Mario Party: Island Tour

Mario Party: Island Tour is a party game for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the thirteenth game (seventeenth in Japan) in the main Mario Party series and the third installment for a handheld console. It was released on November 22, 2013, in North America and will be released on January 17, 2014, in Europe and on March 20, 2014 in Japan.

Story
After a relaxing day around Peach's Castle, Mario and the gang noticed a strange letter in a bubble saying that they were happily invited to the Party Islands. The gang then cheers about it when the letter sends bubbles to carry every member of the gang 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 built Bowser's Tower, saying that anyone can join him at his evil party. He began locking all the fun away from the Party Islands into all kinds of weird 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.

Play Modes
There are five different play modes in the game. They are:
 * Party (1-4 players) - Party your way to the finish across a wild variety of game boards! Play time: 10-60 mins
 * Minigames (1-4 players) - Battle for first place in a huge collection of minigames. Play time: 1-30 mins
 * StreetPass Minigames (1 player) - Take on the world in minigame battles, and unlock special items! Play time: 1-15 mins
 * Bowser's Tower (1 player) - Win your way to the top of a terrifying tower! Play time: 90 mins
 * Collectables - Purchase bubbles with Mario Party Points! Can you complete the entire collection? Play time: N/A

Gameplay
Mario Party: Island Tour uses the traditional independent four player gameplay as seen in previous Mario Party entries. Like Mario Party 9, players appear to move along a linear board, though in this game it appears to be a race to the end. Each board has its own play style, such as items and Mini Stars. The Spaces appear similar in function to those from Mario Party 9. During some specific game boards, players use special cards to progress and hinder their opponents, similar to Orbs from previous Mario Party installments. It also supports local multiplayer using Download Play. There is a single-player mode called Bowser's Tower, where the player plays against shadowy versions of the other playable characters in 30 minigames, with a boss minigame on every fifth floor. Also, whenever a minigame ends with a tie, there will be a Dice Block tiebreaker to determine the final results.

Boards
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 (Bowser's Peculiar Peak), and the other six are available from the start of the game.

Spaces

 * "+3," "+4," and "+5" Spaces
 * Card Spaces
 * Green Spaces
 * Bowser Spaces
 * Event Spaces
 * Free-for-All Spaces
 * Item Spaces
 * Piranha Plant Spaces
 * Safe Spaces (only on Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain)
 * Danger Spaces (only on Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain)
 * Banzai Bill Spaces
 * Booster Spaces (appears only on Rocket Road)
 * Warp Spaces
 * Just-Right Spaces

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

Perilous Palace Path

 * Setback Shell - Knocks a selected player back two spaces.
 * Backwards Bill - Knocks a selected player back five spaces.
 * Blooper Chopper - Cuts an opponent's roll in half.
 * Lightning Score Striker - Subtracts three from an opponent's roll.
 * Lakitu Leech - Summons Lakitu to steal one item from an opponent.
 * Dash Mushroom - Adds three spaces to the player's roll.
 * Golden Dash Mushroom - Adds five spaces to the player's roll.
 * Super Star - Doubles the player's roll.
 * Crazy Kamek - Kamek switches the players' space with another player, whom is randomly chosen.
 * Chaos Kamek - Kamek switches everyone's places

Star-Crossed Skyway

 * Mini Stars
 * Mini Ztars

Rocket Road

 * Boosters - Multiplies the Dice Block roll.

Kamek's Carpet Ride and Shy Guy's Shuffle City

 * Random Cards - Randomly decide how many spaces the player will move.
 * Precision Cards - Move the player the number of spaces written on the card.
 * Power Precision Cards - Move the user the number of spaces written on the card forwards, while moving all other characters backward the same amount.

Reception
Mario Party: Island Tour has received mixed reviews. The game currently averages a 62.06% based on 17 reviews on GameRankings and a 59 based on 23 reviews on Metacritic. IGN gave Mario Party: Island Tour a 5.5, criticizing its motion control, "uninventive" minigames, and its "poor" single-player campaign, but praising its unique board rules and use of Download Play. Destructoid gave the game an even lower score of 4.0. On the other hand, GameXplain gave the single-player mode a 3 1/2 stars out of 5, and multiplayer a 4 1/2 out of 5.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros.: The main theme is remixed in the minigames Xylophone Home and Goomba Tower Takedown. In Amp My Style, a remix of the under ground them appears. In Perilous Palace Path, while in the Bowser Zone, a remix of the castle theme appears. Also, the Starman theme is used for the Perilous Palace Path board whenever a player uses a Super Star.
 * Super Mario 64 and Super Mario 64 DS: The "Koopa's Road" theme is remixed for Bowser's Peculiar Peak and "Bowser's Battle" theme is remixed for the Bowser Path of Perilous Palace Path. King Bob-omb appears as a boss in this game as he did here and Bowser makes a reference to his interest with his moustache from the remake saying, "My next guard has an even more formidable moustache than Mario!"
 * Mario Party 1/Mario Party 2: The concept of playing every available board to unlock the Bowser themed board was reused from these games.
 * New Super Mario Bros.: Dry Bowser returns with his bone-throwing technique.
 * Super Mario Galaxy: Rocket Road is based on this game and Rosalina appears as a cameo along with the Lumas and the Comet Observatory.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain is based on World 6 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.
 * Mario Party 9: Most of the gameplay elements, including the voices from the characters, minigame announcer and minigame instruction screen theme are borrowed. Also, the main menu theme is a cover for this game.

Trivia

 * For a time the Nintendo 3DS eShop mistakenly stated Mario Party: Island Tour to be a title on the Nintendo Entertainment System.
 * This is the second Mario Party game not to feature Donkey Kong; the first was Mario Party Advance.
 * This is the first Mario Party game to use dice blocks to break a tie in a mini game.