minigame Bay are:

Minigames are some of the most important things in a Mario Party entry, and thankfully, Super Mario Party Jamboree has some darn good ones!

1Mario Party

Can any island really rank higher than Mario Party island? As fun as it is to experiment with different game modes, flap about like we’ve got wings, dance to the groove, and play minigames until we’ve had our fix, nobody bought this game for those modes. Mario Party games are always, at their core, about the central party experience, and oh man, does Jamboree deliver.

Withseven game boards–five original to Jamboree, one from the original Mario Party, and one from the sequel Mario Party 2, requiring some Achievementsto unlock them all– and22 charactersto choose from, the Mario Party island takes you to the game mode that Mario Party games do best: letting you loose to play Mario Party in the way it was meant to be played.