When Mario and his friends planned their most recent party, they were expecting for Bowser to try to crash it as he has done at every one of their other parties. But they weren’t ready for the extent of Bowser’s intentions. The fire-spewing turtle, now controlled by a fifth character, can chase Mario and his friends across the game board, forcing them to play mini-games against him so he can steal all the hearts he can from them.

Mario Party 10 is a great addition to the Mario Party series, although it does have some problems.

The Bowser Party mode is very fun and original. The ability to play as Bowser and trick characters into making the wrong choices using stamps and graffiti is great fun, and definitely adds an even more competitive edge to the game.

The Mario Party mode is also fun, although less so than the Bowser Party mode. The courses are lots of fun to play on and look beautiful, and the minigames are all pretty fun. The game boards also have a new feature where Bowser is behind a gate with six locks, each one corresponding to a number on the dice block. When the dice block is rolled and the number that shows up hasn’t been rolled before, that lock will fall out of Bowser’s cage. When all the locks are gone, Bowser creates tons of Bowser spaces and steals the player who freed him’s mini stars.

The amiibo party mode may be the best mode in the game. The character themes are some of the best remixes in any Mario game, specifically Luigi’s theme, and the traditional Mario Party gameplay is greatly welcomed. Using the amiibos as figurines, collecting bases for them, and combining board pieces to make an original board is lots of fun. Bonus minigames like ones where you play all the Bowser minigames are lots of fun, and the photo studio in Toad’s room is quite enjoyable and relaxing.

One of the biggest problems with the game, however, is the lack of game boards. Mario Party mode has only five game boards, and Bowser Party mode only uses three of those boards. It would have been nice if Bowser Party mode could work with all the Mario Party boards and if there were even more game boards besides that.

Some board elements like Boos and Bowser make changes in mini star leadership can change up the game but can also be annoying for those who spent a long time collecting mini stars only to have them quickly taken for landing on a wrong space. Another thing I found annoying that characters like Yellow Toad and Hammer Bro. who have the same roles in this game as Mario Party 9 became mute characters in this game unlike in Mario Party 9. The lack of speaking was fairly annoying, as there didn’t seem to be much of a reason for that. Also, amusing characters and situations like in Mario Party 8 are abandoned in this game.

Mario Party 10 is a great game. It’s got a good cast, good game boards, and great new gameplay mechanics. However, some shortcomings keep this game from being as good as it could be. If you’re in the mood for a pretty intense game for the whole family, consider picking this game up.