Top Ten Ways Super Mario Party is Better than Mario Party Superstars
Hey everyone, I'm darthvadern! I love Mario Party Superstars. It's probably one of the best Mario games of all time. It fixes so many issues that the previous games directly before it had, helped me become relevant on Youtube, and is just an overall fun game to play, especially when you compare it to Super Mario Party. It is, in every way, an obvious improvement..., or is it? Now I love Mario Party Superstars as much as the next guy, but have you ever sat down and wondered, why is it better? Is it better? Sure. But not in every single department. When I think about it, there were actually a lot of things that Super did better. But what things? That is what we'll be discussing, in this list!
...no unlockables. Ok that's not entirely true, for your coins you can buy info pages, and music, and stickers. Oh wow! I finally have enough money to buy this sticker. Oh I've been waiting so long! I can finally show everyone what my favourite social media is! All things considered, this is a low blow. I get it they wanted to make the game accessible to everyone, and not to mention the fact that it's directed to people who grew up with the N64 and probably already know how to play..., but really. All characters are unlocked from the start, all minigames are unlocked from the start, even all boards. Could they not have made Horror Land unlockable? This, alongside the lacking content in offline doesn't add much replay-value. You just play the game, get a nostalgia boost and don't touch the game again in five months..., because there isn't much incentive going back when there's nothing you can really unlock. Of course, unless you have online. But the fact that nearly all effort went into the online mode, and less into the offline one, really shows.
See, the problem isn't so much that Super Mario Party has more content, because even if Mario Party Superstars' content is better, it's all locked behind a paywall. Super Mario Party may have been lacking in the online department..., but it made up for it in the single player campaign. And honestly, no matter how fun online is, you should always focus first on making content offline, because not everyone has access to online, and less people have when it's behind a paywall. Nearly all of the best stuff in Superstars is locked behind online. Otherwise, there's the board play, and a couple of identical minigame modes. There's not a lot of replay-value as a result, unless you have online, especially since there are also only 5 boards. It also doesn't help the fact that there are...
But you know what Super does have? Content. Now it is true, that Super Mario Party is in a lack of content..., for a Mario Party game. Otherwise compared to every other Switch game released it's actually pretty expansive. Mario Party Superstars? I'd say it has even less content. Super Mario Party does suffer from a horrible, horrible main mode, but the side content is actually pretty cool. Partner Party is one of my favourite game modes out of any Mario Party, as it expands on Star Rush's formula and amps it up. River Survival and Sound Stage do get a bit boring as you play them more and more, but they're a nice way to waste time if you have nothing better to do. And Challenge Road, the single-player campaign, is actually difficult and fun. It's not a lot, when you compare it to games like Mario Party 3 or 9, but it's not nothing. Superstars does have really good content too though. It's less, but quality over quantity as they say. It's got so much too, from a full-fledged online mode, to daily challenges, to minigame survival, and even a full-fledged leaderboard system where you can compete agianst other to have the best score in minigames..., well, if you have the online pass that is.
Now minigames are a subjective matter. Do you like the minigames better in Super or in Superstars? That's completely up to you. In fact I prefer the minigames in Superstars overall. However, one thing that can't be disputed, is that Super Mario Party has the much better variation in minigames. Sure it's super cool to play older minigames in a newer setting, but Super did so much more to evolve minigames. Super Mario Party, on the whole just takes more advantage of the Switch's hardware when it came to creating minigames. HD rumble? Yes! Actually decent motion controls? Yes. Ok, you can't play it with a Pro Controller..., but that's besides the point. In addition, it introduced so many new types of minigames. Remember those allies? You can use them in the team minigames now! There's also Co-op minigames, where you work as a team to gain as many points as possible, and my personal favourite, the Rhythm minigames, where you shake your controller to the beat of the music. Seriously it's unreal how fun it is. Superstars has a much smaller variety, which is understandable, but even that variety is questionable. The fact that a 3rd of all minigames are from the N64 games, and Mario Party 7-10 only get barely a tenth of all minigames is kind of disappointing, and there's only 5 duel minigames. Wait..., Super doesn't have duel minigames at all? Oh no...
The most obvious department where Super Mario Party is better than Superstars is in the character roster..., or so we thought. What you thought I was gonna praise it? This is obviously subjective, but I actually prefer Superstars roster. It's a little more compact and doesn't waste so many slots on random characters that fit better as NPC's. And also, it has Birdo, which is an automatic win. But even so, Super obviously had a little more effort put into it here. It's especially disappointing when you already had all of the character models from Super, and still only used a few of them to fill the roster. Like where's Diddy or Dry Bones? Granted, I'm not the biggest fan of Super's roster because of just how much filler there is. Bowser being playable removes any tension on the board play, and Goomba and Monty Mole are just not fit for characters. But, the fact that there's 20 characters is amazing, and it's also utilized very well in one of the game's main gimmicks...
...the ally system! This was actually introduced way back in Mario Party: Star Rush, and it was an amazing new way of playing the games. Basically you'd find random Mario characters on the board and if you reached them before anyone else, you could use their dice, and also roll an extra 1-2 dice to more easily traverse the map. And to not make it unbalanced, you could even duel for them! It was so fun, especially when you got like 5 different partners and could roll great distances! In Super, it was restricted to the ally space, which made it more balanced on normal board plays. Alas, there's no ally system in Superstars. Why you gotta do this Superstars? What was wrong with the ally system? It would've been a great way to spice up the gameplay. Yeah I get it's not a feature present in the N64 games..., but neither items in Mario Party 1. It's not a major issue, but it's a little disappointing they couldn't port this so fun feature over..., I could say the same for boss battles but since that wasn't in Super I won't talk about that.