As promised, I will be reviewing Mario Party Superstars, the second of the three Mario Party titles released on Switch. This entry serves as an homage to the Mario Party series by bringing a curated selection of classic minigames and boards into the modern era.

GRAPHICS: 8
Like Super Mario Party, Mario Party Superstars features lush visuals and vibrant, expressive character models. While the character models are largely the same between the two games, Superstars stands out by faithfully recreating several classic boards and minigames in high definition. N64-era boards like Peach's Birthday Cake and Space Land look gorgeous without losing the charm of their original designs. I really enjoy seeing these old favorites brought to life with updated lighting, textures, and animations. I also think it's cool that at the start of each game, you're shown an image of what each board looked like on the N64.

SOUND: 9
Mario Party Superstars is very similar to Super Mario Party in terms of polish. The Character voices are clear and lively while sound effects like dice rolling and coin collecting feel satisfying and punchy, perfectly complementing the action on screen.

While both entries excel in the sound department, they differ slightly in their musical direction. Super Mario Party features an original soundtrack with upbeat, cheerful music that is perfectly tailored to its boards and minigames. Superstars on the other hand, takes the nostalgic approach, using remastered tracks from older entries from the N64-era. The music in Superstars is more varied–some tracks are quirky, some are chaotic, and some are surprisingly mellow. The remixes give the classic tracks a fresh coat of paint while still keeping the spirit of the originals intact. However, if you find that the remixed tracks aren't your cup of tea, you can visit the Options House, select Music settings, and then toggle between Original and Modern tracks. Whichever option you choose will be applied to both boards and minigames, giving you full control over your party's soundtrack. Personally, I prefer playing with the new remixes– I think they're all excellent and breathe new life into classic tracks.

ADDICTIVENESS: 7
Like any good Mario Party game worth its salt, Mario Party Superstars is a blast to pick up and play. Thanks to a strong lineup of minigames and a much needed return to classic, dynamic board designs, Superstars feels more addictive than Super Mario Party in the long run. The board variety alone– 5 fully remade N64 boards each packed with unique gimmicks and hazards– gives Superstars a leg up over Super Mario Party, which only included 4 relatively simple boards.

Superstars also benefits from a better selection of items, bringing back fan favorites like the Plunder Chest, and Boo Bell, which can dramatically change the outcome of a game. No more pretending to be excited after getting a lame Poison Mushroom or Coinado for the 15th time in a row…

STORY: 1
Unlike Super Mario Party, which offers a light, goofy story about Mario and his friends arguing over who deserves to be the Superstar, Mario Party Superstars skips any kind of narrative entirely. There's no opening cutscene, no quest to collect gems, and no overarching story that ties the game's different modes together. You simply pick your character, choose a board to play on, set the rules, and start the party.

While the absence of a story might be a turn-off for some, I find myself completely fine with it. At its core, Superstars is intended to be a nostalgic throwback to the series' early days, when story wasn't the main focus of the experience.

DEPTH: 6
Mario Party Superstars definitely offers more strategic depth than Super Mario Party, largely thanks to its board design and item selection. The return to stars costing 20 coins also brings back the importance of managing your coins and being mindful of what you spend them on, something you rarely have to think about in Super Mario Party after the first few turns.

Online multiplayer is also fully featured, allowing players to play entire board games from the get-go. This was a huge improvement over the extremely limited Online Mariothon mode, which felt like a half-measure meant to tide us over until online finally became available for the classic Mario Party mode nearly a full century later.

One area where Superstars falls a little short is in the lack of unlockable stuff. There are achievements, stickers, and some minor customizations like card designs for your online profile, but once you've played through all the boards and minigames, there isn't much to work toward beyond beating your own records and playing fun matches with friends. It's not a deal breaker for me, but it would've been nice to at least have another unlockable board or two.

DIFFICULTY: 5
Like Super Mario Party, Superstars is very approachable for players of all skill levels. Once again, CPU difficulty ranges from easy to master. The master setting is definitely more challenging than in Super Mario Party. Computers don't fumble in minigames as much and even though they don't always go for the “optimal” plays, they're very competent and can be difficult to outmaneuver. That said, a little randomness still leaks through into their behavior and decision making. They sometimes don't make the most logical choices on the board and might not always use their items strategically. Overall though, they're still far more of a threat than in Super Mario Party.

The boards in Superstars also greatly contribute to the increased difficulty compared to Super Mario Party's simpler, almost babyfied boards. For example, in Space Land, when the counter in the center of the board reaches 0 from players passing through it, a giant laser fires and wipes out all the coins of any player caught in its firing path. While maybe not as chaotic, the Woody Woods board comes with its own buffoonery in the form of the board's paths flipping every turn, courtesy of Monty Mole changing the direction signs (just because you aren't playable in this entry doesn't give you the right to be a jerk). While not as immediately frustrating as having all your coins blasted out, you can carefully plan to reach a star only to be completely redirected down the wrong path next turn. The buffoonery doesn't end there though since opponents can also pay to have Monty Mole flip the signs at will, providing even more opportunities for your plans to backfire. The last cruel board gimmick I'll mention is easily the worst. Peach's Birthday Cake. More specifically, the event spaces that allow you to spend coins to plant a Piranha Plant that can steal either coins or stars depending on if you choose to plant a small or large Piranha Plant seed (the small one costs 5 coins while the large one costs 30). If you don't immediately buy a large seed, you can always upgrade it if you land on the space again later. Since coins are plentiful, this board can quickly become a stressful nightmare to traverse. One of the very first games I played on this board was with my brother. It was a 20 turn game, and around midway through, me, my brother, and the two computers we chose (Peach and Wario, I believe) each had a large Piranha Plant on the board. While I managed to get a star from mine, I ended up losing TWO stars from their Piranha Plants. My brother also lost one or two stars as well. Even though I tried to save my Custom Dice Block to safely navigate the board, these damn Piranha Plants were everywhere! I'd use my Custom Dice Block to pass one of them only to get a bad roll and lose a star to the next one. We both had a headache from all the chaos by the end of the game, but it was a lot of fun because it was so unpredictable. Compared to the tameness of Super Mario Party, Superstars definitely delivers in bringing back the mean-spirited gameplay that longtime fans loved.

OVERALL: 9
Mario Party Superstars is exactly what it set out to be: a love letter to the classic days of Mario Party. By bringing back fan-favorite boards, a huge lineup of iconic minigames, and injecting them with modern polish and full online play, it delivers one of the strongest entries the series has seen in years.

Compared to Super Mario Party, Superstars offers better long-term replayability, deeper board strategy, a wider and more exciting item pool, and a more challenging experience overall. It does lose a few points for its lack of unlockable content and a missing sense of "newness" that a totally original game might have offered, but these are relatively small complaints given how much fun the core experience is.

Whether you're a longtime Mario Party veteran looking for a blast of nostalgia, or a newcomer looking for a chaotic party game filled with shenanigans, Mario Party Superstars is absolutely worth your time. It’s proof that sometimes, going back to basics really is the best move.