Mario Party for the Nintendo 64 was basically a
collection of Super Mario themed board games with a couple of mini games thrown
into the mix. It’s a formula that hasn’t changed much with the sequels and it’s
the same story with the newest incarnation for the 3DS. But the execution makes
Island Tour one of the more enjoyable games in the series.
The game includes a total of seven boards and each one offers an interesting bent. For example, the Skyway board gives out the top prize to the person with the most stars, one of the boards will ditch the dice in favour of playing cards and the secret Bowser board encourages you to be the last person to reach the finish line. It’s this kind of variation that makes every board fun and interesting.
Island Tour features more than 80 mini games and they’ve managed to utilise everything the system has to offer. Although I’ll never warm up to those gyro games, since many of them force you to wave that thing around like an idiot and it’s very telling that Nintendo demands you to be aware of your surroundings.
The mini games might be a case of quantity over quality, but at least the instructions are clear and easy to learn. The game will let you have a practice session and sometimes show a quick demonstration of the mini game in action. It’s definitely an improvement over Mario Party 9, where many of the games were too complicated and relied purely on dumb luck.
The Mario Party games have always been more enjoyable with friends and the download play in Island Tour lets up to 4 people play through party mode with only one cartridge. If you don’t have any friends, you can always play the party mode by yourself with an A.I. controlling the other players. But I didn't enjoy the single player campaign called "Bowser’s Tower". Mainly because it’s a bit of a grind and forces you to play through mini games with the most hopeless A.I. to ever grace the video game world. The boss battles on the other hand are actually really enjoyable but being forced to watch the animation of your character go from floor to floor is just pointless and boring.
At least when you finish the campaign, you can revisit the boss battles along with all the other mini games. Street pass is utilised for the mini games, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to test it and like previous games in the series you can spend points on unlocking various things in the gallery.
In the graphics department it looks fantastic and because it runs at native resolution it looks good on both the original 3DS and the XL. The orchestral soundtrack is nothing special but it does add some class to the experience.
Island Tour doesn’t change the formula in a radical way, but you’ll be having so much fun you can’t complain. So gather up your friends, get the download play rocking and start the party in what’s easily one of the best multiplayer games on the system.
RATING - 6/10* (ENJOYABLE BUT NOTHING SPECIAL OR INNOVATIVE)
*Windy Corner believes Five should be the average instead of Seven on most gaming publications and websites.
The game includes a total of seven boards and each one offers an interesting bent. For example, the Skyway board gives out the top prize to the person with the most stars, one of the boards will ditch the dice in favour of playing cards and the secret Bowser board encourages you to be the last person to reach the finish line. It’s this kind of variation that makes every board fun and interesting.
Island Tour features more than 80 mini games and they’ve managed to utilise everything the system has to offer. Although I’ll never warm up to those gyro games, since many of them force you to wave that thing around like an idiot and it’s very telling that Nintendo demands you to be aware of your surroundings.
The mini games might be a case of quantity over quality, but at least the instructions are clear and easy to learn. The game will let you have a practice session and sometimes show a quick demonstration of the mini game in action. It’s definitely an improvement over Mario Party 9, where many of the games were too complicated and relied purely on dumb luck.
The Mario Party games have always been more enjoyable with friends and the download play in Island Tour lets up to 4 people play through party mode with only one cartridge. If you don’t have any friends, you can always play the party mode by yourself with an A.I. controlling the other players. But I didn't enjoy the single player campaign called "Bowser’s Tower". Mainly because it’s a bit of a grind and forces you to play through mini games with the most hopeless A.I. to ever grace the video game world. The boss battles on the other hand are actually really enjoyable but being forced to watch the animation of your character go from floor to floor is just pointless and boring.
At least when you finish the campaign, you can revisit the boss battles along with all the other mini games. Street pass is utilised for the mini games, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to test it and like previous games in the series you can spend points on unlocking various things in the gallery.
In the graphics department it looks fantastic and because it runs at native resolution it looks good on both the original 3DS and the XL. The orchestral soundtrack is nothing special but it does add some class to the experience.
Island Tour doesn’t change the formula in a radical way, but you’ll be having so much fun you can’t complain. So gather up your friends, get the download play rocking and start the party in what’s easily one of the best multiplayer games on the system.
RATING - 6/10* (ENJOYABLE BUT NOTHING SPECIAL OR INNOVATIVE)
*Windy Corner believes Five should be the average instead of Seven on most gaming publications and websites.
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