It goes without saying that Nintendo’s online infrastructure leaves much to be desired. However, as behind as Nintendo may be, it does seem to be making baby steps in the right direction. With the introduction of Fortnite, Nintendo has (finally) allowed native voice chat on the Switch without using a mobile phone. Additionally, Nintendo has increasingly been supporting more and more games with post-launch content, most notably, Arms and Splatoon 2. These small steps are beginning to add up as today Nintendo announced that the upcoming title Super Mario Party will also have online functionality.
This announcement is one of many Nintendo has made this week during its Nintendo Treehouse Live festivities. According to the announcement (which can be watched here thanks to Twitch user Alfrottos), Super Mario Party’s Online Mario-thon will not be an entire game of Mario Party, rather, five rapid-fire minigames. Competing against friends or strangers online, players will face-off against one another to see who comes out on top in what seems to be a best-of-five match. These five mini-games will continually be swapped out of the rotation, however, Nintendo has not revealed how often this change will take place.
Additionally, Nintendo announced that the upcoming title will also include leaderboards, a ranking system, and rewards. Seeing as a majority of Mario Party‘s fun is derived from its (often heartless) PvP matches that take place in living rooms, it’s uncertain how much mileage anyone will truly get out of these additions. That being said, it’s nice to see Nintendo include these features, and more importantly, I’m one hundred percent ready to duke it out online from the comfort of my bed.
Super Mario Party will be released for the Nintendo Switch on October 5th.