Recs.
Updated
Super Mario Party is a co-op party game. You can play with friends or against the AI as classic Nintendo characters, playing through fun mini-games as you progress through a tabletop-like board to get first place and win.
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Loads of fun to play with a group of friends
If you have a friend or three to play with, then this game can keep you entertained for hours and hours. The mini-games are exciting and even more unpredictable with actual people instead of the AI, so you never know what's going to happen: that one friend who seems to suck when they first start could be a quick learner and pull off a sudden victory at the end. This is a wonderful party game for gamers of all skill levels, and the Switch's portability makes it easy to bring it with you wherever you go.
Pro Eighty different mini-games to play
There are tons of mini-games to play in Super Mario Party. A lot of them are pretty wacky and charming in their own ways, and they're a bunch of fun to figure out and get better at. You can race on slow-moving tricycles, land and line up pieces of Mario's face on a board to make it look like the real thing, rush around pushing your co-op friends out of the way as you pose for the best-looking paparazzi photos, have a cook-off, and a bunch more. With the good amount of variety, it's hard for any of the mini-games to get old.
Pro The mini-games make great use of the Joy-Con controllers
Super Mario Party is a stand-out for the way it implements the Joy-Con's impressive tech abilities. For the mini-games that require you to tilt things a certain way, like a bowls or mechanisms, it's pretty precise about reading your movements correctly. Shaking the controllers as fast as you can to make your characters move is also really responsive. Even the vibration is precise enough for the mini-game that has you shake a box to figure out what's inside. It all works well as you play, feeling intuitive enough to learn quickly.
Pro Unique idea of playing through strategic board games with Nintendo characters
Super Mario Party is like a virtual board game with all sorts of neat rules and conditions. You start off by picking a character to play as, like Mario, Yoshi, Bowser, Waluigi, and tons more, and then you each take turns moving along the squares of the board. At certain points, the mini-game round begins where everyone plays through interesting challenges to gain the most bonuses at the end, most of which require a fair bit of tactics to win. Whoever earns the most bonuses through mini-games and special squares on the board wins the game. You can have a great time figuring out all of the best strategies to improve as you keep playing.
Cons
Con You're forced to always use the Joy-Con controllers
If you're not a fan of the Joy-Con controllers, then you might have to just deal with them or pass on Super Mario Party entirely. A lot of the mini-games use the motion controls, which makes the Joy-Cons mandatory. Pro controllers unfortunately won't work for these mini-games at all. And with the Joy-Cons, you're limited on how long you can play with them, since they will eventually need to be recharged. It can be inconvenient, especially if you're on-the-go without a reliable way to charge up your Switch and controllers.
Con Playing alone against the AI isn't as fun as co-op
Even though there is a single-player mode, it doesn't exactly compare to playing co-op with real people. The AI isn't as spontaneous as a group of friends could be, so matches against the computer can get stale after a while. If you're looking for a single-player experience, you might want to skip over Super Mario Party, as it's more tailored for traditional couch co-op.
Con Limited number of boards to play on
There are only four boards to play on, which really isn't a lot. If you've played the earlier Mario Party games, you might be disappointed to find out that these boards are much smaller, too, even though they're much denser. Luckily, there are other game modes to play, and the amount of mini-games kind of makes up for things, but there's still a lot of wasted potential here.