Can you play Mario Party Superstars online?

Mario Party Superstars

I’ll be the first to admit that it is a bit sad seeing “can you play Mario Party Superstars online,” as a relatively popular query about the newest title in the Mario Party franchise, but Nintendo kind of only has themselves to blame. Throughout the Wii and Wii U generations, many first-party games either had a lackluster online play with difficulty playing with friends or with a stable connection or no online at all. Many players had to resort to third-party programs like Parsec or Discord to play or talk with friends respectively. Thankfully, there is Mario Party Superstars online play, and it looks to be great given Nintendo’s track record.

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How to Play Mario Party Superstars Online

While the base setup for online play is fairly intuitive, there are a few more hoops to go through to play with who you want. Upon selecting Online, the game allows you to pick to play with friends or strangers. This too is pretty self-explanatory. Where the real customization comes in is in the Toad Village. Here, you can create rooms, join lobbies, and set settings for password entry or who can join. If one merely wants to join a friend, there is a join room tab that allows you to find a friend’s lobby without going through most of the menuing hassle.

mario party superstars online select
Credit: IGN

As with many fighting games, Mario Party Superstars online allow for profile customization in the form of a Mario Party Card. This has fairly standard online profile info like character, level, and title, but also allows the player to mention topics like their favorite Mario Party title and minigames. A nice touch to be sure, especially for those who intend to play online frequently.

Online Quality of Life Change

While adding online to Super Mario Party was a step in the right direction, some key issues look to have been addressed with the new entry in the series. If a player were to disconnect, the game will swap the player for a CPU. Additionally, if the player manages to rejoin, they will take control of their character back at the beginning of the next turn. This will most definitely help with the need to abandon partially completed games just to get a friend back.

That isn’t all, though! Online games can also be saved in Mario Party Superstars. As such, they no longer need to be done in one session, allowing scheduling for players to be much more flexible. I personally have tons of issues with not being able to really start up a game because I feel I wouldn’t have the time to give it, so an option to make Mario Party more pick up and play is certainly a welcome one.

READ MORE: Who Is The Best Mario Character To Party With?

Mario Party is a series that mostly speaks for itself with regards to the fun (and rage) induced throughout play. The main thing holding it back was a lack of good online play outside of emulators or third-party services. The changes made to Mario Party Superstars’ Online should keep it pretty active moving forward!