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Super Mario Party Jamboree

Super Mario Party Jamboree - How to unlock the five boss minigames

Almost all of the 100+ mini-games in the latest Mario Party for Switch are unlocked by default, but what about those ones in black or grey?

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This weekend (and the weekend after that, and the weekend after that, and in the Holidays) I think many of us will be meeting up to spend a rainy Friday night at home with friends or family playing Mario Party over pizzas. Jamboree is the best Mario Party, or one of the best in the whole series that started on Nintendo 64 and is now coming to Nintendo Switch. It's packed with content and game modes, including online, but it also hides three very specific secrets: the unlockable characters Ninji and Pauline (learn how to find them here), the three boards under construction... and a series of hidden or locked mini-games.

Let's focus on the latter. Early on in your Super Mario Party Jamboree game, you'll be able to access the Minigame Bay, which is where you'll find many ways to play minigames alone, together, or online, but without a board (for playing on game boards, there's Mario Party Mode). To get to the Minigame Bay, you can either get on the balloon from the Party Plaza and face east, or go to the general mode map and select it.

When you are in the Minigame Bay, from Free Play mode you can see a panel with all the available games. Super Mario Party Jamboree has the most mini-games in the entire series, with a total of 112 mini-games. Even if it's very early in your game and you've only played one single board, you'll find that the Free Play mode shows almost every minigame unlocked already. Almost? Almost, indeed. Some may be greyed out and some may be black, and here's how to access both.

Super Mario Party Jamboree
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How to unlock all five boss mini-games

The five mini-games that are actually locked are shown in black and with a question mark in the penultimate row of the "complete collection" screen. These are so-called boss mini-games because they are related to the respective "final board bosses" of the Party-Planner Trek mode, and can be unlocked in two ways. Namely:

The first way is simply by progressing through the Party-Planner Trek. In this single-player adventure mode, you complete tasks on each board in preparation for the party. Each of the game's five main boards (i.e. the new ones, leaving out the two classic Nintendo 64 boards) contains quests and missions for up to 60 ministars, but with half of them, a whirlpool portal opens. From that portal a boss will emerge and take all the ministars, and if you defeat them you get your mini-stars back and also unlock the corresponding boss minigame in Free Mode. These are slightly longer, multiplayer, and basically focused on taking on the creature of the day.

This is how you unlock each one from the Party-Planner Trek:


  • Goomba Lagoon - Beat Dragoneel Slayers from when you have 30 or more mini-stars.

  • Mega Wiggler's Tree Party - Beat Mega Stingby Stompers from when you have 30 or more mini-stars.

  • Rainbow Galleria - Beat Mega Rocky Wrench Wreckers when you have 30 or more min-stars

  • Roll 'Em Raceway - Beat Boss Sumo Bro Blitzers when you have 30 or more mini-stars

  • King Bowser's Keep - Beat Bowser Crashers when you have 30 or more mini stars

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The second way, and perhaps the most convenient alternative for those who skip the solo game and always play Mario Party together, is to unlock the Boss Rush Mode. This mode opens up a secret cave in the Minigame Bay, and inside it is a coliseum where you can take on all five bosses in a special challenge. This mode appears in the Minigame Bay once you reach Diamond Level (level 30) in the game's general progression system. This is done by accumulating achievements, and depending on how you like to play you can stop by the Data House in the Party Plaza to have the Toad show you all your Achievements and decide which ones you want to pursue next.

A word of warning: if you reach level 30 from the Minigame Bay itself, you'll have to exit and re-enter to get the boss rush show up. In any case, by unlocking the mode you'll already see all five boss minigames in the full Free Play collection.

Super Mario Party Jamboree

How to play the mini-games in grey

Apart from the five locked mini-games, you may also occasionally see mini-games that are greyed out. If you hover over them, you will see their names, but you cannot enter. This is because the current player configuration is not supported by those games. For example: you are playing two people (human players) and you want to enter the fantastic Arkanoid tribute, which is a single player game. When more characters are needed, this is fine because the slots are filled by the CPU, but in these specific cases you will see the mini-games shaded to indicate that they are unsupported.

Super Mario Party Jamboree

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