Lock up your Joy-Cons, because some Mario Party Superstars minigames will have rotating joystick controls. Using the sticks in this way could potentially be a problem given the scale of the Joy-Con drift problem Nintendo is currently facing.
Which Mario Party Superstars minigames have joystick rotation controls?
It looks like a number of infamous minigames from Mario Party history will be returning in Superstars, some of which will be using joystick rotating controls. The "Tug o' War" minigame from the original Mario Party was spotted by a Twitter user, with the instruction to rotate the stick in order to pull the rope. There's also a rather amusing warning beneath the instruction, with Nintendo telling players not to use the palm of their hands in order to "avoid irritation to your skin and/or damage to the control stick". This is presumably a reference to the way players would use this method in the N64 original, sometimes breaking their controllers (and damaging their hands) in the process.
The full Mario Party Superstars minigame list also includes "Cast Aways", which was another minigame infamous for causing injuries and broken controllers thanks to its rotation controls. The issue was bad enough that the New York attorney general's office received more than 90 complaints regarding wounds sustained while playing Mario Party. In order to prevent lawsuits, Nintendo shelled out legal fees for the potential plaintiffs, and also had to create special Mario Party gloves and issue them to players free of charge, since so many players were injuring themselves by spinning the control stick with the palms of their hands. It remains to be seen whether this warning will work; after all, once one player starts doing it (whether online or locally), others may feel they have to do it as well in order to keep up. Perhaps Nintendo would have been better off changing the controls for this game completely.
How will these Mario Party Superstars minigames affect Joy-Cons?
The other elephant in the room is, of course, Joy-Con drift. Within the last year or two, Nintendo has been hit with multiple lawsuits regarding Joy-Con drift, whereby the joysticks on the Joy-Con controller will begin moving of their own accord without any input from the player. It's not hard to see how asking players to frantically rotate the stick could exacerbate this issue; although there isn't yet a consensus regarding exactly what is causing controller drift, it's almost certainly not going to be helped by hammering the stick in all directions repeatedly.
Of course, this problem isn't unique to Nintendo; players have also experienced drift on Xbox and PlayStation controllers, some of which cost a pretty penny, so it's likely to be a shared component problem. It's worth noting here that Nintendo has claimed its new OLED Switch model will have "improved" Joy-Cons (thanks, Polygon), with tweaks to durability and "reliability", among other things. It remains to be seen whether these Joy-Cons will handle Mario Party Superstars any better than the standard models do.
What is Mario Party Superstars?
Mario Party Superstars is the latest instalment in the long-running Mario Party series. It's the second game in the franchise to hit the Nintendo Switch, and it'll feature revamped boards from the N64's Mario Party, Mario Party 2, and Mario Party 3. Naturally, the minigames accompanying these boards will also be taken from previous Mario Party titles, although games will appear from Mario Party 4 onwards as well.
Judging from the minigames that are included in Mario Party Superstars, you might want to invest in some new Joy-Cons, or perhaps break out the Pro Controller (although that's just as susceptible to drift, unfortunately). Either way, you'll be able to grab Mario Party Superstars when it launches for Nintendo Switch this Friday. Here's hoping you don't get Cast Aways or Tug o'War if your controller is already on its last legs.
Are you looking forward to playing Mario Party Superstars? Let us know in the comments below!
