Mario Party: Island Tour is a decent new addition to the series, but it doesn't come close to matching the quality of the first batch from all those years ago. This is very much a multiplayer-only experience, regardless of the CPU bots. It goes without saying, too, that if you don't have any friends to play with Island Tour isn't worth forking out for. Once you've exhausted the boards it's fun to jump directly into the mini-games - but Island Tour doesn't supply many methods for stacking mini-games up one after the other, and playing them individually is a massive pain, as you have to go back out to the main menu. A good number of them are genuinely clever and exciting - for example, the one in which players attempt to claim numbers on a grid while trying to guess where other players will go.īut these are regularly undermined by utter puddlewater-thin piffle, like the mini-game where all you have to is, well, play roulette. Island Tour's crop of games is quite mixed. Mini-games are the crux of the Mario Party experience, and it's essential that they are top-notch. You'll be mimicking the various character voices throughout. Each board is a different length, too, meaning there's always a potential board available no matter how much time you have to play.ĭownload Play is quick and easy, allowing up to four 3DSs to play via just a single game cartridge or download, while the entire game is wonderfully presented. The boards this time around are all based on racing to the end, and there a huge amount of variety in the types of power-ups, spaces, and obstacles you'll encounter. And there are plenty of laughs to be had with Island Tour. This isn't really a series about winning - it's about having a lot of laughs along the way. To Mario Party veterans this won't be an issue.

But success in Island Tour is often dictated purely by luck, thanks to random dice rolls. Cruise-controlĪs usual, Mario Party: Island Tour is a four-player boardgame-based experience in which Mario characters bomb around a board, using items on each other and participating in mini-games.īeing good at mini-games gives you the advantage, since you'll receive power-ups for playing well. Still, if you're looking for a public party in your pocket that doesn't involve being reported to the police then Island Tour could very well scratch that itch. Although it was Hudson Soft that created the Mario Party franchise ten long years, NDCube has been faring pretty well with it in recent years.īut Mario Party: Island Tour is a little disappointing, in that its moments of brilliance are diluted by poor mini-games.

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