Thanks to a new mod, Bowser Jr. has been added as a playable character to Mario Party Superstars. The 2nd installment in the Mario Party series for Nintendo Switch was released only a couple of months ago. Mario Party Superstars pays homage to past installments in the series by featuring both 100 past mini-games from other installments and five remade boards from the Nintendo 64 trilogy.
Bowser Jr. is the son of Bowser - the evil king of the Koopas and usually the main antagonist in the Mario Party series. Though Junior has joined his father in distressing players in past entries of the series, the little monster was also made a playable character in previous Mario Party games. Mario Party Superstars does not offer Bowser Jr. as an option for gamers to choose from, but Bowser Jr. does make an appearance in the game - especially in the encyclopedia in the data house via the main menu. The game's encyclopedia contains an extensive character library. Like all other characters that have appeared in Mario Party, Bowser Jr. can be seen with a description and the game art cover of the game the character starred in. Each character entry in the Mario Party Superstars' encyclopedia includes a familiar trait and sound effect. Though this is a great touch for fans of the series' characters, one fan was disappointed that Bowser Jr. is not a playable character.
As reported by Game Rant, a Mario Party Superstars fan and modder has created a mod for the game that lets players be Bowser Jr. YouTuber Sgt. Spike shared a video on their channel showcasing the mod in action. In the video, Junior is seen advancing along the game board, competing in minigames, and even interacting with characters. As stated in the notes on Sgt. Spike's GameBanana entry for the Bowser Jr. mod, the mod fully replaces Mario Party Superstars' playable characters Mario, Daisy, or Birdo. Bowser Jr.'s model was created via a combination of new animations and animations imported from the previous Super Mario Party. The mod also features Bowser Jr. voice clips, custom icons, and even three new Junior stickers.
Sgt. Spike mentions a couple of bugs that they need to fix. For example, the modder mentions that they think Bowser Jr.'s animations do not look very good because the animations haven't been replaced fully yet, specifically in a couple of the minigames. For the same reason, Junior seems to hold specific items incorrectly. In fact, when Bowser Junior receives an item, the camera focuses on the monster's feet and not his face. Finally, his icon does not always fit in the character select screens' portraits and the portraits of the post-minigames results screen. Sgt. Spike does mention that they will make further improvements in the future.
Perhaps in a Mario Party Superstars' DLC, characters like Bowser Jr. will be made an official playable character. Until then, Bowser Jr. fans can enjoy Sgt. Spike's Bowser Jr. mod.
Sources: GameBanana (via Game Rant), Sgt. Spike/YouTube