Verdict
Super Mario Party Jamboree's Nintendo Switch 2 Edition adds very little to the already incredible base game, and the Jamboree TV expansion is filled with gimmicky, lackluster game modes with the occasional nugget of gold thrown in
It's no secret that I love Mario Party. The original Super Mario Party Jamboree was one of my 2024 games of the year and the pinnacle of the Mario Party experience on the Switch, so of course, I was excited when Nintendo announced Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV. More features can only be a good thing, right?
In this review, I'll focus on the additional Nintendo Switch 2-exclusive features found in Jamboree TV, because although this new edition supposedly provides visual enhancements to the base game, I didn't notice much difference. It already looks amazing on the original Switch and OLED, so aside from a slight graphical upgrade, everything in my Super Mario Party Jamboree review still applies to the new version.
On the surface, Jamboree TV massively expands the Super Mario Party Jamboree experience, adding mouse minigames, camera and microphone minigames, plus new rulesets and game modes, but in reality, the majority of these additions feel like gimmicky filler content. This expansion adds 20 mouse minigames to the already massive roster, yet none of them seem particularly worth it, purely because of how awkward the Switch 2's mouse controls feel in a multiplayer setting.
When playing the game with my partner on our couch, I tried using the Joy-Con 2's mouse controls on my leg, a cushion, a folder, and a separate chair, though none of these surfaces felt right or worked as intended. If I were playing online and sat alone at my desk with a mousepad, my experience might be different, but that's not how I play Mario Party with my friends. The minigames themselves weren't entirely uninspired - I particularly enjoyed the ice cream scooping and rock climbing games - but the mouse control experience mars their interesting design. Luckily, you can turn these minigames off in tandem with the motion minigames if you don't like them, which also allows for more controller types and handheld play.
While these extra minigames aren't my cup of tea, I'm a huge fan of the new Mario Party rulesets. Tag Team and Frenzy both shake up the standard game experience, with Tag Team harkening back to older Mario Party games and Frenzy providing a quicker, higher-stakes battle. In Tag Team, your teammate can act as a pseudo-Jamboree Buddy to help you buy two stars at once, thanks to the new Tag Team Dice. It removes the extra time spent battling for a Jamboree Buddy, and you don't have to play around certain characters' random abilities (I'm looking at you, Donkey Kong).
Instead of just shortening a standard Mario Party match, Frenzy is a five-turn homestretch-only free-for-all where everyone starts with one star and 50 coins, or more, depending on which bonus you roll. This levels the playing field from the beginning, immediately raises the stakes, and provides a neat solution if you have children who don't like Mario Party's RNG unfairness, as it's highly unlikely that you'll end the game with nothing.
The joy I get when playing Tag Team with my partner starkly contrasts the way Bowser Live makes me feel. This side mode has a cute concept, putting you and your teammates in the audience of a Bowser concert and making you battle it out for his approval through camera and microphone minigames, but that's one of the only good elements. Even though I have the Nintendo Switch 2 camera, which is a 1080p webcam that works wonderfully on my PC, the camera minigames look and feel like the EyeToy Play for the PS2, and not in a cute, nostalgic way. All of the minigames are rudimentary and leave me wanting more, especially as you don't get a practice round like the standard minigames.
The microphone minigames, while slightly more inventive, are very difficult to play as an adult who has to maintain social relationships. I'm afraid to yell too loudly at my Switch 2 in case I disturb my neighbours, but the microphone isn't strong enough to pick up subtle sounds when you're playing docked on a TV. I'd love to see Bowser Chicken transformed into a standard button-based 2v2 minigame, but in its current state, I likely won't touch it again. Finally, the third round of Bowser Live always requires both movement and sound to play, and based on my few experiences, this round is more heavily weighted than the other two, but the game doesn't tell you that. My partner and I won the first two rounds and then decided to half-arse round three because of the aforementioned awkwardness around yelling, and we somehow lost to the NPC enemy team.
CameraPlay in local multiplayer is equally janky and bizarre. It took me a while to realise, but you can play standard Mario Party in Jamboree TV without CameraPlay if you don't connect a camera. Even though, during setup, you frame each player's face, the camera doesn't track your movements, so if you readjust your position at all, you might end up with only half of your face showing. There's no real reason to use CameraPlay in local multiplayer, as you can simply turn to the side and see your friends' faces instead of watching their webcam, but it did lead to some silly, screenshot-worthy moments of my face in the middle of a star. Sadly, due to privacy and safety concerns, you can't take screenshots when there's a camera connection to your Switch 2. I completely understand the reasoning behind this, but I wish there were an option to turn it off.
As a certified rollercoaster enjoyer, Carnival Coaster is a really cute concept that I'm sure plenty of younger players will enjoy, as it feels like you're riding alongside the characters thanks to the camera angles and the Joy-Con 2's HD Rumble 2. However, the entire mode revolves around mouse controls, both for the shooting element and the pit-stop minigames. This feature alone means I probably won't be going back to it anytime soon, especially as all the children in my life are too old now to appreciate the novelty.
Finally, Super Mario Party Jamboree's Nintendo Switch 2 Edition lets you GameShare with up to three other local players in handheld mode, which is pretty neat. At first, I struggled to see the application of this feature as I prefer to play Mario Party in local multiplayer, docked to a TV. However, as I played with my friend, we thought about how passengers in a car or on a plane might use this to pass the time. My cousins and I used to sit for hours just hanging out in Pictochat rooms on the DS, doodling and writing silly messages, so the potential for local, multi-device multiplayer is definitely there.
However, although GameShare runs incredibly smoothly, it has very limited replayability with the same group of people, as you only have access to one board and 30 of the 85 potential minigames. Plus, once you finish sharing the game, the tile appears on your friend's Switch home screen, essentially acting as advertising for the game. It's a neat feature, but it's not a fully-fledged multiplayer mode built for long-term use.
Overall, Super Mario Party Jamboree - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Jamboree TV has me very torn. The upgrade pack for the Switch 2 is $20, and I'm just not sure that, for the way I play the game, there's enough content in the expansion to justify the cost. Nintendo could have easily offered the Tag Team and Frenzy rulesets as a free update to all versions of the game, too. If you already have a Nintendo Switch 2 camera and you think the additional game modes will work for your family and style of play, then go for it, but if you're like me, I'd recommend just buying the Switch version of the game. It's still an absolute banger and runs fantastically on the Switch 2.
There are plenty more new Switch games to look forward to on the handheld, and we've made a definitive list of the best Nintendo Switch 2 accessories for you to trick out your gaming setup.