With the holidays fast approaching, you can’t really go wrong with a new Mario Party game as the best way to bring people together or drive each other crazy. Super Mario Party Jamboree is even more special as the third entry on the Nintendo Switch, which feels like a big blowout for both the series and the console, as it takes the best of everything to make it the Mario Party with the biggest and most varied amount of content for every type of player.

Motion controls are back for those who enjoyed them in Super Mario Party, though if you didn’t you can opt out as they only take up a small portion of the more than 110 minigames in Jamboree. There are even more options for online multiplayer, including two modes made exclusively for online play (or AI if matchmaking becomes an issue). 

Minimayhem

For newcomers, the Switch game Super Mario Party Jamboree is essentially an interactive board game where up to four players roll (or rather bump) dice to move across a range of lovingly designed Mario-themed boards, competing to win coins and in turn obtain stars to come out on top. That’s the civil description, as of course it also involves a lot of shenanigans with minigames where you’re actively screwing over your rivals to bag the most coins or having to work together in 2v2 or 3v1 minigames.

Those underhanded tactics, often based on luck, also play out on the board themselves, each with different mechanics and paths to take. For example, on Goomba Lagoon, the changing tide might find you stranded and going around in circles for a couple of turns, and while the star is always at the same location in Mario’s Rainbow Castle, you can flip the rules so that your rival has the misfortune of collecting a fake star instead. Nothing however is quite as evil as getting a Boo to steal stars for you.

This level of unpredictability is, much like the controversial blue shell in Mario Kart, Nintendo’s unique brand of leveling the playing field, so that no matter how good or bad you think you are at Mario Party, everyone’s got a chance to be a superstar. Even then, minigames, from the super-short item minigames to the gauntlets required to obtain an ally character who can also double your rewards, are simple and intuitive enough for players of all skill levels to understand, while by default you can practice as long as they like until everyone’s ready to play the minigame for real.

Suffice to say that much of what makes Mario Party work so well is being able to play together, so I found the board mechanics and watching everyone to have their turn tedious when just playing solo with AI players, even with the option to speed up some animations. Boards can be played online too, and there are some charming emotes you can use, which have also been designed so that trolls can’t spam them repeatedly, but even post-pandemic, it’s a poor substitute to being in the same room. If you are going to play online, then I can only recommend setting up a group with friends instead of random matchmaking and to also have your own separate voice chat group rather than the Switch Online app. 

Don't play alone

While the main attraction, boards are just one aspect of Super Mario Party Jamboree, as you can traverse this bountiful party resort, reminiscent of Wii Sports Resort’s Wuhu Island, and pick a range of other modes, while the Party Plaza hub also contains what you could call the game’s single-player campaign; Party-Planner Trek.

It’s the weakest element of the package, since playing Mario Party by yourself can feel like a drag outside of minigames. It’s all the more peculiar that it guts the boards of their inventive mechanics as you simply move across them freely while ticking off a series of mundane fetch quests to earn mini-stars. It may be a short campaign but I still resented playing this mode in order to rank up with achievements and unlock game content. Your mileage may vary with unlockables, but I found it frustrating that the game’s newest features, such as new playable characters Pauline and Ninji, require jumping through a bunch of hoops first. 

Faring better is side content that cuts out the futz and focuses on minigames. Minigame Bay is the perfect pitstop for short burst sessions, whether you want to play whichever of the more than 110 minigames available or jump into the Daily Challenge, with a selection of minigames grouped into themes. I was however most taken by the bespoke motion-themed islands, such as Toad’s Item Factory, a series of puzzle challenges as players guide balls around to a goal using motion-controlled platforms and blocks, and which feels fun even when soloing. 

For the times when getting people together is impossible, there are also online-specific modes. Compared to the stop-start of co-op-based Bowser Kaboomb Squad, the 20-player Koopathlon has a peculiar charm to it as you’re competing against other players but almost always in parallel. Each minigame you’re thrown into gives you the chance to collect as many coins, which in turn keeps your character moving along a racetrack that’s also visible to the right of the screen. It’s a refreshing mode in a post-Fall Guys world and one that may have the most staying power, given its also button-only minigames make it easy to jump into for a quick handheld session. 

Accessibility

Super Mario Party Jamboree doesn’t have accessibility settings as such but you’ll have the option to toggle various settings before the start of any mode. These include adjusting difficulty, whether or not to start each minigame with a tutorial, or the option to turn off motion minigames. Note that there are no alternate button controls for motion minigames, which means modes such as Rhythm Kitchen will be inaccessible if you’re not able to play with the required control configuration.

Should you play Super Mario Party Jamboree?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

How I reviewed Super Mario Party 

I played Super Mario Party Jamboree for more than 15 hours on my Nintendo Switch OLED, which included multiple local multiplayer sessions. I was able to complete the single-player campaign, unlock all the party boards, try every minigame, and unlock lots if not all cosmetic items. Nintendo didn’t host online play sessions during the review period, so my experience with the online modes was limited to playing with AI players.

I played primarily in docked mode on an LG C2 OLED TV and played with a single Joy-Con, which is the default configuration if you want to swap between button and motion minigames. I also spent some time playing in handheld mode, which didn’t impact visuals and performance but would mean I wouldn’t be able to access motion-based minigames.

The Super Monkey Ball series has had its share of ups and downs since rolling onto the scene 20 years ago. For many fans, the physics-based platformer series from Sega has never quite reached the heights it achieved with its GameCube originals and various sequels during this early golden-age era, succumbing to gimmicks and lackluster level design in later installments. 

There’s a simple appeal to rolling a monkey in a ball around some levels like a hamster, but it’s hard to do well. After years in the wilderness, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble, developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, is exactly what the franchise needed.

Ignoring an HD remaster of Banana Blitz in 2019, it was in 2021 that the franchise finally came back on the scene with a greatest-hits selection of levels in its first new console entry to the series in almost a decade. Yet even this lacked a sense of novelty by existing more as a mishmash of levels from the series’ earliest titles. Banana Rumble is a grand return to form, a Nintendo Switch exclusive promising 200 all-new levels, customization, online competitive and co-operative modes, and more, to bring us what is perhaps the best Super Monkey Ball game since the original. 

Monkeying around

For those unaware, the concept of Super Monkey Ball is simple: you’re a monkey in a ball, and your goal is to roll into the goal at the end of each stage within the time limit. The twist? Rather than controlling the monkey, you tilt the stage itself. In this entry a minor story has been concocted about our familiar simians living on Juicy Island when a new monkey named Palette joins this cast of familiar faces, recruiting them to help her find her papa. However, this is more a framing excuse to travel to different themed locations to provide a varied backdrop for the levels.

Especially for a series that has struggled to move beyond its nostalgic peak, it can be difficult for a new entry to step beyond that legacy. Banana Rumble throws enough variety while being both welcoming to newcomers and challenging to even the most ardent of fans and speedrunners that I was bowled away. Retaining the simplicity of its core concept, the only additional mechanic layered upon those initial foundations is a Spin Dash. Hold the B button to charge this in order to boost at high speeds in one direction, with a brief cooldown before the mechanic can be used again.

Many of the 100 levels across 10 varied worlds - ranging everywhere from a tropical jungle to a futuristic space concert - that exist in the base adventure mode will feel relatively mundane for experienced players. However, this will change upon reaching the final world, and 100 additional extra stage (EX) challenge levels revisiting these themed worlds with harder variations will cause even veterans to break a sweat. 

In this configuration not only is the Spin Dash a natural complement to the fundamentals that remain satisfying all these years later, but it provides an additional layer of optional challenge on even the simplest of levels for those willing to take up the mantle.

In many cases, the move opens the door to numerous solutions of varying difficulties at almost every stage. You could take the intended path, or you could use a boost to skip sections and reach the goal faster. Such considerations are even baked into the game design, with unique challenges for every level to collect a certain number of bananas, a special Golden Banana, or complete a level in the fastest times. Many of these require risky uses of the boost in order to reach awkwardly-placed bananas or achieve strict goal times only possible by sending a Hail Mary towards the goal.

If you are struggling, however, the game is here to support you. A neat helper function will show a ghost and recommended route to complete the level if you’re stuck. You won’t score points for the level, but you can always go back with your new skills and do it again, ensuring newcomers aren’t left behind.

With only a few duds in level design and encouragement for diehards and speedrunners to tear the game apart, there’s never a dull moment, at times reaching heights rarely seen for the franchise since it first burst onto the scene. It’s also possible to compete on every level and world in co-op either locally or online, although once you enable collisions between players and notice the looming leaderboard scoring your bananas and completion times, dark thoughts of throwing your friend into the abyss for victory will almost inevitably cross your mind.

Indeed, between the ability to spin around with friends and the challenge on offer from a mind-boggling amount of levels with rarely a miss in sight, the Adventure is a near-perfect distillation of the franchise’s core appeal. That being said, those with a heart for the franchise’s beloved minigames may be somewhat disappointed. There's no Monkey Tennis here.

Monkey Balls of Fury

One of the key appeals of this new game in the series is the 16-player online multiplayer modes, with five Battle modes for players to compete in against a range of real and CPU opponents. You can participate in a simple race to the goal, collect the most bananas in Banana Hunt, take part in Mario Kart-style free-for-all battles avoiding the bomb in Ba-Boom, collect the most goals in teams in Goal Rush, or destroy robots in Robot Smash.

While there isn’t really a bad mode in any of these, and it runs with surprising stability even with the maximum number of players when online (it does drop from a buttery-smooth 60fps in handheld or docked mode to 30fps, but never drops a frame from this point), there’s a disappointing lack of variety among them. Even ignoring the lack of stages in each mode ranging from a maximum of five in Race to a disappointing two in most others, what made franchise favorites like Monkey Target or Billiards appealing is how they retained the titular monkeys while switching up the gameplay for something that felt far removed from the single-player adventure.

Even with a competitive edge and more than a few laughs when playing with other people, these multiplayer modes soon grow stale because they don’t offer enough of a change from the rest of the game. Whereas those aforementioned modes would be something I could return to time and time again, I can imagine after a few sessions with these modes they’ll stand mostly ignored after a few weeks.

It’s a testament to the quality of this new installment in the Monkey Ball series that a lack of varied multiplayer stands as my only real disappointment with my time playing Banana Rumble. With a strong and beefy adventure mode whose Time Trial Mode competing on global leaderboards for best times will leave you with hours of grinding in order to be the best, the game soars in a way the franchise has rarely been able to in recent years.

After many years, Monkey Ball is truly back, and hopefully this time it’s for good. If you’re a fan of reaction-testing puzzle platforming or are just after a good time on Nintendo Switch, it’s hard to fault this grand return. 

Accessibility

Accessibility features are minimal, though the game does offer thorough options to adjust cutscene subtitles, whether you use accelerometer, camera controls, player movement, and more. That being said, with such busy level design and so much going on at once, colorblind modes to make it easier to follow for those who need it would certainly be a welcome inclusion. 

Should you play Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble?

Play it if...

Don't play it if...

How we reviewed Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble

We put in roughly 10 hours completing the main story and many of the EX levels, while also duking it out in a few online rounds with another player and a whopping 14 AI enemies. All battle modes were tested. The game was played primarily in handheld and tabletop configuration on a Nintendo Switch OLED model, with game audio either playing from the built-in speakers or through AirPods Pro via Bluetooth.