The Mario Party franchise may be one of the most popular Mario spin-off series, but Nintendo has not done much with it in the Nintendo Switch era. The Switch has seen two different Mario Party games during its lifespan, but each severely lacked content and received no post-launch support. If this trend continues then fans will have little reason to keep buying into this franchise, which may ultimately prove to be its downfall.
After the controversial Mario Party car era, fans of the series were excited to see what Nintendo would do with it on the Switch. Super Mario Party was promising, but the studio quickly dropped support for it in favor of Mario Party Superstars. Two years later, it seems like Superstars will suffer the same exact fate as its predecessor, and that makes many fans feel like they wasted their money. If this series wants to truly redeem itself, then the next entry cannot repeat this same model.
The Latest Mario Party Titles Lacked Post-Launch Support
For a couple of years, the Mario Party franchise seemed focused on the new car mechanic that was introduced in Mario Party 9. This mechanic saw every player travel across the board together, and that proved unpopular within the community. Super Mario Party got rid of this mechanic and was supposed to mark the grand return of the franchise. While it was fun at first and introduced interesting new mechanics, its long-term content proved pretty lackluster.
Super Mario Party may have had one of the largest playable rosters in Mario Party history, but it only had four boards for players to play on. It also featured a bunch of new mechanics that utilized the Switch hardware, and the minigames were strong. Its low board count seemed primed for post-launch DLC, but Nintendo never added anything. The game had a strong framework to build from, but the studio chose to drop it three years later.
Mario Party Superstars launched in 2021 and was supposed to be a big celebration of the franchise's past. It took the series back to the basics, and featured 100 remade minigames for players to test their mettle in. The board count was also increased to five, each of which was a remade version of a Nintendo 64 board. While it offered a bit more content on launch, Nintendo has yet to add any form of DLC to it, thus leaving it feeling incomplete.
Mario Party Cannot Continue Like This
There is still a chance that Nintendo has plans for Mario Party Superstars DLC, but right now it feels like the game is following in Super Mario Party's footsteps. That would mean that the Nintendo Switch era has had two major Mario Party titles that have felt like they were missing something, and no DLC to make up for that. If Mario Party Superstars gets dropped, then the community may have little reason to buy into the next title.
Asking players to fork over $60 or $70 for a small game that the studio will not support seems like a risky move. If future Mario Party games launch with the same amount of content as the Switch ones have, and receive no DLC, then fans will just be throwing their money away. It could tarnish the brand and make players cautious about buying into the new title. If Nintendo wants Mario Party to continue to be as popular as it is, then it needs to pack these games with more content or support them with DLC.
In the age of DLCs and microtransactions, it seems strange that Nintendo would not capitalize on the Mario Party brand. Maybe it has something in the works, but right now it feels like the studio is just planning on abandoning Mario Party Superstars in favor of the next title, which will then likely be abandoned similarly. If Nintendo wants fans to support this franchise, then it needs to step up.
Mario Party Superstars is available now on Switch.
