Mario Party: The Top 100 has been released for the Nintendo 3DS by Nd Cube on November 10, 2017 in North America.
The concept that Nd Cube clearly had with Mario Party: The Top 100 is to make a compilation with having the best of the best mini-games from all of the past console Mario Parties (1-10) into one standalone package. The actual idea sounds pretty amazing on paper since this has never actually been done before, until now. However, the main problem that Mario Party: The Top 100 has isn't the brilliant idea that Nd Cube came up with, but the execution ends up falling pretty flat.
Mario Party: The Top 100 just has too many problems for it to be even remotely considered being one of the greatest Mario Parties of all time. Does this also mean that Mario Party: The Top 100 is a bad game? Not necessarily. However, this does mean that expectations for Mario Party: The Top 100 are pretty low, even for it being on a handheld. Even most fans and critics alike can safely say that Mario Party: The Top 100 isn't a great game in the series. However, the biggest praise that Mario Party: The Top 100 gets is that the game finally removes the car mechanic (from Mario Parties 9 and 10) that fans and critics generally dislike about the series.
Presentation - Mario Party: The Top 100 has up to a total of 7 game modes. There are 100 Minigames, Minigame Island, Minigame Match, Championship Battles, Decathalon, Collection, Multiplayer, and even Amiibo features. I'll briefly explain a little bit about each game mode.
The 100 Mini-games mode is pretty similar to the "Free Play" mode where you can pick and choose which mini-games that you want to play. However, some mini-games have to be unlocked on the Minigame Island mode before you can play them on Free Play mode.
Mini-game Island is kind of like a story mode where you first play and beat the CPUs in each mini-game in a row/line, in order to unlock the actual mini-games. You can also select a CPU as a teammate that can help you out on your journey to unlock the rest of the mini-games as well. Remember that your teammate will not appear as a rival.
Mini-Game Match plays pretty similarly to the "Balloon Bash" mode from Mario Party: Star Rush for the 3DS that was released in 2016. In Mini-Game Match, players mode around one board by simply rolling a dice that lets you know where you can move to throughout the board.
In Championship Battles, you compete against friends/CPU in a battle to see who can win the most amount of mini-games. The winner is the person/CPU who can win the best out of either 3 or 5 rounds. This mode actually made a debut in Mario Party 2 for the N64 which was released in 2000.
Similar to Championship Battles, the Decathlon mode also first made an appearance in an earlier Mario Party title. This time around, Decathlon first made a debut in Mario Party 5 for the GameCube that was released in 2003. In Decathlon, you play on a set of 5 or 10 mini-games against friends/CPU. Points are earned by testing how well you have completed the mini-game rather than simply just winning the mini-game.
In Multiplayer mode, users can play Mario Party: The Top 100 by either using Local Play (if you own a copy of the game) or Download Play. Download Play allows you to play Mario Party: The Top 100 on your 3DS if you currently don't have a copy of the game, which is a pretty neat feature.
Just like in Mario Party 10 for the Wii U (released in 2015) that first enabled Amiibo features, Mario Party: The Top 100 also has some Amiibo features as well. In fact, the only way that you even remotely play traditional boards in Mario Party 10 where you collect coins and stars is to actually scan in any compatible Mario themed Amiibo.
However, in Mario Party: The Top 100, you can scan in an Amiibo in the Mini-game Island mode in order to gain an extra life if you currently lost a life in a mini-game that you recently lost. Also, in Mini-game Island mode, you can also earn 10 coins if you simply scan an Amiibo on an Amiibo icon. Also, if a Goomba or Koopa Troopa lands on an Amiibo space, you can also tap either the Goomba or Koopa Troopa Amiibo to earn a bonus of 50 coins.
The Amiibos that are compatible in Mario Party: The Top 100 are generally the Super Mario series Amiibo, and Mario characters that were also playable in Super Smash Bros. 4 for the Wii U and 3DS as well.
Graphics and Sound
Since Mario Party: The Top 100 is on a handheld, and not a console, the graphics will automatically be more limited. The graphics also won't be in HD as well. However, the graphics generally look brighter, cleaner, and more crisp than how the mini-games look on their original versions especially from the Nintendo 64 and GameCube era. Especially since the graphics generally looked a lot more primitive back in the Nintendo 64 era.
Mario Party: The Top 100 has it's very own theme song just like how most Mario Parties have their own catchy theme song. However, there's one main problem that the sound/audio has that Mario Party: The Top 100 has with some of the mini-games. For example, there could be a mini-game that was originally from Mario Party 3, but the music would still play from a different game in the series such as Mario Party 6.
Gameplay and Lasting Appeal
Even though there's only one board where you can actually play on, you can still collect coins and stars against your friends/CPU. There are a total of 8 playable characters which are Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, and Rosalina. Given the fact that Mario Party: The Top 100 is on a handheld, I can give the smaller roster a pass this time around, at least. This will actually be the first time where Daisy and Waluigi can play mini-games from Mario Parties 1 and 2. Since Daisy and Waluigi were first playable in Mario Party 3. Plus, this will also be the first time that Rosalina can play on mini-games from Mario Parties 1-9 since Rosalina was first playable in Mario Party 10. Also, Rosalina made her debut appearance in Super Mario Galaxy as well (in 2007). However, I can't give Mario Party: The Top 100 a pass when it comes to the actual boards since Mario Party DS managed to have a selection of a few playable boards virtually ten years ago, from 2007 to 2017.
Here are a total amount of mini-games that are playable from Mario Parties 1-10.
Mario Party 1 = 6
Mario Party 2 = 13
Mario Party 3 = 12
Mario Party 4 = 14
Mario Party 5 = 17
Mario Party 6 = 9
Mario Party 7 = 12
Mario Party 8 = 3
Mario Party 9 = 10
Mario Party 10 = 4
Overall, it only seems that the glass is either half empty or half full (the way how you look at it from either a positive or a negative viewpoint) with Mario Party: The Top 100. Since with Mario Party: The Top 100 can only be considered a partial throwback to the Mario Party series. Nd Cube mostly gets it right with the mini-games and the game modes, but Nd Cube also gets it terribly wrong with the board/s, and even gets the sound/audio wrong with some of the mini-games (which never happened in a Mario Party game ever before, until now). To even further add insult to injury, Mario Party: The Top 100 doesn't even have an online mode which further even decreases the Replay value. Especially since most Mario Party fans who actually grew up with playing Mario Party in the late 1990s/early 2000s are fully grown adults now who don't have nearly as much time to play video games with their friends as much as they used to when they were a lot/way younger. Unfortunately, most people will probably just go back to playing Mario Parties on the N64 and GameCube again if they really want their Mario Party fix instead of playing Mario Party: The Top 100.
Come on, Nd Cube. Don't you remember that there were actual boards to play on a Mario Party handheld before such as Mario Party DS that was released all the way back in 2007? Exactly ten years later (2017), there's still only one board to play on Mario Party: The Top 100? Wow. This will really make fans totally disappointed with playing Mario Party: The Top 100.
Overall, Mario Party: The Top 100 only can be seen from being mediocre to simply just being a good Mario Party game (from scores 5-7).
The Good - Nd Cube's first attempt to make a compilation of mini-games that ranges from classic to modern Mario Parties. Plus, it's also the very first time that you can play classic to modern Mario Party mini-games on a handheld as well. There are surprisingly an abundance of game modes.
The Bad - Unfortunately, there's only a single board where you can play with your friends/CPU. There's no type of online mode as well. There's also some problems with the sound/audio with some of the mini-games.
GameSpot Score 6 out of 10 (Fair)