Super Mario Party Jamboreebrings with it over a hundred games, in a major step up from the relatively disappointing selection of 80 in Super Mario Party. These games will randomly appear after each round on the classicMario Party boards, but you can also check in with your favourites at any time in Free Play. The Minigame Bay also has some special challenges to help you master them all. But if you’re looking for the best, which ones should you try?
There are 12 different minigame types in Jamboree, which you can check out individually in Free Play. Here, we’ve chosen the best of each type.
12Best Free-For-All: Lumber Tumble
Free-for-All is the biggest bunch of games, but there’s a lot of crossover with other categories as they’re just the ones where it’s every player for themselves. There’s Sled to the Edge, where you need to jump off as close to the edge as possible, Gate Key-pers, which is almost entirely luck, and Three Throw, all about shooting hoops.
But nothing quite captures the spirit of Free-for-All like Lumber Tumble, which sees players race along a rickety wooden platform, twisting and turning, while being pushed back from both sides. This is Mario Party in a morsel.
11Best 1 vs. 3: Income Stream
1 vs. 3 Minigames see everyone gag up on one person. As a result, they’re two games in one - how the solo player controls and wins is often very different to what the game is like for the trio. But that’s not so much the case in the top pick, Income Stream.
Here, three players ride paddle boards, and another rides Plessie. The three players can cover more ground as they collect coins, and get to combine their totals, but the solo player is wider, strong enough to push other players off, and starts in front. It plays to both groups strengths as the best game of the lot.
10Best 2 vs. 2: Prime Cut
2 vs. 2 Minigames see the regular travelling troupe split into two teams, and so there are a lot of different challenges. Some are about skill, speed, communication. Some are about coordinated efforts. Some are two individuals working well together. But only one asks you to cut a steak perfectly down the middle.
9Best Duel: All The Marbles
There are only five Duel Minigames in Jamboree, and they’re mostly used for special Event Spaces in the board games. They pit two players against each other, and while there’s decent variety, All The Marbles feels most like a contest. The splitscreen games are a high score battle, but this is full blooded competition.
In All The Marbles, you race through big marbles. That’s it. You can push your opponent, or strategically move marbles into their path. Whatever it takes to get to the end in one piece.
8Best Item Minigame: Roll With It
You’re unlikely to play the Item Minigames in Free Play very much, because the whole point is they reward an item for the boards. As a result, there’s a lot more luck than skill involved. However, Roll With It is a motion-based game that sees you steer a ball to the best item you want, so wins by virtue of being the most like a game.
7Best Showdown: Rosalina’s Radical Race
Showdown is a new type of minigame, where ten different Mario characters give you slightly longer test of your abilities. In the story mode, this unlocks these characters so they can aid you in the boss battle, but they can appear in plenty of other modes too. The deal is each character gives you a test based on them - Mario does platforming, Luigi is in a haunted mansion, Donkey Kong plays the bongos, and so on.
Rosalina has a snowboard race, which doesn’t immediately see her style. However, the mode is so darn cool that it just doesn’t matter. you’re able to get speed boosts and trick off ramps, and it’s like SSX never went away. It did though, so we should all be sad about that.
6Best Boss: Mega Rocky Wrench Wreckers
You’ll need to win all five Boss Minigames as part of the story mode, but it also possible to get these on boards (as well as in Free Play), so your individual score matters as much working down the health bar. What’s most impressive is that they’re all different challenges, but Mega Rocky Wrench Wreckers feels the most like an organic minigame, so takes the crown.
Half shooting gallery, half Whack-a-Mole, you take aim at Rocky Wrench as he pops up, while also fending off his smaller minions and destroying the wrenches he throws your way. It feels like an individual effort, but teamwork still matters, which makes it especially interesting when it’s used away from the story mode.
5Best Motion: Tiny Triathlon
Motion is an interesting category, as there are some Showdown and Item games that also cross into this category. To keep the list unique though, we’ve gone for Tiny Triathlon. It’s perfect for the chaos and control of a motion minigame, and features three challenges in one.
First, you ned to tilt back and forth to swim, then swivel to pedal, before flipping the Joy-Con up to jump. It’s a bit of a shame there’s not a sprint finish, but Night Light has the rapidfire motion game down pat. Tiny Triathlon is still a triple threat.
4Best Endless: Hot-Hot-Hop
There are only five Endless games, but thankfully they’ll keep you occupied forever. As the name suggests, these games run and run and run. In board games, they’ll end when one person is left standing, but in Free Play, you can just keep going. Hot-Hot-Hop, with its vibrant lava theme, impressively gooey monsters, and simplicity, is the standout.
In the Party Plaza, you can see how your time in each Endless game measures up against your friends, and the rest of the world.
3Best Koopathon: Down The Hatch
Koopathon games, like the final two categories, can only be played in their specific mode (Koopathon) as well as Free Play. They don’t come up on boards or other competitive modes. Here, the object is to grab as many coins as you can, as each coin moves you forward a space in the Koopathon.
While Lane Change’s WipEout vibes are cool, Down the Hatch takes the crown here. It lets you operate an arcade machine to push blocks and fuzzy Mario toys down the prize chute, and honestly, it’s nice to play an arcade machine where you actually get to win the toys for a change.
