Mario Party: Island Tour

Mario Party: Island Tour is a party game for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the thirteenth in the main series (seventeenth in Japan) in the 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 14, 2014 in Europe and Winter 2013 in Japan.

Gameplay
Not much is shown at the moment, but it seems that this Mario Party game uses the traditional independent four player gameplay as opposed to Mario Party 9, except players still hit a six-sided Dice Block numbered 1-6 instead of a Dice Block numbered 1-10 in the first eight installments. 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. However, the Spaces appear similar in function to those from Mario Party 9. It is also shown that the players can use special cards to hinder their opponents, similar to Orbs from previous Mario Party installments. It will also have Local Multiplayer. It has been seen that players may verse shadowy versions of the other playable characters in minigames. 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 have been confirmed in the game.


 * Perilous Palace Path
 * Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain - A board that resembles World 6 from New Super Mario Bros. Wii and features Scaredy Rats and Banzai Bills. Players can choose to either hide away safely, or risk being sent back if a player rolls a Banzai Bill. The map has one Green Space, nine Blue Spaces, twelve Red Spaces, and a finish space. . The board's ratings are 2/5 for strategy, 5/5 for luck, and 2/5 for minigames.
 * Star-Crossed Skyway
 * Rocket Road
 * Kamek's Carpet Ride
 * Shy Guy's Shuffle City
 * Bowser's Peculiar Peak

Spaces

 * "+3," "+4," and "+5" Spaces, most likely allowing the player to advance farther.
 * Card Spaces
 * Green Spaces
 * Bowser Spaces
 * Event Spaces - In this game they appear in both blue and red colors, possibly denoting whether the event is beneficial or not.
 * Free-for-All Spaces
 * Item Spaces
 * Piranha Plant Spaces
 * Blue and Red Spaces on Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain indicating safe and dangerous areas.
 * Booster Spaces (appears only on Rocket Road)

Cards
As stated above, the items in this game appear to be cards, most likely obtained from the card spaces also shown. The cards appear to be face-down until used, which reveals the item on it.
 * Lakitu - Allows the player to steal a card from an opponent.

Dice Blocks

 * Gold Dice Block - Adds 1 to 6 spaces to the player's roll.
 * Silver Dice Block - Adds 1 to 3 spaces to the player's roll.
 * Bronze Dice Block - Adds 1 to 2 spaces to the player's roll.

Other

 * Mini Stars
 * Mini Ztars
 * Roulette Block
 * 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.
 * Custom Dice Block - Allows the player to roll any number they want.
 * Crazy Kamek - Summons Kamek who switches the players' space with another player, whom is randomly chosen.
 * Chaos Kamek - Switches everyone's places.
 * Boosters - Appear only on Rocket Road, they multiply the Dice Block roll.

Reception
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 The game scores a 60% rating on Metacritic with mixed reviews.

Trivia

 * For a time the Nintendo 3DS eShop mistakenly stated Mario Party: Island Tour to be a title on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

References to other games

 * Mario Party 9 - Most of the gameplay elements, including the voices from the characters and minigame announcer are borrowed. Also, the main menu theme is a remix for this game.