mario party island tour play online

• Mario Party: Island Tour

Mario Party: Island Tour is a game for the Nintendo 3DS , released first in the Americas in November 22, 2013, and the second Mario Party game to be developed by NDcube . It is the twelfth main installment (nineteenth overall) in the Mario Party series, the third installment for a handheld console, and the first Mario Party to be developed for the Nintendo 3DS. Mario Party: Island Tour has gameplay objectives unique to it compared to other entries in the Mario Party series. Rather than traveling around a board to obtain the most quantity of a particular item, either separately or together on a vehicle, players need to race their opponents to the finish in a linear, one-way board, with certain objectives in the race differing depending on the board played on. The game additionally retains several key elements from other Mario Party titles — namely, obtaining and using items to gain an advantage over opponents, and playing a wide variety of minigames .

Due to the platform being the Nintendo 3DS, some of the minigames take advantage of the system's features, such as the stereoscopic 3D, gyroscope, mic, augmented reality (AR), and the touch screen. The game additionally uses StreetPass, where players can play minigames if their system has picked up signals from other Nintendo 3DS systems that also have the game and unlock special items from doing so. Up to four people can play together either with local multiplayer or Download Play using only one game cartridge, similar to how Mario Party DS and later Mario Party installments for the Nintendo 3DS handle multiplayer.

The game was eventually released as a Nintendo Selects title in multiple regions including the Americas, Europe, and Oceania, being one of the best-selling titles for the Nintendo 3DS.

• 2.1.1 Party
• 2.1.2 Minigames
• 2.1.3 StreetPass Minigames
• 2.1.4 Bowser's Tower
• 2.1.5 Collectables
• 3.1 Playable
• 5.1 Dice Blocks
• 5.3.1 Perilous Palace Path
• 5.3.2 Star-Crossed Skyway
• 5.3.3 Rocket Road
• 6 Minigames
• 7 Regional differences
• 9 Nintendo 3DS eShop description
• 10.1 Critical reception
• 11 Pre-release and unused content
• 12.1 Invisible Player Lucky Space Glitch
• 15 References to other games
• 16 References in later games
• 17 Names in other languages
• 19 References
• 20 External links

After a relaxing day around Peach's Castle , Mario and the gang notice a strange letter in a bubble saying they are happily invited to the Party Islands . The gang then cheers about it but then the letter suddenly traps the gang in bubbles to carry them though the sky to the Party Islands.

While Mario and the gang are partying and playing games, Bowser shows up, feeling jealous about why Mario and his friends are invited and he wasn't, so he builds Bowser's Tower , saying that anyone can join him at his evil party. He begins locking all the fun from the Party Islands in bubbles. He also puts evil magic in the bubbles made by the bubble machine to make bubble clones of the gang to guard the tower. The player's selected character and a green Toad advance up the tower and defeat the bubble clones as well as various bosses. After defeating Bowser in Bowser's Sky Scuffle , the player's character then defeats the Mario bubble clones guarding the bubble machine and then destroys the bubble machine with a ground pound. Shortly afterward, Bowser reappears and boots the player's character and the green Toad out of the tower, inviting them to challenge him any time and that he won't be done.

Unlike the direct preceding game, Mario Party 9 , where all four players travel together through a vehicle and aim to obtain the most Mini Stars , Mario Party: Island Tour uses the traditional independent four-player gameplay as seen in previous Mario Party entries. The ultimate goal of the game in most of the boards is to race opponents on a linear-designed board to the finish line, unlike other Mario Party games, where players are required to amass the most amount of a certain item to win in all boards. In order to advance through the board, players roll a Dice Block numbered from 1 to 6 to dictate their movement. Each board has its own play style with different rules from another: one board, Star-Crossed Skyway , requires players to amass the most Mini Stars, while Kamek's Carpet Ride requires players to land exactly on a particular space, called a Just-Right Space , by using numbered cards. Another feature of these boards is to replace the "6" on the Dice Block with another feature, such as a Banzai Bill icon on Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain that causes players to fall back to the halfway point or the start of the board or a 0 in Rocket Road , meaning the player cannot move at all. Prior to starting out, a yellow Toad explains the board's play style, and after players are done viewing the rules, they roll a Dice Block to determine their turn order; players who roll a higher number than others will move earlier. In this game, a Round, similar to turns from earlier Mario Party titles, is taken once every player has rolled a Dice Block and moved accordingly, and while in earlier Mario Party titles had a limited amount of turns to take until the game ends, Mario Party: Island Tour proceeds until someone (or everyone, in the case of Star-Crossed Skyway) has reached the end goal. When starting their own round, players can either opt to use an item if an item is available for use or look around the map to plan out movement. If players end the game in a tie, a Dice Block roll determines who wins the game. At the end of the game, various stats are recorded such as how many spaces a player has landed on, a line graph depicting the players' progress, and other recordings depending on the board the players were playing on.

When players land on a Space , an event occurs depending on the type of space landed. Their function and design appears to be based off Mario Party 9 ; for example, if players land on a Green Space , nothing occurs while if a player lands on an Item Space on a specific type of board, they receive an item from a pool of randomized items. These items can either benefit the player directly or obstruct opponents. Players can carry up to two items, and players can use only one item per round. Only a few boards have an item system, however, and the type of items players receive varies on the board selected.

Some boards have players participating in minigames, either after every turn or if a Minigame Space is landed on. These minigames are small, short activities that have players competing against each other in defined, simple rules, most of them within a time limit. Some minigames involve players surviving a horde of enemies, some involve players racing against one another, some require the player to obtain the most points within a time limit, etc. If the player performs the best in the minigame, depending on the board played on, they receive priority when deciding which prize item to take or how much items are rewarded to them. The lower the rank players are, the lower the priority for selecting items and the less of a reward they receive, with last place players either receiving nothing or the worst rewards. If minigames end in a tie, a Dice Block is used to break the tie.

Mario Party: Island Tour supports local multiplayer if players have multiple cartridges or Download Play if there is only one cartridge. Up to four players can play the game, and they can participate with the player in Party Mode and Minigames Mode.

There are five different play modes in the game.

Party Mode, hosted by a yellow Toad , is the main mode of Mario Party: Island Tour , which uses the default gameplay as described above. Up to four players can participate in this mode, and the mode allows a minimum of two players participating. Players first pick from a selection of available boards, all of which play differently from each other in terms of mechanics and goals. After that, players choose their character out of a cast of 10 playable characters, with 9 default characters and one unlockable. If there are not enough players, players can fill in empty slots with selected computer-controlled players from the remaining characters. Players can then select the difficulty of each individual CPU player, as well as the type of minigames that will be played with. Character settings are then saved the next time players access the mode, including those of CPU opponents.

Hosted by a blue Toad , players can play in one of the many minigames in Mario Party: Island Tour through this mode. Unlike most Mario Party installments, all minigames are available from the start. Minigames Mode has three ways to play: Free Play, Time Attack, and Hot-Air Hijinks. Free Play allows up to four players to participate, and like Free Play from previous installments, players have a free choice to decide which minigame to play in. Once a minigame is played on, players have the option to play the minigame again, go to a randomly selected different minigame, go back to the minigame menu, or go back to the main menu. Time Attack is a single-player mode whose objective is to clear a set amount of ten minigames the quickest. Each minigame also contains optional objectives to meet if players want to further lessen the time it takes to complete them. Once all minigames are played on, the record time is saved. These are the minigames played in Time Attack:

No-Traction Action

Gyro for the Gold

Quickest Cricket

Color Me Fast

Blown Hover

Mad Ladders

Sub Trouble

The last mode is Hot-Air Hijinks (Balloon Race in British English), where up to four players can participate in. Players ride a hot air balloon, and in order to rise, they must clear minigames that are randomly selected through a roulette. For settings, players can use either All or Easy minigames and if their minigames require the Mic or not. Prior to starting out, players can set their objective to win 3, 5, or 7 minigames. If a player reaches past a certain level, the last place players get to stop the roulette wheel. Whichever player reaches the mark set first wins the mode.

StreetPass Minigames

StreetPass Minigames mode takes advantage of the Nintendo 3DS's StreetPass feature. Prior to setting up, players select their character to use in the mode and the choice to turn it on. If turned on, players who own Mario Party: Island Tour can pick up tags from other players who also own Mario Party: Island Tour and have it activated. When a tag is received, the Nintendo 3DS's LED light glows green, and a green dot notification is shown on the main menu on the StreetPass Minigames tab. When the mode is selected when a StreetPass tag is active, players see the other players' characters and their skill level, which dictates how difficult the CPU opponent controlling that character will be in the minigame. Players can participate against that character only once, unless the Nintendo 3DS is tagged with the same person the next day.

Bowser's Tower

Bowser's Tower is the sole single-player-focused mode of Mario Party: Island Tour and where the main story takes place. Players need to progress up a tower, and to progress, they need to win a gauntlet of minigames. Bowser's Tower contains 30 floors, where the opponents get progressively harder the more players progress up the tower. At every fifth floor, a boss-type minigame is played. A green Toad tags along with the player character on the way, and the player faces off against bubble clones , bubble copies of the playable characters. Players beat the game when they clear Bowser's Sky Scuffle , and they unlock Bowser Jr. as a playable character.

Collectables

Much like Mario Party DS and Mario Party 9 , players can earn Mario Party Points by playing boards, completing Bowser's Tower , or playing Minigames . This points can be used to buy "Bubbles" and "Memories", respectively voice recordings or music from the various characters, boards, or minigames. These bubbles need to be bought from the gallery with various points, and not all bubbles are unlocked initially: the bubbles are unlocked when players first encounter them by simply playing the different modes and boards.

There are a total of 10 playable characters in Mario Party: Island Tour . Bowser Jr. is both the sole unlockable character and the only character newly playable to the Mario Party series, unlocked after the Bowser's Tower mode is completed for the first time. In addition, Boo is playable in the series for the first time since Mario Party 8 , as well as for the first time in a Mario Party game for a handheld console.

As the title suggests, the boards are split between various themed islands. Seven gameboards are included in the game. Of these boards, one is unlocked by playing through every other board except for Shy Guy's Shuffle City due to the necessity for three or more players ( Bowser's Peculiar Peak ), and the other six are available from the start of the game. Names in italics indicate a British English name, if different from the American English name.

1 - As Extra-Move Spaces. 2 - The Switch Space subsequently becomes this after a player lands on it.

Dice Blocks

Dice Blocks can be won from minigames in Perilous Palace Path and Bowser's Peculiar Peak.

In Kamek's Carpet Ride and Shy Guy's Shuffle City , cards are used to make the player move and have different effects on the character.

Board-specific items

Perilous palace path, star-crossed skyway, rocket road.

Mario Party: Island Tour contains 81 minigames, the most minigames for a handheld installment, barring the remastered minigames in Mario Party: The Top 100 . Minigames are split into four categories: General minigames, Boss minigames, Puzzle minigames, and Extra minigames. General minigames play similarily to 4-player or Free-for-All minigames from previous installments: up to 4 players compete against one another to best the minigame, though players can compete against less players if they choose so. Boss minigames, first introduced in Mario Party 9 , return in Mario Party: Island Tour . These involve players facing up against a particular boss enemy, and the objective is to take out the boss's HP first before they deplete the players' HP. Unlike their appearance in Mario Party 9 , Boss minigames involve only one player. Puzzle minigames are self-explanatory: players solve minigames in a traditional puzzle game format either against themselves to set a new record or competitive against opponents. Finally, Extra minigames take advantage of the Nintendo 3DS hardware to play minigames, with The Choicest Voice using the mic and Ka-Goomba! and Sinking Feeling requiring AR Cards to play.

Minigames are sorted into two types of categories: minigames can be classified as "Easy", which are usually simpler minigames than the others. Players can toggle to play only "Easy" type minigames in Party Mode or Hot-Air Hijinks. Another type is whether the minigame uses a mic or not, and players can exclude the sole minigame that uses the mic, Utter Nonsense , from the set of minigames in the aforementioned modes.

Mario Party: Island Tour does not feature 2-vs-2, 1-vs-3, or 1-vs-Rivals minigames, making it one of the few Mario Party installments not to feature these categories of minigames. Additionally, this game is the only Mario Party game that has a minigame that cannot be accessed by a single player. In this case, the minigame Utter Nonsense requires two or more human players to play.

Regional differences

• Unlike any Mario Party game released before or since, with the exception of Mario Party 10 , the game's descriptions for minigames, boards, and features, as well as the naming scheme for minigames, is different in British English than it is in American English. For example, Perilous Palace Path 's description in the American English version reads as " Power yourself up and knock opponents out of the way with special items as you race to the finish! ", while the British English version reads as " Race to the castle and use items to help you along the way! ". Minigames can have drastically different titles; for example, a minigame named Garden of Eatin' in American English is called Blooming Nuisance in British English. In one case, a minigame's British title coincidentally shares its title with another unrelated, American minigame: Cheepers Keepers in American English refers to a button masher minigame, called Hook, Line and Cheep Cheep in the British English version of the game, while Cheepers Keepers in the British English version refers to a minigame counting diamonds in a Cheep Chomp 's mouth, called Cheep Diamonds in the American English version of the game.
• The European Spanish announcer has a different voice actor than the Latin American Spanish announcer.
• The Dutch, European Portuguese, and Russian minigame announcers are female. All other language options have a male announcer.

Mario Party: Island Tour was developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo . This is the second Mario Party game NDcube has worked on, after Mario Party 9 , and the first handheld installment that they developed for. The game was directed by Yukio Umematsu, who would later work under planning for the next Mario Party installment, Mario Party 10 . The game's sound was directed by Ichiro Shimakura , known for directing the sound in other Mario Party installments, while the soundtrack was directed by Rei Kondoh, who would later compose music for Mario Party 10 .

Nintendo 3DS eShop description

In this ultimate showdown you can take on the road blaze through the 7 new game boards, some of which take just minutes to play. Wrangle goombas and blast out of cannons as you tilt, tap, and draw through new minigames harnessing the unique functionality of Nintendo 3DS™. Compete in new multiplayer modes including mind bending puzzles, minigame challenges, or enter a whole new reality with AR Card play for up to 4 players. Whether in single or multiplayer, this is a portable party that never ends.

Are you prepared for the ultimate portable party? Join Mario and his friends as they head off into the clouds for not just the most exciting instalment of the Mario Party series yet, but the first to appear on the Nintendo 3DS family of systems! And with with this being a Mario Party game, don't forget that the focus is firmly on bringing your friends into the action! Mario Party: Island Tour offers multiplayer hijinks through Download Play, meaning you only need one Game Card to enjoy four-player fun in nearly all of the game's modes.

Critical reception

Mario Party: Island Tour has received generally mixed reviews. The game currently averages a 59% based on 28 reviews on GameRankings [5] and a 57 based on 47 reviews on Metacritic [6] . As with most Mario Party games, Mario Party: Island Tour was praised for being fun to play with other people rather than playing alone and some of its mechanics were praised for being innovative, though general criticisms of the game include its short length, poorly implemented gimmicks, as well as the lack of online play.

Scott Thompson of IGN gave Mario Party: Island Tour a 5.5 out of 10, criticizing its motion control, "uninventive" minigames, and its "poor" single-player campaign unlike Mario Party 9 , but praising its unique board rules and use of Download Play. [7] While expecting this game to perform around the same level as the console Mario Party games due to the inventive touchscreen implementation and unique, new rules for the seven game boards compared to previous Mario Party games, Thompson felt that the "lackluster single player experience", Bowser's Tower, was a slow-paced repetitive grind, and the "bland minigame design" was a step back, due to the similarity of the minigames from the past entries in the Mario Party series and the only category of minigames being Free-for-All type minigames. Caitlin Cooke of Destructoid gave the game a 4 out of 10, [8] disappointed that the game's board gameplay did not play as the original titles did and that the boards felt like chopped up variations of a single mode from previous Mario Party games. She additionally pointed out that the game has a too heavy hand with hand-holding players. She, however, enjoyed the single player mode of Bowser's Tower, the minigames, and the single-cartridge local mulitplayer, though criticized the lack of online play.

On the other hand, Kimberly Keller of Nintendo World Report gave the game the highest critic review, an 8.5 out of 10. [9] She has praised the innovation of the boards, which has each their unique play styles, the usage of the Nintendo 3DS capabilities in minigames, as well as noting that the single player modes Bowser's Tower, StreetPass Minigames, and Collectables being engaging, with Bowser's Tower being the best of the single player modes, though she had criticized the lack of setting a difficulty setting for Bowser's Tower. She also praised the Download Play multiplayer, though criticized the lack of online multiplayer.

Mario Party: Island Tour is the 20th best selling game for the Nintendo 3DS , selling 1.14 million copies worldwide, as of March 31, 2014. [10] It has become a Nintendo Selects title in various regions, including North America, Europe, and Oceania.

Pre-release and unused content

Mario Party: Island Tour 's changes from the pre-release version to the final version range from minor aesthetic details to gameplay tweaks. Perilous Palace Path originally did not contain Moo Moos as ambient characters or a Whomp blocking the path. Originally, characters also used cards rather than regular items in Perilous Palace Path. In Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain , multiple Banzai Bills could get launched at once as opposed to only one in the final version of the game. In Rocket Road , more varieties of Lumas were added rather than just one type of Luma, the Yellow Luma. The game was tentatively called simply Mario Party before the subtitle, Island Tour , was decided upon.

Invisible Player Lucky Space Glitch

In order to perform this glitch, the player must land on a Lucky Space in the board Bowser's Peculiar Peak . If they happen to be blasted to a space that another player is currently on, then the two players clip through each other.

References to other games

• Super Mario Bros. : The main theme is rearranged in the minigames Xylophone Home and Goomba Tower Takedown . A rearrangement of the underground theme plays for the Amp My Style minigame. In Perilous Palace Path, while in the Bowser Zone, a rearrangement of the castle theme appears. Also, the Super Star theme is used for the Perilous Palace Path board whenever a player uses a Super Star item.
• Super Mario Bros. 3 : The "Slowly bubble up..." music sounds similar to the Card Game/Spade Bonus music. Part of the athletic theme is remixed into "Hurry Up", the theme that plays for Hop Till You Drop .
• Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS : The "Koopa's Road" theme is rearranged for parts of Bowser's Peculiar Peak. King Bob-omb appears as a boss in this game as he did here, and in the American English version, Bowser makes a reference to his interest with his moustache from the remake saying, "My next guard has an even more formidable mustache than Mario!"
• Mario Party : Mario's artwork is based on his artwork from this game.
• Mario Party 6 : Daisy and Waluigi's artworks are recycled from this game.
• Mario Party 7 : Luigi and Boo's artworks are recycled from this game.
• New Super Mario Bros. : Dry Bowser returns with his ability to throw bones.
• Super Mario Galaxy : Rocket Road is based on this game, and Rosalina appears as a cameo along with the Lumas and the Comet Observatory . Additionally, the theme of Good Egg Galaxy is rearranged in a part of Rocket Road's music and Toad and Bowser Jr.'s artworks are recycled from this game.
• Mario Party DS : Wario's artwork is recycled from this game.
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii : Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain is based on World 6 from this game. Additionally, Peach's artwork is recycled from this game.
• Super Mario 3D Land : The minigame Blown Hover features Flip Panels and the square mountains from World 4-5 from this game. Dry Bowser's voice clips are reused from this game. Para-Biddybuds also make some cameos. The background of Fuel Me Once is very similar to World 1-1 .
• Mario Party 9 : The voices of the characters and minigame announcer are reused from this game. Music such as the minigame intro and results screen are rearranged from this game. Mini Stars and Mini Ztars return in Star-Crossed Skyway.
• New Super Mario Bros. 2 : Bone Goombas and Bone Piranha Plants return.
• New Super Mario Bros. U : Waddlewings make some cameos.

References in later games

• Super Mario Party : Bowser Jr.'s and Boo's victory and losing animations are reused in this game.

Names in other languages

• For a time, the Nintendo 3DS eShop mistakenly stated Mario Party: Island Tour to be a title on the Nintendo Entertainment System .
• A female announcer is used for minigames in the Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian versions, a practice that had not been seen in non-Japanese versions since Mario Party 5 , and would not be seen again until Super Mario Party .
• ^ Nintendo. 能夠下載的軟體 . Nintendo . Retrieved April 17, 2017.
• ^ http://www.nintendo.com.au/index.php?action=news&nid=3075&pageID=6
• ^ GameRankings score for Mario Party: Island Tour . GameRankings . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ^ Metacritic score for Mario Party: Island Tour . Metacritic . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ^ Thompson, Scott. (November 22, 2013) Mario Party: Island Tour Review . IGN . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ^ Cooke, Caitlin. (November 27, 2013). Review: Mario Party: Island Tour . Destructoid . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ^ Keller, Kimberly. (November 22, 2013). Mario Party: Island Tour Review Nintendo World Report . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ^ "Financial Results Briefing for Fiscal Year Ended March 2014 (Briefing Date: 5/8/2014) Supplementary Information" . (May 8, 2014). Nintendo . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ^ Official Chinese website for the Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary . Retrieved October 23, 2020.

External links

• Official North American website
• Official Japanese website
• Launch Trailer
• Nintendo 3DS games
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Review: Mario Party: Island Tour

More like Island BORE

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. 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 .

Although the days of literal battle scars are left behind, the Mario Party franchise is still going strong. 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. Sadly, my excitement quickly faded as I discovered some annoying faults in the gameplay.

Mario Party: Island Tour (3DS) Developer: Nd Cube Publisher: Nintendo Release Date: November 22, 2013 MSRP: $39.99

Mario Party: Island Tour presents a variety of game modes: eight main party modes, three minigame modes, and StreetPass 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. Each party mode is rated in three different categories: Skill, Luck, and Minigames. 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). Estimated play times are also shown, which I found helpful but somewhat unreliable.

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. Unfortunately, nothing like that exists. It’s almost as if they took each aspect of the original Mario Party and chopped it up into different modes. One board’s goal is to collect mini-stars, another board focuses on items that affect players, etc. There isn’t really one “complete” Mario Party experience.

That being said, there are a few boards that break from the mold. For example, Kamek’s Carpet Ride utilizes cards instead of die, forcing players to use a bit of strategy in which cards they decide to play. In Bowser’s Peculiar Peak, the goal is to stay in last place by not making it to the end or Bowser will smash you with his hammer. These modes are somewhat enjoyable but not really the complete package I was hoping for since the goal is usually one-sided and involves finishing the board.

To make matters worse, the gameplay is somewhat unbearable at times. I realize this is a child-friendly game, but Toad goes above and beyond with babying the players. His trademark is to point out something obvious each turn — like who is about to win the game or how many rounds until a minigame is played. If I get a card or item that could potentially allow me to win the game, he’ll say something like “Between you and me, if you use this, you could reach the goal!” Nothing is left for you to figure out on your own.

Island Tour seems rigged in the sense that nothing is truly randomized — the games are fair to a fault. Toad will sometimes rearrange the turn orders based on minigame ranking to allow players who are behind to catch up. Each mode also seems to have a mechanism to prevent players from progressing too far ahead, whether it be Bonzai Bill knocking players back or a Whomp blocking the path. In Star-Crossed Skyway players are forced to stop advancing once they hit a certain platform, allowing everyone else to catch up. And usually there’s some sort of “random” havoc that happens every once in a while to even the playing field for opponents who are behind.

The one mode I actually enjoyed was Bowser’s Tower, a single-player story(ish) driven game where you climb a tower and defeat bubble ghosts by playing minigames. As you climb, Bowser likes to randomly select a punishment or reward which could affect enemy levels or your sacred Mario Party Points (which are used to purchase collectables). There’s also an option to save and come back later to finish the tower, which is a useful addition for folks who are strapped for time.

Minigames are the highlight of Island Tour — there are a wide variety of games and for the most part they’re entertaining and original. I was happy to find that 3DS capabilities were used in most minigames — tilt, 3D, mic, touch screen, dual screen, and augmented reality all made an appearance. I did notice however that any of the games utilizing the mic were extremely off. I tested both voice impersonation games with my fiance — he whispered lewd things into the mic while I actually attempted to play and I lost each and every time. It was hilarious, but disappointing.

Although I enjoyed most of the minigames, Mario Party: Island Tour lacks heart at the end of the day. I explained the situation to a non-gaming friend and she replied, “So if this were a party in real life, the host basically ordered too much salad instead of pizza.” Her assessment is eerily accurate — in the Mario Party diet, the salad is the necessary but restricting structure and the pizza is the delicious, random fun that makes it worthwhile.

The amount of hand-holding in this latest installment leaves me longing for the Mario Party days of yore — a time when people actually worked hard to win minigames because it got them that much closer to the big reward: a star. The minigames in Island Tour are enjoyable but the structure around them can be tiring and almost too fair to bad (or just plain unfortunate) players.

The only true merit of Mario Party: Island Tour is the ability to play Mario Party with your local friends on the 3DS. As long as they have a 3DS and are close-by, playing via Download Play is fairly quick and painless. However, the lack of online play and the overall single-player experience is a pretty big bummer. Unless you’re desperate and need a quick Mario Party fix on the go, stick with a console version if you can.

Mario Party: Island Tour review

GamesRadar+ Verdict

Strong mini-games with plenty of variety

Can play with four players using only one cartridge

Board types provide totally different experiences

Lack of lengthy

classic-style boards

3DS disconnects are frequent and there's no way to save games

Still feels entirely luck-based

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

At the halfway point in one of Mario Party: Island Tour's boards, there's a fork in the road. Taking the left path puts you on the road to victory, and gives an excellent excuse to pelvic thrust in your opponents' general direction. To the right is a long series of impossible nonsense that no one should ever have to deal with; a bunch of "Go back a space!" spots that doom you to pathetic failure. Why would anyone choose that? Well, you don't actually have a say. When you arrive at the fork, a bunch of goombas spin around in circles and pick for you, because Mario Party's game boards are lawless lands of debauchery and sin. With nothing more than a coin flip, the victory is either handed to you on a silver platter or ripped from your quivering hands.

When you approach it, Toad pops up and smiles a cruel smile, chortling about how "It all comes down to luck!" It was in this moment that I realized how remarkable it was that Nintendo seemed wholly uninterested in fixing Mario Party's biggest problem: its reliance on luck. After a dozen games over the course of 14 years, it still hasn't found a way to make the matches any more than a series of coin flips. What it has done, however, is find clever ways to disguise it under whimsy, wonder, and fun mini-games.

It's weird to see the franchise embrace luck as much as Island Tour does. Losing due to a random happenstance in Mario Party has likely caused more broken N64/GameCube/Wii controllers than Goldeneye/Smash Bros. Melee/Wii Sports combined. Island Tour acts like it's a bullet point to be proud of--it even ranks different boards on how much of your victory will be related to chance. It doesn't matter if you're playing Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain (ranked 5/5 for "Luck"), Rocket Road (given a 2/5) or Shy Guy's Shuffle City (with a 3/5)--you're still going to be relying on randomness in order to succeed, or feeling screwed when something totally out of your control undermines everything. And yet, despite that, it's handled in a way that makes it somewhat charming. Sure, being screwed out of victory hurts, but watching a friend have a sure win torn away is so funny that it more than makes up for the anger you might feel when it happens to you.

Mario Party's inclusion of four-player competitive play with one cartridge makes getting games much easier, and downloading the game only takes a few minutes. That said, we had several instances where the connection would be lost, even when the players hadn't moved apart. This caused the game to crash and lose all progress. What a party pooper.

Luck impacts each of the seven boards differently, making them feel like seven slightly different experiences. Rocket Road, for instance, gifts you Engine Boosters for winning mini-games, which can double, triple, or quadruple your roll to propel you to the finish line faster than your worthless friends. Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain's flavor of luck comes in the form of Bullet Bill himself, and forces you to decide to play it safe lest you risk being knocked back to the start. The matches here are considerably shorter than those in previous Mario Party games, making the handheld version feel well suited for short, portable sessions The inclusion of four-player multiplayer with only one cartridge is a nice touch (even if the lack of online multiplayer is a curious omission) and should help make long road trips speed by quickly.

Mario Party's signature charm is infused into the shorter game boards. You'll still laugh when your friends roll poorly, or fist-pump when you successfully grab a much-needed first-place victory in a mini-game. It's with these mini-games that The Fates lose their power, as skill will always let you outperform and defeat your opponents in the 80+ games included. Sure, you might be screwed out of your prize by a random question-mark block or a low roll, but you'll still know you wiped the floor with everyone when you were actually given some agency. Classic favorites like hey, roll around on this ball! and race your friends to a place while something happens! return, and are joined by a bunch of new, fun, competitive games that make good use of the 3DS' hardware for motion and touch-based challenges. But while they're enjoyable, the games aren't fun enough that you'll want to play them outside of the context of a board game, meaning the single-player offerings (most of which are just gauntlets of mini-games) aren't going to hold your attention for very long. Being able to play against friends in board game-less runs can be quite fun, though--so long as you're willing to give up on the die-rolling portion.

Seven maps might seem sufficient, but because they're so short you'll be able to blow through all of them in an afternoon, no problem. And though I know it was done to make for beiefer matches, I was still pretty heartbroken to see the classic "collect Stars and Coins for two hours and eventually get screwed over during the bonus round when your friend gets a pity Star" mode was nowhere to be found. There are flashes of classic gameplay scattered throughout the different boards, and some provide bite-sized instances of the game I played in my friend's basement in 1999--but none provide the full experience.

Ditching the lengthy matches of Mario Party's past in favor of shorter options makes sense, and it makes for more manageable experiences. But it's still saddening that the longest game of Island Tour that you'll ever play should wrap up in under an hour. Hell, a majority of matches will be over in half that time. Because of the randomness and the short length of the boards, it never feels like you have time to get the gist of the level's themes. Having one or two classic boards would've satiated old fans while still giving those interested in shorter matches an option; alas, you're stuck with what feel like miniature versions of the Mario Party levels you know and love.

And, honestly, that's sort of what Island Tour is: a miniature version of Mario Party. Making a handheld game like that might've made sense when Nintendo was trying to shove an N64 game onto the Game Boy Advance, but the excuse doesn't hold water anymore. Though you'll enjoy your time with Island Tour, it feels fleeting. Nintendo could have done so much better and made a portable version of Mario Party worthy of a huge gala, instead of a little shindig.

Island Tour isn't the Mario Party you remember, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. That said, there are definitely some missing pieces that keep it from being a memorable entry in the franchise.

Hollander Cooper was the Lead Features Editor of GamesRadar+ between 2011 and 2014. After that lengthy stint managing GR's editorial calendar he moved behind the curtain and into the video game industry itself, working as social media manager for EA and as a communications lead at Riot Games. Hollander is currently stationed at Apple as an organic social lead for the App Store and Apple Arcade. 

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Mario Party: Island Tour

Due to the platform being the Nintendo 3DS, some of the minigames take advantage of the system's features, such as the stereoscopic 3D, gyroscope, mic, augmented reality (AR), and the touch screen. The game additionally uses StreetPass where players can play minigames if their system has picked up signals from other Nintendo 3DS systems that also have the game and unlock special items from it. Up to four people can play together either with local multiplayer or Download Play using only one game cartridge, similar to how Mario Party DS and later Mario Party installments for the Nintendo 3DS handle multiplayer.

The game was eventually released as a Nintendo Selects title in multiple regions including North America, Europe, and Oceania, being one of the best-selling titles for the Nintendo 3DS.

• 2.1 Minigames
• 2.2 Streetpass Minigames
• 2.3 Bowser's Tower
• 2.4 Collectables
• 3.1 Critical reception
• 7 References
• 8 External links

After a relaxing day around Peach's Castle , Mario and the gang notice a strange letter in a bubble saying they are happily invited to the Party Islands. The gang then cheers about it but then the letter suddenly traps the gang in bubbles to carry them though the sky to the Party Islands. While Mario and the gang are partying and playing games, Bowser shows up, feeling jealous about why Mario and his friends are invited, so he builds Bowser's Tower, saying that anyone can join him at his evil party. He begins locking all the fun from the Party Islands in bubbles. He also puts evil magic in the bubbles made by the bubble machine to make bubble clones of the gang to guard the tower. The player's selected character and Green Toad advance up the tower and defeat the bubble clones as well as various bosses. After defeating Bowser in Bowser's Sky Scuffle, the player's character then defeats the Mario bubble clones guarding the bubble machine and then destroys the bubble machine with a ground pound. Shortly afterward, Bowser reappears and boots the player's character and Green Toad out of the tower, inviting them to challenge him any time and that he won't be done.

Gameplay [ ]

Unlike the direct preceding game, Mario Party 9 , where all four players travel together through a vehicle and aim to obtain the most Mini Stars, Mario Party: Island Tour uses the traditional independent four player gameplay as seen in previous Mario Party entries. The ultimate goal of the game in most of the boards is to race opponents on a linear-designed board to the finish line, unlike other Mario Party games where players are required to amass the most amount of a certain item to win in all boards. In order to advance through the board, players roll a Dice Block numbered from 1 to 6 to dictate their movement. Each board has its own play style with different rules from another: one board, Star-Crossed Skyway requires players to amass the most Mini Stars while Kamek's Carpet Ride requires players to land exactly on a particular space, called a Just-Right Space, by using numbered cards. Another feature of these boards is to replace the "6" on the Dice Block with another feature, such as a Banzai Bill icon on Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain that causes players to fall back to the halfway point or the start of the board or a 0 in Rocket Road , meaning the player cannot move at all. Prior to starting out, Yellow Toad explains the board's play style and after players are done viewing the rules, they roll a Dice Block to determine their turn order: players who roll a higher number than others will move earlier. In this game, a Round, similar to turns from earlier Mario Party titles, is taken once every player has rolled a Dice Block and moved accordingly, and while in earlier Mario Party titles had a limited amount of turns to take until the game ends, Mario Party: Island Tour proceeds until all players have reached the end goal. When starting their own round, players can either opt to use an item if an item is available for use or look around the map to plan out movement. If players end the game in a tie, a Dice Block roll determines who wins the game. At the end of the game, various stats are recorded such as how many spaces a player has landed on, a line graph depicting the players' progress, and other recordings depending on the board the players were playing on.

When players land on a Space, an event occurs depending on the type of space landed. Their function and design appears to be based off Mario Party 9 ; for example, if players land on a Green Space, nothing occurs while if a player lands on an Item Space on a specific type of board, they receive an item from a pool of randomized items. These items can either benefit the player directly or obstruct opponents. Players can carry up to two items, and players can use only one item per round. Only a few boards have an item system, however, and the type of items players receive varies on the board selected.

Some boards have players participating in minigames, either after every turn or if a Free-for-All Space is landed on. These minigames are small, short activities that have players competing against each other in defined, simple rules, most of them within a time limit. Some minigames involve players surviving a horde of enemies, some involve players racing against one another, some require the player to obtain the most points within a time limit, etc. If the player performs the best in the minigame, depending on the board played on, they receive priority when deciding which prize item to take or how much items are rewarded to them. The lower the rank players are, the lower the priority for selecting items and the less of a reward they receive, with last place players either receiving nothing or the worst rewards. If minigames end in a tie, a Dice Block is used to break the tie.

Mario Party: Island Tour supports local multiplayer if players have multiple cartridges or Download Play if there is only one cartridge. Up to four players can play the game, and they can participate with the player in Party Mode and Minigames Mode.

Minigames [ ]

Main Article: List of Mario Party: Island Tour minigames There are 81 minigames in total. 69 General ones, 6 Boss ones, 3 Puzzle minigames, and 3 Extra minigames.

Streetpass Minigames [ ]

In StreetPass™, players can win some matches against other people playing Mario Party: Island Tour , unlock special collectables, and more.

Bowser's Tower [ ]

The game's solo mode. Consists of 30 floors. Beating each floor requires beating a set of computer players in 1 or 2 minigames with every 5th floor being a boss battle. Completing this mode will unlock Bowser Jr.

Collectables [ ]

Using Mario Party Points earned from playing the game, purchase bubbles. Bubbles can contain stuff like voice clips and music tracks.

Reception [ ]

Critical reception [ ].

Mario Party: Island Tour has received generally mixed reviews. The game currently averages a 59% based on 28 reviews on GameRankings [1] and a 57 based on 47 reviews on Metacritic [2] . As with most Mario Party games, Mario Party: Island Tour was praised for being fun to play with other people rather than playing alone and some of its mechanics were praised for being innovative, though general criticisms of the game include its short length, poorly implemented gimmicks, as well as the lack of online play.

Scott Thompson of IGN gave Mario Party: Island Tour a 5.5 out of 10, criticizing its motion control, "uninventive" minigames, and its "poor" single-player campaign unlike Mario Party 9 , but praising its unique board rules and use of Download Play. [3] While expecting this game to perform around the same level as the console Mario Party games due to the inventive touchscreen implementation and unique, new rules for the seven game boards compared to previous Mario Party games, Thompson felt that the "lackluster single player experience", Bowser's Tower, was a slow-paced repetitive grind, and the "bland minigame design" was a step back, due to the similarity of the minigames from the past entries in the Mario Party series and the only category of minigames being Free-for-All type minigames. Caitlin Cooke of Destructoid gave the game a 4 out of 10, [4] disappointed that the game's board gameplay did not play as the original titles did and that the boards felt like chopped up variations of a single mode from previous Mario Party games. She additionally pointed out that the game has a too heavy hand with hand-holding players. She, however, enjoyed the single player mode of Bowser's Tower, the minigames, and the single-cartridge local mulitplayer, though criticized the lack of online play.

On the other hand, Kimberly Keller of Nintendo World Report gave the game the highest critic review, an 8.5 out of 10. [5] She has praised the innovation of the boards, which has each their unique play styles, the usage of the Nintendo 3DS capabilities in minigames, as well as noting that the single player modes Bowser's Tower, StreetPass Minigames, and Collectables being engaging, with Bowser's Tower being the best of the single player modes, though she had criticized the lack of setting a difficulty setting for Bowser's Tower. She also praised the Download Play multiplayer, though criticized the lack of online multiplayer.

Mario Party: Island Tour is the 20th best-selling game for the Nintendo 3DS, selling 1.14 million copies worldwide, as of March 31, 2014. [6] It has become a Nintendo Selects title in various regions, including North America, Europe, and Oceania.

Credits [ ]

• For a time, the Nintendo 3DS eShop mistakenly stated Mario Party: Island Tour to be a title on the Nintendo Entertainment System .
• A female announcer is used for minigames in the Dutch, Portuguese and Russian versions, a practice that had not been seen in non-Japanese versions since Mario Party 5 , and would not be seen again until Super Mario Party .
• Bowser Jr. is a playable character for the first time. You can unlock him after you completed Bowser's Tower for the first time.

References [ ]

• ↑ GameRankings score for Mario Party: Island Tour . GameRankings . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ↑ Metacritic score for Mario Party: Island Tour . Metacritic . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ↑ Thompson, Scott. (November 22, 2013) Mario Party: Island Tour Review . IGN . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ↑ Cooke, Caitlin. (November 27, 2013). Review: Mario Party: Island Tour . Destructoid . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ↑ Keller, Kimberly. (November 22, 2013). Mario Party: Island Tour Review Nintendo World Report . Retrieved December 5, 2017.
• ↑ "Financial Results Briefing for Fiscal Year Ended March 2014 (Briefing Date: 5/8/2014) Supplementary Information" . (May 8, 2014). Nintendo . Retrieved December 5, 2017.

External links [ ]

• Mario Party: Island Tour at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia
• Mario Party: Island Tour at GameFAQs
• Official North American website
• Official Japanese website
• Launch Trailer
• 1 List of Pokémon games
• 2 List of Mario games
• 3 Quiz Thwomp

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Mario Party: Island Tour

Description.

• A new game in the Mario Party series is scheduled to launch for Nintendo 3DS this winter. The game features seven different game boards, each with its own set of rules. The game offers 81 new mini-games that test speed, concentration and luck. In addition to the board game elements, players will be able to play mini-games exclusively or try their hands at a 30-floor tower climb, AR Card games and StreetPass battles.

User Ratings

Mario Party: Island Tour Review

• First Released Nov 22, 2013 released

Port-a-party.

By Heidi Kemps on November 22, 2013 at 11:44AM PST

When you hear "minigame collection," the first game that usually springs to mind is Mario Party. The series has been responsible for hilarious memories and strained relationships since the Nintendo 64 era, though the series hasn't always set a good example: some of the installments, like the miserable Mario Party Advance, have dragged you to the dregs of party hell. Fortunately, Mario Party: Island Tour is a raucous portable entry in the series that adds some refreshing new elements.

Island Tour adheres to the same structure as many of the other Mario Party games: two to four human or AI players move around a traditional board-game-style map in a competition, playing minigames for prizes and attempting to hinder other players throughout. Most Mario Party games have focused on the collecting of coins and stars to determine a winner at the end of a game, but Island Tour's boards feature different objectives and modes of play. Some, like Perilous Palace Path, simply require that you be the first to reach the goal, while others have you collecting items to see who can end the game with the most stuff. Even if the boards have a similar objective, there are other factors at play that alter gameplay significantly: Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain might let you summon a giant bullet that sends everyone in its path back several spaces, while Kamek's Magic Carpet Ride forgoes dice and assigns movement to an inventory of numbered cards, making your selections about how far to advance a strategic consideration. There's a nice bit of variety here, and the game helpfully gives ratings to luck, skill, and minigame categories when you're choosing a board to play on (though their accuracy is debatable). Most of the boards don't take too long to run through, but that's probably for the best given that the 3DS is a battery-based console, and nothing kills a party like running out of juice mid-game.

It's pretty easy to get things hopping, thanks to the 3DS Download Play feature. Much like Mario Party DS, Island Tour allows up to three additional players to access and enjoy the full game in multiplayer, even if they don't have their own copy. It takes a few minutes to send the game to other 3DSs--and, of course, they can't keep it once the host disconnects--but after the wait is over, the players have access to the entire game (though the host player controls all the settings and selections). It's a nice way to ensure that there's always an opportunity to get a party started as long as everybody has a system. Unfortunately, there's no way to play online. Yes, Mario Party is more fun in a local, group setting, but the omission of any sort of online option is puzzling, especially given that the 3DS supports friends lists and voice chat.

If you've got a party of one, however, Island Tour has a special single-player mode called Bowser's Tower. In this mode, your chosen character scales a tower, playing a minigame on each floor and winning to proceed. On every fifth floor, you face a boss character, and these fights are minigames in themselves. Compared to the single-player story mode in Mario Party DS, Bowser's Tower is weak: there's no variation on events depending on character choice; it takes a long time to complete a runthrough (and, if you're really unlucky, a bad roulette spin can send you back to the start); and you have to finish it more than once to unlock everything. Yet Bowser's Tower is a nice diversion, and as you play and complete board runs, Bowser's Tower, and individual minigames in either single- or multiplayer, you earn points that you can spend on unlockable content.

But the meat of any Mario Party is its minigame menagerie, and Island Tour has more winners than duds in its mix. While you have the expected minigames of the "collect stuff," "knock other players off a platform," and "dodge things coming at you" varieties, there are some more inventive offerings that make good use of the 3DS hardware. Since the 3DS offers a variety of control methods--controller, buttons, stylus, microphone, and gyroscopic motion--the minigames can use one or more of these elements to make more interesting snack-size experiences. This leads to some neat outings, such as Buzz a Fuzzy (a motion- and circle-pad-controlled archery minigame) and Match Faker (a memory-type game that lets you use the stylus to take notes). The game takes advantage of the fact that each player has their own display, resulting in things like the third-person, arena-based blasting in Tanks a Lot and the hyper-gliding ice racing in No Traction Action. There are even a few auxiliary minigames that use the oft-forgotten 3DS AR cards. Unlike in Wii Party, where only one player could use the GamePad, everybody is on equal footing with the same controls and view, and many of the minigames do a good job of both recognizing and taking advantage of that in their design.

But there are still some stinkers in the mix. Strictly luck-based minigames turn up in the rotation frequently, and they're not any fun. A few others feature sluggish controls that hamper your ability to move well. (In minigames that involved moving the system along with another control method, I found that the game had an obnoxious tendency to lose calibration when it shifted back to motion controls, which required an experience-interrupting recalibration.) Though you can switch between preset standard and easy minigames and turn mic-using games on or off, you still can't disable individual minigames or make a custom set, which is a disappointing oversight.

It's not a perfect party by any means, but some good design considerations, better-than-average variety, and always-enjoyable Mario thematics put Mario Party: Island Tour a few notches above your average video game bash-in-a-box. It's nicely portable, uses the hardware well, and has a mostly good minigame mix, making this the easy-to-play multiplayer vacation you've been looking for.

• Leave Blank
• Fully featured four-player local download play is great
• Some great minigame designs that use 3DS features well
• Offers a unique single-player mode
• A few bad games in the bunch
• No online play

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Mario Party: Island Tour

21 Nov 2013

All releases

21 Nov 2013 - Nintendo 3DS

17 Jan 2014 - Nintendo 3DS

01 Jan 1970 - Nintendo 3DS

Mario Party: Island Tour lets you take the fun on the road with your Nintendo 3DS system! Face off against friends and family in the all-new, ultimate Mario Party – a portable minigame extravaganza that’s bursting with gameplay possibilities. If you’ve never played a Mario Party game before, you’re in for a treat. There’s always something new to see on the Party Islands. In this ultimate showdown you can take on the road, blaze through the 7 new game boards, some of which take just minutes to play. Wrangle goombas and blast out of cannons as you tilt, tap, and draw through new minigames harnessing the unique functionality of Nintendo 3DS. Compete in new multiplayer modes including mind bending puzzles, minigame challenges, or enter a whole new reality with AR Card play for up to 4 players*. Whether in single or multiplayer, this is a portable party that never ends.

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