What do I mean by baby mode exactly?

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the latest addition to the Mario Kart franchise has been pitting friends and rivals against each other for almost 26(!) years. In that time, fans of the series have grown accustomed to the ins and outs of avoiding cows in Moo Moo Meadows or lining up that perfect shot with a green turtle shell. All this training, however, has caused a bit of a gap between the pros and the no-gos. Wouldn’t it be great if you could level the playing field a bit?

One of the things that MK8 lacks is a handicap. It would be great if you could limit the speed or handling of a chosen character and boost either of these stats for your green competition. This, sadly, has never been a feature added to any of the games in the series. Oh sure, you could purposely choose a terrible racer and modifications for your kart and try to level the playing field that way, but in my experience that only gets you so far.

What DOES really restrict your deft Mario Kart ability is one thing and one thing only. BABY PARK! I mean, the answer is in the name! This track can be found in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart DS, and the latest installment, MK8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch. It boasts seven laps instead of the typical three and given the size (which is very small) chaos is bound to ensue! This particular set-up keeps the leader from pulling ahead since lapping the racer that is in last place only puts you right back in the action, open to anything that happens to ricochet your way!

This chaos and added difficulty to avoid projectiles keeps things even throughout a majority of the race. The course itself is simple since it only features right hand turns, giving the newbs in the group a fighting chance to take on the leader. Since items and power-ups come up so frequently, it also provides a good opportunity for players to learn how to line up that perfect shot, especially if you play with shells only (menu item).

I had a blast playing this particular track over and over again with my extended family, most of which hadn’t ever picked up a Joy-Con before! To be honest, it actually felt great to be bested by my sister-in-law (ahem, no bitterness here) who, after branching out with other courses, is now pretty good! Her, along with my wife and friends, have all started to heat up the competition and now I have some big-headed contenders who think they can take me any time, any place! That sounds like the perfect evening to me.

Platform: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
# of Players: Single-player, 1-4 multiplayer
Release Date: October 5, 2018

Party Hardy

For over 20 years Mario Party has been settling arguments over who can hit the A button faster or who can summon enough composure not to chuck their controller across the room when losing coins to Bowser for the umpteenth time. Nintendo made the surprise announcement at E3 this past year that the once thought derelict franchise would be receiving its 11th installment in October. This not only sent waves of confusion and excitement through the Nintendo community, it also proved that the spunky developer/publisher was willing to take on a challenge. That being most gamers thought the series had seen its final days given the lukewarm reception of the last several titles, to which Nintendo responded in spades. With the advent of the Switch and all the well regarded and highly praised titles that Nintendo has released in the past year and a half, Super Mario Party almost feels like a celebration of the companies new golden standard in gaming.

New Venue, Old Tricks

One of the most positive changes that SMP has implemented is the revival of classic game board mechanics that players have been pining for in the last few entries. Gone are the days where characters rode around the board together in a car or boat and weren’t able to independently move in the direction they wanted to, a move so baffling that it turned the majority of fans away from the series altogether. Now, players are able to choose their character and move them freely in whatever direction they want, providing more strategy elements that were sorely missing from previous entries. Nintendo also got rid of mini-game spaces when playing so now mini-games automatically begin once everyone has taken a turn. Again, these kinds of things were the reason why gamers loved the original Mario Party on the N64. It still boggles the mind why Nintendo made some of these changes throughout the years when they had already achieved the magic formula for success 20 years ago. Now it seems that they have been listening to the fans that have held on for so long and due to the mercurial rise in excitement over the past few months, their decision to go back to basics could very well pay off.

New to the Party

Despite the returning concepts and game modes in SMP, Nintendo also wanted to mix things up with the addition of some new modes of play that so far have been well received by the fans. Characters now have their own dice blocks that can be rolled providing more positive and negative outcomes than standard 1-6 face die. New game board concepts have also been unveiled that allow players to move in any direction (like a chessboard) to see who can grab the most stars, while clashing with other players in a battlefield scenario. There will also be a two-player co-op game mode that will allow two teams of partners to go head-to-head on a game board and work together to collect stars while stopping the other team from doing so. One of the most interesting game modes coming to SMP is the inclusion of a four-player co=op mode where four players climb into a white water raft and must work together to make it down river before time expires. Using the motion controls on the Joy-Cons, players must actually row their boat around obstacles along the way while trying to aim their boat towards balloons that activate cooperative mini-games. Depending on how well teams do, time can be added to the clock when they return to the river. Branching paths will also be peppered here and there forcing teams to think on the fly about which path is best. Do you take the path with all the rocks, or do you go down the branch where their are shy guys throwing spears?

All Are Invited!

With all of the new game modes that Nintendo has included, you can bet they didn’t forget about the main attraction: THE MINI-GAMES! SMP includes a whopping 80+ mini-games for players to enjoy via the game boards or individually if you don’t have time to play an entire board game. Mini-games can also be played in online multiplayer, however, you cannot play any board game modes online. This is something that Nintendo hopefully fixes down the line, but as of this post, it is unfortunately absent from the the final game. Despite this minor annoyance, Super Mario Party is shaping up to be one of Nintendo’s sleeper hits when it drops on October 5th. Nintendo it seems is ready to roll the dice on this much needed revival of a storied franchise, and I’ll bet three stars and 10 gold coins that they’ll have a lot to celebrate.