Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV Review

Super Mario Party Jamboree felt like a return to form for the series, appealing to both casual audiences and Nintendo fans alike, who had craved more from the experience. Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV continues the trend by enriching the already feature-packed party game with novel new modes and minigames that take full advantage of the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware.

Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV takes the already impressive 112 minigames present in the party title and rolls the dice towards raising that number to 132 with the introduction of 20 new minigames, many of which are built specifically for the Nintendo Switch 2’s unique hardware capabilities in mind.

Now, going over every single minigame in detail would get redundant, as the game splits its new offerings into two categories: Mouse minigames and Microphone-based minigames. Instead, I will focus this review on whether the Jamboree TV expansion is worth it for those who may have already purchased the base game from its initial release in late 2024, before discussing the game as a whole.

Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV, as the name may imply, introduces Jamboree TV to the mix, a brand-new mode available to the player upon starting up the game. In essence, Jamboree TV is a game show-style mode that makes it easy to immediately jump into the new content, which centres around the new Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive minigames made for Super Mario Party Jamboree.

Players can either select one of the existing seven gameboards from the base title, or jump into Free Play, Carnival Coaster and the Bower Live game mode. Free Play allows players to enjoy the new minigames without having to play a full board, while Carnival Coaster and Bowser Live spice things up with the introduction of new game show-style segments that incorporate the new minigames into the mix.

For those who want to play one of the available boards already in the game, Nintendo has incorporated the new minigame content into the existing rotation, making it easy to opt out of the Jamboree TV mode for those who prefer a more traditional experience, while still experiencing some of the new games on offer.

“Jamboree TV is a game show-style mode that makes it easy to immediately jump into the new content, which centres around the new Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive minigames.”

Carnival Coaster and Bowser Live both incorporate the Nintendo Switch 2 camera, or any compatible webcam for that matter, positioning the players as audience members from within the crowd, before whisking them away to the game modes proper. Starting with Carnival Coaster, players select from four distinct courses, which consist of the titular Carnival Coaster ride, Volcano Coaster, Haunted Coaster, Sky High Coaster and Trial Coaster options. The Carnival Coaster maps are mouse-only based experiences, requiring the use of the Joy-Con controllers.

As the name may suggest, the coaster game type features a literal on-rails shooter experience for players, who must contend with increasingly challenging waves of enemies and other Mario-themed distractions as they navigate their way through the ride, playing minigames in between, similar to the structure found in a traditional Mario Party board, but from a first person prespective with mouse controls.

Hitting enemies, or targets, such as Boos and Paratroopas, will add bonus time to the ticking clock, as players wind down towards the end of the level. The mouse controls feel responsive, which is key, as many waves of enemies during the coaster levels require good coordination between players, adding to the fun of learning the patterns and quickly dispatching whatever the game throws your way.

Some of the minigames themselves that stuck out to me include Shell Hockey, a fun take on air hockey, which incorporates both the camera and mouse controls well, Net Gains, which requires good spatial awareness and coordination, tasking players to draw boxes over incoming Cheep Cheeps, while avoiding enemies and each other’s nets. Some other minigames, while fun, felt overly simple, even for a micro game within Super Mario Party Jamboree, such as the Bowser Filter minigame, which asks players to sort mail by dragging and dropping the correct mail into the corresponding inbox, while avoiding the Bowser-stamped letters.

Another somewhat lacklustre game includes a minigame that involves moving Bob-ombs from one air balloon to another. It feels reminiscent of the Mario 64 and Super Mario Bros DS minigame Sort or ‘Splode, in which players were tasked with sorting different coloured Bob-ombs. In Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV, this minigame seems to only feature a single colour variation of Bob-ombs, reducing the overall challenge.

Moving on to the Bowser Live game mode, players are tasked this time with appeasing the King of Koopas by partaking in over-the-top minigames that ditch the Joy-Con 2s for camera-based shenanigans, reminiscent of the PlayStation Eye and Xbox Kinect days. Now, that might sound like a recipe for a gimmicky throwaway mode. Still, Nintendo has always been champions of smartly utilizing quirky and novel input methods in their first-party offerings, and the minigames within Bowser Live are no exception.

“Outside of the 20 minigame additons, Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV adds some new content to the base game. “

There are three camera and microphone-based games. Starting with the microphone based games, Bowser Chicken, a game that has players yelling to rev up Mario-Kart-style karts towards Bowser, while making sure to stop short of his foot, Speak Up, Junior!, which similarly uses the microphone to encourage Bowser JR to collect coins as your voice guides him up and down, and finally, Bowser Beats, which feems reminscent of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, and has players clapping in tune to the on-screen prompts.

To round things off, the camera-based minigames within the Bowser Live gamemode include Hitting it Rich, a game that requires players to use their head or fist to hit jump and hit coin blocks as fast as possible, and Goombalance, a simple but engaging balancing game that uses your head to stack Goombas. Finally, there is a Simon Says-style game with Bowser Jr., which has players copying on-screen prompts that require the whole body. Unfortunately, I was unable to thoroughly enjoy it due to using a wheelchair, but nevertheless, it seems like an engaging experience for a family or party game.

Outside of the 20 minigame additons, Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV adds some new content to the base game. These include a Tag Team mode, which essentially creates a duos-style team for party play and introduces a new duo dice into the meta. This can help you grab two stars in a single swipe. Plus, there is a Frenzy Mode, which feels almost like a sudden death style take on Mario Party, where the game is reduced to only five turns and items are accelerated, making it great for a quick and easy session.

Lastly, there is some game sharing functionality, allowing users to stream the game from one Nintendo Switch 2 console. However, this mode is limited to the Mega Wiggler stage, making it more of a throwaway novelty for those who want to demo the game. Ultimately, Jamboree TV is where the real party is in Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV when it comes to new features tailor-made for the Switch 2.

At the end of the day, Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV is a solid upgrade over its 2024 release, priced at a reasonable $29.99 CAD/$19.99 USD that adds a lot of content showcasing what the Nintendo Switch 2 is capable of. And for those partypoopers who missed out on its initial showing,  Super Mario Party Jamboree – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV can be had for $114.99 CAD/ $79.99 USD, respectively.

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