The next meeting will take place on November 16th at Vocari Hub. It starts at 1 PM and ends at 10 PM. You don’t have to arrive exactly on time and you can come and go as you please. The featured game is Mario Party Jamboree, which does have modes for over four players, but they are unfortunately online only. I’ll have Mario Party Jamboree setup on two different Nintendo Switch systems and I have ten pro controllers so we should be able to have possibly two separate four player sessions going during the party. You could also try out other games I have installed on the Xbox, PlayStation or older systems I have setup if you don’t want to play Mario Party. I will provide four pizzas, Coca Cola and bottled water for guests to eat during the party.
Mario Party Jamboree has seven boards in the normal party mode where four players collect coins to buy stars and the player with the most stars wins. Rhythm Kitchen is for Joy Con motion controlled mini games only but can be played with four players locally. It’s much quicker than a normal match and is more of a mini game relay. Toad’s Item Factory and Paratroopa Flight School are also Joy Con controlled motion games, but require two Joy Cons to work one per hand and Item Factory is for just one player. Bowser Kaboom Squad allows eight players online to play team building mini games and then fire a cannon at Bowser. It kind of reminds me of Tank Tank Tank for the Wii U. Koopathlon has up to twenty players online compete on a board where instead of rolling dice the coins you collect in mini games decide how far you travel. There are about ten mini games in Koopathlon, but throughout each match you’ll only play three mini games in the same order and then a random Bowser game which decides how many spaces you’ll move back on the board if you don’t dodge all the obstacles correctly. The multiplayer mode in Koopathlon and Bowser Kaboom Squad require a ridiculous amount of Nintendo Switches to setup online in order to work, but you can test the mini games out against bots to see what they are like. There’s also a single player mode called Party Planner Trek which is sort of like Mini Game Island or the Mini Game Coaster but much easier since you can retry the mini games as much as you want and there’s a boss at the end of each map.
There are two big differences to the board game mode; it’s much easier to steal a star and Jamboree Buddies. Around six times per match one of the main characters that isn’t currently being used will appear on the board for a short time in a random spot like a star space. Once a player passes this space a five minute showdown mini game will take place to determine who the Jamboree Buddy will follow around for the next three turns. Each character will mildly help the player they follow each turn like by getting free items or rolling larger numbers. When you have a buddy character follow you you’ll have the option to buy two items from the shop or even buy two stars at once, but if you land on a Bowser space you could lose two stars instead of one. Another player can also steal away your Jamboree Buddy by simply passing by during their turn, which makes the difficult mini games seem pointless. I like some of the Showdown mini games like Yoshi’s Mountain Race or Daisy’s Field Day, but some like Wuluigi’s Pinball Arcade and Donkey Kong Konga Line drag on too long. Also I hate that the last door in Luigi’s Rescue Operation requires you to memorize a series of abstract pictographs to open it. As far as the item shop goes there are a ton dice and warp pipe variants. Dice to make you travel more spaces, less spaces, a specific number, and gain the same amount of coins as the number you rolled. There are normal warp pipe and golden pipes which take you in front of the star, and seems to replace the magic lamp. There’s also a skeleton key to take shortcuts, duel mini game glove, and the Chain Chomp to move the location of the star on the board. Players can also claim a space on the board and if anyone lands on it make them hand over half their coins or even a power star. It’s sort of like buying a property in Monopoly and building a hotel on it. I didn’t see the Boo bell, Bowser suit, or Bowser phone, but there is a phone item to that allows you to buy an item at the beginning of your turn without passing by an item shop.
