Super Mario Party Jamboree: Why Those 3v1 minigames NEED to Go Away!
Super Mario Party Jamboree: A Triumph with One Seriously Annoying Flaw
Super Mario Party Jamboree has been a huge hit. Critics and fans agree – it's possibly the best Mario Party game ever! The sheer amount of content–game boards, modes– is nuts! It's got insane replayability. And it did this even as the Nintendo Switch nears its end-of-life! This game makes itself impressive because of this enormous amount of new, fresh content.
However, Jamboree isn’t perfect! Most complaints are minor; subjective issues, however a large problem persists, one that has plagued the Mario Party series for ages: those insanely broken 3v1 minigames! Nintendo still has this problem after all these years, demonstrating that some long-term, critically essential issues don’t easily get solved. And this situation should easily be fixed considering how successful this particular entry truly has become!
Why 3v1 Minigames in Mario Party Are Just Plain Broken
Mario Party's 3v1 minigames have ALWAYS been unbalanced, a constant across almost every release, impacting even those critically lauded and successful releases; it really begs the question – why haven’t these things been fixed? And after all these years, many viewers are quite frustrated. The games themselves emphasize an uneven playing field! Whether three players are against a lone player–or the lone player has a ludicrous advantage. It's never fair and completely undermines those elements and aspects that truly define competition.
Take "Piranha's Pursuit"! It’s atrocious! The lone player has near-zero chance of losing; it demonstrates the immense and terrible levels of poor gameplay which becomes entirely evident after repeated exposure to this type of scenario. Even on that list of critically lauded Mario Party Jamboree's minigames, "Piranha's Pursuit" is terrible. The game is absurd. Three players can pound their clouds to really help move; there’s however no effect on that piranha plant's speed. The solo player must somehow get tripped up. They don’t; it's totally, insanely easy to win as the solo player. Game over!
Jamboree’s 3v1s: Still Not Fixed, Unfortunately
Jamboree gets many things right. Yet, those unbalanced 3v1s remain! "Sunset Standoff" is almost laughably easy for the team of three. "On-Again Off-Again" is too easy for the solo player (thanks to those numerous Grrrols dropped). "Blame it On the Crane"? Easy win for the solo player. It's all about simple timing which makes the whole thing unfair!
And even better: Jamboree's unbalanced issues vary— sometimes favoring three players, sometimes favoring one; demonstrating the inconsistency across games and gameplay decisions. A consistently unbalanced game is way worse, due to these constantly varying conditions; yet equally annoying considering how these unbalanced minigames might actually hurt or unfairly increase other's rankings in larger playthroughs; thus any effort needs to create equally engaging yet also FAIR gameplays.
AI Problems Make It Even Worse
Even Jamboree’s improved AI–better on game boards, items, using better strategies and improved decision making compared to Superstars. This also applies to the minigames themselves. When playing on Master level AI; these minigames become frustratingly unbeatable for solo players! If you select Hard or easier AI – they’re ridiculously easy to beat! The AI still stinks at certain minigames even after numerous updates. Look at "Cookie Cutters"— those three AI players cut way too slowly; enabling human players to massively outperform them without issue! Other games like "Arch Rivals" and "Lost and Pound" get drastically harder against human opponents, and extremely easy against those less competent AI! An unfair system overall.
Fixing 3v1s in Future Mario Party Games
This requires immense creative thought! There are easy solutions, luckily, and it would completely reimagine this problem easily. Improving AI is an absolute must: equally engaging AI to generate far more challenging, but still engaging, encounters and preventing those absurd outcomes, both favorable and unfavorable in 3v1 encounters!
Second: Make tasks more alike. That is – provide similar objectives. That is – have every group (solo player vs 3 player team) to the same goals. The only possible difference could include adding a few strategic advantages for solo players. For instance: start a level faster. Give them more attempts; add an additional opportunity; the addition of those small improvements changes the very structure.
Showdown minigames already show this (the player with a Jamboree Buddy gets advantages). Those situations should be the ideal; not the rare exception to be found in various circumstances, showing the incredible limitations of sticking to similar types of gameplays. Those situations need careful adjustment, which only the careful redesigning of minigames should resolve! Nintendo could make every aspect of gameplay easier yet also significantly more engaging and enjoyable.
Conclusion: The Next Mario Party MUST Fix These Seriously Broken Games
Jamboree is fantastic, but it proves some of these incredibly problematic elements never get solved. Nintendo NEEDS to seriously reimagine those 3v1 minigames. Make those AI opponents far more competitive, those objectives similar, add small adjustments, that is – adjust game difficulty and balancing based upon AI performance to achieve FAIR and EQUALLY engaging minigames; rather than an almost constantly unpredictable result, for those solo vs team matchups. Otherwise, these fundamentally frustrating games undermine many aspects that could otherwise elevate a possibly superb entry! Don't let broken minigames ruin your party!
