The Nintendo Switch is a great console to bring people together due to its portable nature, but there isn’t a great game to destroy friendships as of yet. That is about to change with the launch of Super Mario Party, which looks to change up the formula of the long-running series with new ways to play.
In the gameplay trailer shown during Nintendo’s E3 presentation, we see a group of people place two Switch systems next to each other flat on a table, and the systems appear to connect to create a longer game area for Super Mario Party. They even move them in different configurations to complete a mini-game, and one Switch appears to recognize the location of the other system on the fly. It appears similar to patents we saw Nintendo submit recently, which allowed systems to communicate and even simulate 3D images.
The trailer for Super Mario Party shows off a few different mini-games we can expect to play in the full version. These include what looks to be a driving game of some sort, as well as a baseball game that looks similar to what we saw in Mario Super Sluggers. We also briefly see a backgammon game, horse racing, a brawl, a cooking game, a cycling game, a fishing game, and several others.
The action board game aspect appears to be similar to other games in the series, with players still rolling dice before moving from point to point, and we see Bowser attempt to escape from a giant rolling boulder.
The Mario Party series hasn’t been that well-received in recent years, particularly with the entries on 3DS and Wii U, but Super Mario Party looks like it could be a complete return to form. With the Switch’s portability, it could be the perfect game to bring to a real-life party, even if you will end up screaming at your friends by the end of the night.
Super Mario Party comes exclusively to Nintendo Switch on October 5. We can’t wait to see the other mini-games we’ll be playing, preferably without forming giant blisters on our palms from rotating the control sticks too quickly.