Sometimes, you just have to keep the good times going. With Super Mario Party Jamboree + Jamboree TV ($79.99), Nintendo delivers an enhanced and expanded version of last year's hit Mario Party release. Now on Nintendo Switch 2, it lets you enjoy many modes and mini-games only possible on the new hardware. Overall, Jamboree TV doesn't make Mario Party any deeper, but it's much bigger and slightly more fun than the previous version. For that alone, series fans will find Jamboree TV a fine addition to their Switch 2 game libraries.

What Is Jamboree TV?

Jamboree TV is the name for the new content you receive with the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Super Mario Party Jamboree. It's not a standalone title, so you must own the base game to play. You can either buy the entire package for $79.99, or upgrade the last-gen version for $19.99.

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We're still in the early days of Switch 2 game upgrades, so the pathways are a bit confusing. Why are the Pokémon Scarlet and Violet graphics improvements free? Why are the Zelda upgrades tied to a Nintendo Switch Online subscription? Still, Jamboree TV's price makes sense if you view it simply as Super Mario Party Jamboree DLC.

New Ways to Mario Party: Mouse and Camera Controls

Jamboree TV uses a fun, live TV-style presentation as its main multiplayer metaphor. It wants you to feel like a contestant on a game show, whether you're playing locally with friends or online. It's certainly more energetic than the Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour's sterile museum aesthetic. However, the gameplay isn't radically different from the base title. 

Jamboree TV introduces mini-games that use the Switch 2's mouse functionality. You use the mouse to play air hockey, spray paint items, arrange blocks, or climb walls. The mouse is required for those games, but as with the motion control mini-games, you can remove them from the rotation.

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Many contests could probably work with, say, a Wii remote pointer. However, the mouse adds appreciated precision for fine actions like rotating dominoes. It particularly shines in a new co-op mode where you ride a roller coaster and blast enemies between mini-game sessions, like an on-rails shooter. The talking flower from Super Mario Bros. Wonder even makes a return, once again offering useful advice.

The Bowser Live mini-games leverage the Switch 2's other new inputs, but those activities are more hit and miss. The microphone mini-games are wildly fun, tasking you with hooting and hollering to make cars race or just show your general enthusiasm for Bowser himself. But the mini-games that require a camera had a hard time tracking me and my wife, bringing back the frustrations I hadn't felt since the days of the Microsoft Kinect and PlayStation EyeToy. That's especially annoying because you must buy an optional camera to play those mini-games, either the official Nintendo Switch 2 camera ($54.99) or a generic USB-C webcam.

Collectively, these Jamboree TV modes add a respectable amount of content that's different enough from the base game to be intriguing. However, as with the original release's side modes, additional content only goes so far when the contests are pretty shallow and the quality is inconsistent.

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Mario Party Picks Up the Pace

For the most part, Jamboree TV operates independently from the regular Mario Party Jamboree. In fact, you launch it from a separate menu. However, it also improves elements of the base Mario Party game. You can immediately jump into free play mode from Jamboree TV, where you can play not just all the new mini-games but the original ones, too. With GameShare, you can beam a limited version of the game to Switch 1 owners so multiple people can play with one game copy.

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Jamboree TV's most exciting and surprising change is its new rules for traditional Mario Party. With Tag-Team Rules, you and a partner can party against another team, and maybe ruin slightly fewer friendships compared with the Free For All mode. For me, the most notable addition is Frenzy Rules. My biggest complaint with this franchise is how slow and tedious these drawn-out games become. But Frenzy Rules limits you to just five turns, instead of the usual 10 to 30, and gives you powerful items up front for a more immediately exciting game that wastes less time. I'm not talking about WarioWare levels of speed here, but Frenzy Rules makes the game far less dull. 

Jamboree TV has one major missed opportunity: It needs at least one more traditional Mario Party board. It would give returning players a reason to dive back in that didn't rely on Switch 2 gimmicks. Even another remastered retro board, similar to the ones in Mario Party Superstars, would've sufficed.