The Mario Party series is the very definition of “greater than the sum of its parts.”
The minigames really aren’t that fun to play by themselves, besides Bumper Balls,obviously,
but without them, the boardgames would be slow, torturous affairs.
And yet, with the two together--it somehow becomes fun--really fun--at least if you’re
playing with the right group of friends.
Because Mario Party has always been a bit divisive, and that rift has only grown deeper
as the series has strayed farther and farther from its roots over the past 19 years
Whoa, Mario Party is almost 20 years old?
Excuse me while I go have a life-crisis real quick.
And that brings us to Mario Party: The Top 100--a sort of celebration of the entire series--well,
at least for the console versions of Mario Party, as as the handheld games are completely
ignored, which is a little weird since this is a 3DS exclusive game.
But I digress.
Anyways, the game proclaims to gather the “100 Best minigames” and puts them all
in one place.
So are these really the 100 best Mario Party minigames?
Eh, that’s a bit hard to say--after all, I doubt there could ever be a list that everyone
would agree on.
So all things considered, I’d say it’s a decent line-up.
I’d say lot of the must-haves are here--although that is a pretty short list--such as Mario
Party 2’s Bumper Balls, Shell Shocked, or 3’s Bounce n Trounce, but it’s also missing
some of my other favorites too, like Mario Part 1’s Bobsled Run
In its place is the questionable Tug o War--you know, the rotate the control stick as fast
as you can minigame that Nintendo had to send kids free gloves for back in the day because
they were burning holes into their hands?
And then there are other odd choices, like the terrible microphone games from Mario Part
7, which still blow.
But hey, maybe some of you like those minigames--like I said, no one’s going to ever agree.
Now every single one of the games have been updated with modern visuals--and they certainly
look quite nice overall, with the differences being especially obvious when it comes to
the Nintendo 64 games--which let’s be honest, are pretty hard to go back to visually.
But you might notice that a lot of the minigames handle and feel a bit different too, due to
them standardizing the controls & physics across 10 generations of games.
The characters now feel a lot more responsive in Hexicon Heat for example, and the tanks
are much noticeably nimbler in Shell Shocked.
Although I’m not sure the changes are necessarily an improvement in every case--they’re just
different.
Bumper Ball feels extra bouncy now to me, for instance--but again, I’m not really
sure if that’s a good or bad thing.
And speaking of Bumper Balls, it does highlight one of the shortcomings of a few of these
minigames, because in the original game, it had 3 different arenas, but here, it has just
the one--and other minigames were similarly affected, with most of them simplifying it
to just a single instance.
It’s a little disappointing when that variety helped make the minigames a bit more replayable.
Now as soon as you access the main menu, it’s clear that the minigames are the main attraction
here, with the first and most prominent option taking you right to the minigame selection
screen, which you can helpfully filter by Type, Genre, or by which Mario Party they
appeared in.
It also allows quick access to any minigame you’ve marked as a favorite.
But as I mentioned earlier, playing minigames in isolation isn’t terribly fun or exciting.
The games are generally shallow, lacking the depth needed to be engaging for more than
a handful of playthroughs.
Which is why the context of the board games is so important in Mario Party, as they give
the minigames purpose.
After all, if my friend is only 10 coins away from buying that Star right next to them on
the board, you can bet your butt I’m going to try my hardest to make sure you don’t
win that minigame.
And this is where Mario Party: The Top 100 mostly misses the mark, as it deemphasizes
that larger context.
Instead of multiple boards with different designs and themes, as in past games, The
Top 100 offers just one in a mode called Minigame Match.
And to its credit, the core gameplay here isn’t bad, featuring staples of the series,
like buying Stars and using items, such a Boo that can steal an opponent's’ stars.
And it even offers a few new wrinkles, with a more open layout allowing you a little more
freedom in how you maximize your dice rolls--and since each players now has their own screen,
everyone is able to roll the dice and take their turn at the same time which speeds up
the action considerable--which itself adds a few new twists, like how if two of you happen
to grab a star at the same time time, a quick duel will decide who gets to take the prize.
Unfortunately, the board itself is very basic, and with it being the only one, I found myself
tiring of it quickly.
Now the game does provide a couple of other modes, but both are incredibly simple by comparison.
There’s Championship Battles which is a simple contest to see who can win the most
of 3 or 5 minigames.
And then there’s Decathlon, which is a little more interesting.
Because instead of just winning or losing a minigame, it now awards points based on
your completion time across 5 or 10 minigames.
It’s actually a neat idea, as you could theoretically win the whole thing without
taking 1st place in a single individual minigame.
Unfortunately, the selection of minigames is always the same, which greatly limits its
replayability.
And that’s pretty much all the modes available--at least for multiplayer.
Now thankfully, this game is entirely playable with just a single card--so don’t worry
about having to have extra copies.
But if you’re playing by just yourself, there is one more mode available in the form
of Minigame Island, which is a super simple adventure where you go level-to-level--or
minigame to minigame--until you reach the end.
It’s really little more than a glorified menu, even if there is a Bowser fight at the
end--yes, in the form of a minigame from Mario Party 4.
Now playing Mario Party by yourself isn’t something I’d recommend to my worst enemy,
and while I appreciate that the developers put in some effort for those playing by themselves,
it’s annoying that you HAVE to play this mode if you want to unlock all the minigames.
So yeah, Mario Party: The Top 100 is a little weird.
What could--and should have been a celebration of the entire series really only celebrates
half of it, being the minigames.
Can it really be the “Ultimate Mario Party” if it’s missing half of the gameplay, being
the board games?
Heck, is it even Mario Party at that point?
These are deep philosophical question that need answers!
And then there’s the elephant in the room.
I just don’t want to play Mario Party with my friends on the 3DS.
My best memories of the series are from hanging out with my buds on the living room couch,
focused on a single large screen while eating snacks and drinking...soft drinks, duh.
Somehow trying to round up 3 friends who have 3DSs, and eac playing on our own isolated
screen just doesn’t have quite the same appeal.
Especially when that game is missing what made the series famous--or perhaps infamous--in
the first place.
So all in all, I found Mario Party: The Top 100 to be meh.
Even though the minigame selection is the largest and most robust it's ever been--without
the greater context of the board games, it also misses the point--at least for me.
There’s still pockets of fun to be found here, but it’s generally limited and short
lived.
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Mario Party and everything else Nintendo too.