Mario Party 10 continues the tradition of the Mario Party series, in which four players, controlled by either human or CPU, compete against each other on a game board by participating in various minigames. Along with the standard competitive modes, the game introduces two new modes called Bowser Party and Amiibo Party.
Mario Party mode
The boards feature the same play style introduced in Mario Party 9, in which all four players travel across the board together in a car. If, collectively, all six possible numbers of the dice block are hit, Bowser appears and takes half of the Mini-Stars from the player who freed him.
Bowser Party mode
In Bowser Party, the fifth player controls Bowser using the Wii U GamePad. In this mode, the four main players are tasked with reaching the end of the board without losing all of their hearts whilst avoiding being caught by Bowser, who is trying to stop them. If Bowser catches up to the other players, a minigame takes place in which Bowser uses the GamePad's features to activate various devices, such as tilt controlled fire rods, pinball flippers, and breathing fire, whilst the other players attempt to take as little damage as possible. The players win if at least one player makes it to the end of the board with their hearts intact, but if all players are defeated, Bowser wins.
Amiibo Party mode
Amiibo Party involves up to four Amiibo characters playing on boards designed for those characters. Players who own an Amiibo are represented on the board by a three-dimensional figure, while players without one are represented by a two-dimensional cardboard cut-out. This mode is similar in gameplay to the original Mario Party series through Mario Party DS. The compatible characters include Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Bowser, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Rosalina.
Reception
Mario Party 10 received generally mixed reviews from critics, earning aggregate scores of 66/100 from Metacritic. Critics praised the graphics and minigames, but had complaints towards the linear boards and luck-based gameplay. Bowser Party was praised for being fun with friends and making good use of the GamePad, but Amiibo Party was criticized for having dull boards and the requirement for the player to touch their Amiibo to the GamePad every time they needed to make any sort of selection. Samuel Claiborn of IGN gave it a 6.5 out of 10, saying that it "carries over some bad ideas from Mario Party 9 that continue to deflate the fun." Andre Segers of GameXplain gave the game a "Meh" rating, calling the Mario Party mode "completely random and arbitrary" and stating that Bowser Party grows repetitive quickly due to the small amount of minigames and it only being playable on three boards. He compared it unfavorably to previous games in the series. Mark Walton of GameSpot gave Mario Party 10 a score of 6 out of 10 with his main complaint being it is too familiar to past games. He felt the game lacks lasting appeal and wears thin quickly. "Despite the Amiibo additions and GamePad Bowser games, as well as a delightfully bright and colourful aesthetic, it's hard to ignore just how similar this game is to its predecessors. But even if you could overlook it, the fact remains that even with some fun minigames in tow and a good group of friends to enjoy it with, Mario Party 10 just doesn't have the depth or the challenge to hold your attention for long."
Sales
In the United Kingdom, the Mario Party 10 had the second best launch in the series, behind Mario Party 8. In the United States, roughly 290,000 physical and downloaded copies of the game had been sold by the end of March 2015. This was faster than Mario Party 9, which only sold 230,000 in around three weeks. In Japan, Mario Party 10 underperformed compared to the previous game, selling about 50,000 copies in its first week. As of late June 2015, over 159,000 copies had been sold in Japan. As of March 31, 2020, the game has worldwide sales of 2.23 million copies and is the tenth best selling game on the Wii U.
