When a notable game is set for a December 22 release it means one of three things. The game is either Christmas themed, it's so good that a million people would buy it on any day regardless of proximity to a holiday, or it's so mediocre that its publisher has actively sought to avoid the limelight by hiding it at the end of the year.

There's not a whole lot of jolly old Saint Nick in Mario Party: The Top 100, and let's just say I don't see it setting any Yuletide sales records either.

A good idea, but poorly executed.

I don't want to be too harsh on Mario and pals here, because this is a well-made game. But as a celebration of a great series this is a disappointing effort, and its release timing and lack of marketing push gives me the impression Nintendo knows that.

The Top 100 does a good job of collecting and remastering a large number of minigames from across the entire series, which has been going since the Nintendo 64 era, and many of them are fun tests of your skill, timing, luck or memory. But the game neglects to tie them together in any meaningful way, throwing out a hugely important element of the series. By focusing almost wholly on the minigames, a session of Top 100 tends to become a relentless slog of loading in and out of overly simplistic challenges over and over again.