Where Did All the Characters Go? Analyzing the Shockingly Small Roster of Mario Party Superstars

Launching with just 10 playable fighters, Mario Party Superstars features one of the smallest starting rosters in series history – a drastic reduction from the 20 unique characters incorporated in the previous entry, 2018‘s Super Mario Party on Nintendo Switch.

As a nostalgic repackaging of classic boards and minigames from the Nintendo 64 era, Superstars deliberately narrows the focus around the core Mario Party crew to replicate the vibe of the early games. This approach comes with inherent tradeoffs, greatly limiting options for fans hoping to play as their favorite Mushroom Kingdom stars.

Just how limited is the Superstars lineup compared to past rosters? And what rationale may be behind the developers‘ decision to cut back? To get to the bottom of the shortage, let‘s analyze the roster size history across Mario Party titles, while also investigating what the scaled-down selections could mean for DLC possibilities down the road.

Roster Count by Game: Superstars Stands Out

Looking at the base starting rosters across mainline console Mario Party releases, Superstars immediately sticks out for its small selection:

Outside of the original Mario Party, no mainline home console version has featured a starting roster smaller than 12 characters in over 20 years. Even the handheld editions tended to offer more variety, with Mario Party: Star Rush packing a whopping 19 fighters right off the bat as a 3DS release in 2016.

Clearly the developers consciously pruned the Superstars lineup down to the bare essentials. I‘d speculate that reviving classic boards in intricate detail – modeling venues like Space Land to accurately match fan nostalgia for the originals – required the bulk of NCube‘s development resources for this project.

Rather than splitting focus across constructing 20+ character models at new Switch-quality standards, they streamlined efforts around key favorites. It was likely a practical decision to make room for nailing the reboot of beloved maps and moments.

Who Got Cut? Trends Within the Shrunken Roster

Comparing the 10 warriors of Superstars to Super Mario Party‘s gigantic lineup reveals some interesting trends in terms of who got left on the cutting room floor:

• No fully new characters introduced in recent games (ex: Diddy Kong)
• No sub-groups or species reps (ex: Shy Guy, Koopa Troopa)
• No oddballs or one-off returning veterans (ex: Boo, Dry Bones)

Instead, the devs laser targeted the consistent central heroes of the core franchise. All 10 characters offered in Superstars have appeared as starting / unlockable options in every home console Mario Party release, cementing them all as series mainstays.

The culling process focused on preserving the most "classic" or iconic characters first and foremost while excluding one-timer returns like Pom Pom or recent introducees like Monty Mole.

What Does the Truncated Roster Mean for DLC?

While Superstars launched with a set roster lacking surprises or unlockables, many fans still speculate on whether Nintendo could expand the lineup post-release via paid DLC packs.

I‘d consider this a strong possibility for a couple reasons:

• Precedent of updates for Switch Mario Parties – Both Super Mario Party and Mario Party: The Top 100 saw content refreshes on the eShop
• Wealth of unused characters to pull from – Over 80 fighters have appeared in the franchise‘s history
• Financial incentive – Additional purchases mean more revenue

Evaluating likely candidates, I‘d anticipate Nintendo focusing on the deepest cuts first. Long-time staples like Daisy and Waluigi are almost assuredly first up to bat. We could also see the return of sub-group representatives or wild cards – Shy Guy, Koopa Troopa, and Boo seem ripe for revival.

Is a Limited Roster Ultimately a Worthwhile Tradeoff?

Only time will tell whether Mario Party Superstars‘ back-to-basics approach pays off, but the early critical reception seems promising so far. As of this writing, it boasts a 76 OpenCritic aggregate score – a noticeable jump over Super Mario Party‘s 63 rating.

While the shrunken selection of stars is undoubtedly disappointing for fans of certain characters, the development team‘s focus on perfectly adapting classic boards over attempting new innovations is striking the right chord of the nostalgic target demographic so far.

Provided Nintendo continues supporting the title post-launch and eventually expands options for playable participants, Superstars may ultimately become the definitive Mario Party package on Switch – even without Wave 1 access to every fan‘s favorite mushroommate right away!