Super Mario Party has been quite hit on Nintendo Switch, albeit we might not consider it in those terms. Nintendo’s most up-to-date figures put it at 7th within the system’s best-selling games, having shifted nearly 14 million copies, showing the appetite for multiplayer fun on the small system.
It’s a strong entry within the series, though perhaps predictably, its online Play was underwhelming at best, limiting you to a narrow range of minigames to play with friends or strangers; it had been a rather throwaway mode. Somewhat out of the blue, Nintendo has confirmed (on its Japanese website, hat-tip to Reset-Era) and now released an enormous free update to significantly boost online Play.
Here are the small print [Update, equivalent information from Nintendo of America is live]:
- Three Modes playable online – Mario Party, Partner Party, Free Play (minigames). This makes boards playable online for the primary time, and most significantly, when playing online, all characters and boards are available, no matter in-game progress.
- You can choose Friend Match (playing with those on your friend list) or Private Game, where lobbies are password-protected. This seems to rule out random players in these expanded modes, which is sensible.
- Up to four players, but if there are two players on one system, you’ll only be connected with one other system. When it’s one player per system, up to four can connect.
- Supports the Invite Friend feature on the system.
- Free Play now allows you to play Vs. or co-op in 70 minigames.
Overall, the Update is significantly boosting the amount of mini-games playable online and allows you to play boards with friends online for the primary time.
Nintendo has also confirmed some Nintendo Switch Online promotions for Japan within the announcement, so we’ll keep an eye fixed for equivalents in other regions.
The Update seems to be live now, so get downloading! Are you excited about playing Super Mario Party boards online?
