Of course, it wouldn't be a Mario Party without minigames, and Island Tour features over 70 different minigames that you can play either during party mode or freely in the Minigame mode. These games tend to be short, but that fits the portable nature of the 3DS well. Each map is given a 1 to 5 rating in the categories of Skill, Luck and Mini-games (number of minigames played on each map), but I found the rankings to be arbitrary and not entirely reliable. Each board is built to accommodate its rule set and it makes the linear boards more interesting than they were in last year's Mario Party 9, where every character rode the same vehicle to the finish. One course gets rid of the dice entirely and has you using cards to determine how many spaces you move. One map will ask you to collect the most Mini Stars while another will replace the 6 with a Banzai Bill that launches and knocks players off course. Most are races where the first player to reach the end wins, but each map feels different from the others thanks to its individual rules. There are seven different maps, each with their own rules and mechanics. While it's not the classic formula gamers remember, it takes a step up from Mario Party 9 and offers an enjoyable experience. Mario Party: Island Tour is just the second Mario Party title in the last six years and the first for the Nintendo 3DS.

The ones that did release have tried to shake up a worn out formula (with mixed results), while the Wii got its own spin-off series, Wii Party. But since the Wii era, the Mario Party series hasn't seen many releases. The board game mayhem, minigame madness and star collecting was a local multiplayer superstar and sometimes a friendship killer. By Brent Galietti, posted on 25 November 2013 / 6,246 ViewsĪnnualization became a major subject of debate with the likes of Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed, but years before these two series got big, Nintendo was releasing a new Mario Party almost every single year during the Nintendo 64 and GameCube generations.

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