| Mario Party: The Top 100 | |
| Developer: | NDcube |
| Publisher: | Nintendo |
| Producer: | Keisuke Terasaki Toyokazu Nonaka Toshiaki Suzuki Atsushi Ikeda Kenji Kikuchi |
| Director: | Tsutomu Komiyama |
| Designer: | Takeru Sugimoto |
| Programmer: | Shinji Shibasaki |
| Artist: | Susumu Kuribayashi |
| Composer: | Masayoshi Ishi Sara Sakurai |
| Series: | Mario Party |
| Platforms: | Nintendo 3DS |
| Genre: | Party |
| Modes: | Single-player, multiplayer |
Mario Party: The Top 100 is a 2017 party video game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fifth handheld game in the Mario Party series, as well as the third and final Mario Party game for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. The game was first released in North America in November 2017, and was released in PAL regions and in Japan in December 2017.
Mario Party: The Top 100 is primarily a compilation of 100 minigames from across the series, specifically ones from the home console installments. However, the game sees traditional Mario Party gameplay with up to four characters from the Mario franchise, controlled by humans or artificial intelligence, competing in an interactive board game interspersed with the aforementioned minigames.
The game received mixed reviews, with much of the criticism being directed toward its lack of content aside from the minigames. A similar entry, Mario Party Superstars, which also features 100 minigames from the home console games, was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021.
Mario Party: The Top 100 features 100 minigames that were introduced in earlier games in the Mario Party series, namely the home console entries. Most of the minigames were visually and audibly updated from their original counterparts, and several minigames that appeared in Mario Party games for the Wii were reworked to properly function on the Nintendo 3DS, which lacks the Wii's motion controls.
The game boasts eight playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Wario, Waluigi, Yoshi, and Rosalina.[1] These characters can be controlled by human players as well as artificial intelligence.
Mario Party: The Top 100 offers several game modes, most of which are hosted by Toad or Toadette.[1] In Minigame Match, players roll dice to move around a single game board simultaneously, with the goal being to hold the most coins and Stars by the end of the game, as in prior Mario Party titles. Items on the board can be collected to help the player gain an advantage over their opponents.[2] Unlike in previous Mario Party installments, rather than automatically being played at the end of each turn, minigames are played whenever certain items are used or a player pops a Minigame Balloon.
Minigame Island revolves around playing through pre-selected minigames to advance along a linear path in four worlds. Playing through Minigame Island is required to unlock 45 of the game's 100 minigames.[2] Completing this mode for the first time unlocks a harder challenge mode, and collecting every Star by getting first place unlocks the hardest NPC difficulty setting, "Master".
Championship Battles involves playing three or five minigames from a selected pack, with the player(s) winning the most minigames being declared the winner(s). Decathlon consists of playing five or ten minigames to earn the most points. Mario Party: The Top 100 also includes a free play mode, in which the player can choose which minigames to play.[2] Additionally, the game features a collection menu, where players can listen to music and view characters from the series.
Mario Party: The Top 100 supports multiplayer for up to four players, through either the use of individual copies of the game or 3DS download play, with only one player being required to have a copy of the game. The game also supports Amiibo compatibility.
Mario Party: The Top 100 was first announced in September 2017 during a Nintendo Direct, in which it was revealed that the game would feature 100 minigames from previous home console games in the Mario Party series, and that the game would include download play, permitting up to four people to play from multiple 3DS systems with only one game cartridge.[3] [4] [5] [6] An overview trailer released the following month revealed that the game would support Amiibo functionality.[7]
Less than two months after it was announced, Mario Party: The Top 100 was released in North America on November 10, 2017.[3] [6] It was subsequently released in PAL regions and in Japan on December 22, 2017, and on December 28, 2017, respectively;[8] it was originally set for a release in Europe on January 5, 2018.[9] The game succeeded , a title released for the 3DS the previous year.[4] [5]
Like all Mario Party games from Mario Party 9 onwards, Mario Party: The Top 100 was developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo. A similar installment, Mario Party Superstars, which also features 100 minigames (as well as five game boards) from the home console entries, was released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021.[10]
According to the review aggregation website Metacritic, Mario Party: The Top 100 received "mixed or average" reviews. Although the game's premise and sense of nostalgia were praised by multiple critics, it generally received criticism for its lack of game boards and additional content.[2]
The concept of a minigame compilation was lauded by several critics, including Polygon Allegra Frank, who referred to the all-minigame premise as "genius". Frank also praised the game's sense of nostalgia,[2] with Destructoids Caitlin Cooke agreeing that the experience "was a solid trip down nostalgia road". The graphical and audio enhancements of the minigames were also generally complimented, though Matt West of Nintendo World Report suggested that the control schemes for some minigames did not transfer well to the 3DS.
Critics were divided on the game's minigame selection; although Nintendo Lifes Michael Koczwara believed that Mario Party: The Top 100s goal of being a compilation of the best minigames in the series "was accomplished with great results" and Destructoids Caitlin Cooke felt that the game "did a fairly decent job" representing the most fun and popular minigames from the series, Computer Games Magazines Jordan Biordi wrote that there were "maybe 15-20 good minigames" from three of the first four installments in the series. Moreover, Nintendo World Reports Matt West criticized the presentation of the minigames as "somewhat disconnected".
The lack of game boards was panned by critics, including Matt West, who described the only board map as "pathetically underwhelming" and stated that it "lacks the personality that earlier games in the series were known for". Although Kirstin Swalley of Hardcore Gamer believed that Minigame Match would be the most familiar mode to fans of the series as well as the most fun for multiplayer, she also wrote that the only map "quickly gets dull". Reviewers also tended to find disappointment with the other game modes, especially Minigame Island, which was criticized for being too linear.[2] Even Nintendo Lifes Michael Koczwara, who referred to Minigame Island as "a fun but simple mode", stated that it could be completely finished in around two to three hours and lacked an incentive to replay.
As with most entries in the Mario Party series, reviewers criticized the game's reliance on luck, particularly the traditional system of determining a winner, which is almost entirely based on Star and coin amounts.[2] Other topics of criticism included the game's AI, which Jordan Biordi of Computer Games Magazine referred to as "horribly inconsistent" and "pathetic", as well as its absence of online multiplayer, which Biordi believed was the game's "most glaring problem".
In concluding his review of the game for Nintendo Life, Michael Koczwara wrote: "Mario Party: The Top 100 may hold the record for the most minigames, but it certainly has the least amount of content and the lowest replayability." Looking ahead to the future of the series as a whole, Destructoids Caitlin Cooke wrote: "Hopefully Nintendo can keep the series alive and perfect the spirit of Mario Party for the Switch, but for now I think Mario Party games are officially dead for the 3DS."
Mario Party: The Top 100 sold 52,000 copies within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at #5 on the all-format video game sales chart.[11]