‘Super Mario Party’ Gets Online Multiplayer Update Almost Three Years After Release

In a supremely unanticipated announcement, Nintendo showed off a new update for 2018’s Super Mario Party now allowing players to bring the party online with friends.

In the short announcement video, Nintendo makes it clear that the game’s main board game mode as well as the game’s several other side modes, are fully accessible through online play.

While myself and many other Mario Party series fans were disappointed Super Mario Party didn’t have an online mode on launch, I don’t think anyone expected Nintendo to add it almost three years later. While I’d regularly say this addition is a bit too late to be exciting, I’m actually looking forward to stepping back into Super, as the game’s been collecting dust since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Players can either create a Friend Match, allowing anyone on your friends list to join your lobby, or Private Game requiring a password to join. Once you’re queued up, up to four players can play Mario Party, Partner Party, or Minigames modes to their hearts’ content. Also, all 20 characters will be unlocked during online play. That’s especially kind, as unlocking Donkey Kong proved too much of a chore for me and friends in 2018.

The new update to Super Mario Party is available right now, so players can finally have some safe, socially distanced, Mario fun we’ve all been secretly doing over netplay with roms of Mario Party 2 & 3, but now with the consent of the Nintendo corporate gods.