There isn’t really one “complete” Mario Party experience. One board’s goal is to collect mini-stars, another board focuses on items that affect players, etc. It’s almost as if they took each aspect of the original Mario Party and chopped it up into different modes. I had kind of hoped for a mode that resembled the original premise of Mario Party - screwing over other players to collect the most coins and stars. Estimated play times are also shown, which I found helpful but somewhat unreliable. For example, the Rocket Road game is rated at two skill, four minigame, and five luck because it’s basically a game where you roll a die to get to the end of a line, but also contains many tiles that make you switch places with opponents (i.e., lots of luck involved). Each party mode is rated in three different categories: Skill, Luck, and Minigames. Party mode focuses on the core of the Mario Party series - characters progress on a game board with the goal of either getting to the end first or collecting the most mini-stars. Mario Party: Island Tour presents a variety of game modes: eight main party modes, three minigame modes, and StreetPass minigames. Sadly, my excitement quickly faded as I discovered some annoying faults in the gameplay. The 11th(ish) game, Island Tour is the first Mario Party title for the 3DS, so I was pretty excited to see how the handheld’s capabilities played into the series.
There’s nothing like losing the skin on the palm of your hands to prove to your friends that you are in fact the best at Mario Party.Īlthough the days of literal battle scars are left behind, the Mario Party franchise is still going strong.
I consider myself a Mario Party veteran - I’ve been a huge fan of the series, with a particular emphasis on the cutthroat days of the N64 titles.