Mario Party Challenge World Spotted On Test Almost A Year After Reveal

In our coverage of IAAPA 2017, you might recall one game that generated a lot of buzz at the time, but has since disappeared from the headlines. That would be Capcom & Raw Thrills’ Mario Party Challenge World.

While there was a lot of excitement surrounding the license at the show, the roulette nature of the game meant that it was going to have to go through major changes to be able to be installed anywhere outside of Las Vegas or Atlantic City. The game did have an impressive display system though. It used a projection mapping technique that was perfectly co-ordinated to the moving holes below. It also had a tower that would pop-up from the bottom on occasion. In the event that you missed this one at the time, here’s the video:

11 months have passed since we last saw or heard anything about this videmption game, and today we have an update. Thanks to the anonymous tipster who sent these three photos of the game as seen out on test. By what you’ll see below, the game has gone through a radical re-design.

As a note, with this game still testing and thus a prototype, it may change from what you see here. Testing feedback can always bring changes both big and small. We’ll get a better idea of how this one works at IAAPA 2018.

Mario Party Challenge World Location Test Edition

Ok, here we go. First, the cabinet. The biggest change is that instead of supporting six players now features three: Mario, Peach and Luigi.  The marquee has also changed slightly to give more preference to the dice. Click on either image for a bigger view:

Another look from the control panel on up.

And now for the playfield. It still uses projection mapping from above, but gone are the balls and roulette wheel, in place is a somewhat flattened cone surface that allows each player to see what they need. The top of the surface where it is flat shows the game board, while more detailed gameplay is shown closer to the player. By what we see here, rolling the dice is a mini-game in itself, just push the button to jump at the right time; you can see on the board at the top, there are “game” places for additional mini-game fun. This all puts the game more in line with how Mario Party plays on the home consoles, while still being it’s own unique thing.

As mentioned, this will be at IAAPA 2018 next month; we’ll be there to get some hands-on time with an even newer version, along with some new footage. What do you think about it from the new photos?