Waking up this morning, Nintendo decided to be very chaotic by adding new online features to Super Mario Party, a game that came out over two years ago. While it does feel a little late on that front, Super Mario Party has other grievances that need to be fixed and not take another two years to apply such fixes.
Here are six things that also need to be fixed/updated with Super Mario Party.
Having the option to play with anyone allows you to play the game anytime you have an urge, not just when your friends are available. Just imagine all of the friends (and enemies) you could make playing with random players online.
Voice Chat
Super Mario Party Updates
While Nintendo has implemented voice chat with some of their games, it is still somewhat of a rarity that Switch titles have this feature, even if they have online multiplayer. On top of this, the ones that do have voice chat require you to download a separate app on your phone that honestly doesn’t work too well. Overall, it’s a pretty difficult and unnecessary process.
Considering Mario Party is built on interacting with people while you play, having this feature alongside the newly announced online mode is a must. If the game didn’t have voice chat, most games would simply consist of watching others taking their turns, likely leading you to pick up your phone and scrolling social media out of boredom.
Voice chat allows you to liven things up by giving you the option to engage in some good-natured banter over the internet, just like you would in person. Sure the opportunity for name-calling and some toxicity exists, but sometimes that is part of the fun.
Leader Boards/Ranking
Super Mario Party Updates
Even though Super Mario Party has a lot of luck elements, there is some skill to it as well, especially when it comes to the minigames. As such, it only makes sense that the game adds a leaderboard system. Not only would this be a great incentive for people to continue to play the game to increase their score, but it would let you keep track of overall rankings.
Ranks could be calculated from each game won, how often you win minigames, or other small factors that could accumulate into a point pool. Having separate leaderboards for each mode would be awesome as well.
A points system could even be used to unlock new characters, new costumes, new boards, and a host of other unlockables. Giving players more incentive to actually play the game is never a bad thing and it could play into people’s competitive nature.
It’s important for players to feel like they’re working towards something on top of having fun. It might also create a more competitive scene for the game in general, which would only add more passionate people to the fanbase.
New Characters With Interesting Dice
Super Mario Party Updates
An easy way for any game to drum up excitement or bring fans back into the fray is to introduce new characters. This statement rings especially true for Super Mario Party, as the game makes character choice even more meaningful than past entries by giving each of them a special die with unique numbers to roll.
Luckily, the game has plenty it can add, including characters like Pauline, Baby Mario/Luigi, Birdo, Dry Bowser, and Funky Kong. Not only would this give fans the opportunity to play as some of their favorite lesser-known characters, it’s also an opportunity to add in new dice that could shake up how the game is played.
Maybe one of the characters has a dice that makes them go backspace, while another has one that gives them a random number between 1-10. There are all sorts of possibilities to mix things up and help make the game feel fresh.
Not every character needs to be implemented at once either, as they could be dropped in with updates every few months to help remind people to play the game more often and give them reasons to come back.
Crazier Boards
Super Mario Party Updates
If you’ve played past Mario Party games, then you know that Super Mario Party not only features fewer boards in total, they’re also all considerably smaller by comparison. As a result of only having four boards, the game ends up becoming repetitive pretty quickly.
Nintendo can obviously solve this problem by adding in new boards, though it would only prolong the same problems due to their small size. To solve the problem outright, Nintendo needs to bringing back levels with branching paths, special circles to land on, and luck-based spaces.
All of these different variables not only help with repetition, they also make games more chaotic overal. With spaces like Star Swap, the entire playing field can be turned on its head in an instant, giving the worst player the most starts and the best player the least.
The chaos and sheer dumb luck that goes into these situations is one of the best parts about Mario Party, and is something that Nintendo needs to get back to if it wants fans to stick with the game for longer this time around.
New Minigames
Super Mario Party Updates
Minigames have always been the bread and butter of Mario Party games, as they pit players against one another and also make them team up together to gain the upper hand with coins and even stars. As such, it is important to have plenty of creative ones to play so people can continue to enjoy the game.
If you’ve played a couple of games of Super Mario Party, you’ve probably played most if not all the minigames it has to offer more than a couple of times. And just like the boards, after a while, they start to become less exciting. You can only play Sizzling Stake or Sort of Fun so many times before they just feel redundant.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Nintendo needs to come up with a whole new game’s worth of one hundred minigames; even something smaller like twenty-five to fifty would breathe a lot of new life into Super Mario Party. That said, something does need to be done to help with replayability to help the game’s longevity.
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