Mario Party: Star Rush

Mario Party: Star Rush is an upcoming game in the Mario Party series. It will be the second Mario Party game for the Nintendo 3DS after Mario Party: Island Tour and the fourteenth game overall. The game, as with most entries of the Mario Party series, is a multiplayer-oriented party game, where up to four players compete in an interactive, digital board for the most stars. What sets this game apart from its precedents in the Mario Party series is its main mode, Toad Scramble, where, instead of players using designated Mario characters from the start, take control of a color-coded member of the Toad species and collect Mario characters around the board. Also unlike other Mario Party games, all players move at one turn, streamlining the gameplay. The board designs are non-linear as well, also unlike previous boards in the Mario Party series, where players travel in a straight line around the boards. It is scheduled for release on October 7, 2016 for Europe, October 8 for Australia and New Zealand, October 20 for Japan, and November 4 for North America. The game is confirmed to be compatible with amiibo. The game uses up 3018 blocks for a digital download from the Nintendo eShop.

Gameplay
Mario Party: Star Rush's board gameplay is the main focus of the game. Players traverse around a board, using a Dice Block numbered from 1-6. Due to the nature of the boards, most spaces landed on the boards in Mario Party: Star Rush do not trigger a special effect, while there are very few spaces that do: for example, specifically landing on a ? Block space grants the player a random item for use. Minigames can be collected from playing Toad Scramble and Coinathlon, with both modes having different ways play a minigame; in Toad Scramble, for example, players need to pass a Coin Balloon to trigger a minigame.

Toad Scramble is the only mode where players cannot choose a designated Mario character, instead, starting out with a colored member of the Toad species, corresponding to a player; said Mario characters can be used only when collected in the board, set as the leader, or with a use of an amiibo. In all other modes, however, players can choose and play as a specific Mario character, including Toad himself as an option if players wish to play as a Toad in other modes.

Game modes
Ten game modes are confirmed to appear in Mario Party: Star Rush.

Toad Scramble
Up to four players can enjoy Toad Scramble, the central mode of Mario Party: Star Rush. Each player in the beginning starts out with a member of the Toad species, where their colors correspond to each player: red being Player 1, blue being Player 2, green being Player 3, and yellow being Player 4. Players are then notified of the appearance of a boss character in the map, as well as potential ally characters that the Toads can recruit. The goal of the game is to amass the most Stars, where players can retrieve Stars by placing first in boss minigames. Players can face off against bosses by landing on the space in front of them. Every time a boss minigame is completed, a new boss appears on the board on a different spot. Up to five bosses can appear on a board. When a player plays against a boss, other players need to tap to travel to the boss space to participate as well.

When players recruit ally characters, the ally characters help out by increasing dice roll amounts with their own special Dice Blocks and helping the players earn points simultaneously in video games. Ally characters have certain field abilities unique to them as well; for example, Mario can stomp on Goombas in grass while Princess Peach can make flowers bloom. Whenever a player recruits an ally character, they can switch characters before the start of any turn in order to directly use them. Up to five ally characters can be recruited for each team. Players can duel each others' ally characters by participating in an Ally Duel, either by landing on the same space as another player or by using a Duel Glove. When an Ally Duel is triggered, the two players roll a die; whoever rolls higher steals an ally character from the other player. If the losing player does not have an ally character, the winning player earns coins instead.

Dotted throughout the board are coins that can be collected by running through them. Players can land on special spaces as well, such as a ? Block, which gives players an item that can help players and hinder their opponents. Players can land on a Lakitu space, where at a fee of one coin, players can travel to another player's space.

When a player passes through a Coin Balloon, the player earns coins, as well as starting a minigame. Similar to the Battle minigame of previous Mario Party installments, the player who landed on the space can choose a minigame out of four randomly selected, rather than traditionally letting a roulette decide which minigame to play.

Coinathlon
In a mode that up to four players can play, players must collect as many coins as they can in 60-second designated coin minigames to progress three laps around a map. As players collect coins in minigames, they proceed through the map as the minigames happen. Players can earn a variety of items via collecting coins; when characters collect enough coins, a transparent box containing an item shows up. Players can retrieve the item by touching the box, and when players press, they can momentarily use that item to stun their opponents. The items available are Blooper, Lava Bubble, Lightning Bolt, Kamek, a circular icon with a x2, and a bag. Players can also retrieve a Coin Trio to help boost their coin count. Whichever player crosses the finish line first wins the game.

Coinathlon comes in two modes. One mode is Free Play Mode, where players can choose the number of players, laps, and minigames available. The other mode, Rival Race, players can take on a series of challenges to try to earn 10 wins.

Mario Shuffle
Mario Shuffle is a two-player oriented game mode that focuses on amiibo functionality. Players race across a linear, one-way board to a goal with amiibo. The red team tries to make it to the very right of the board, while the blue team tries to make to the left side of the board. Players roll two dice, and allow the outcome of the dice to affect two figurines. When a player crosses an opposing piece, the player jumps over the piece, making that piece unable to move for one turn. If a player lands on an opposing piece, the player knocks the piece back to the start of the board. Players can land on spaces that either make the piece continue further or moving back, depending on the directions on the space. If players do not have amiibo, a cardboard cut-out of a player character is used instead. A total amount of six characters can be used, each split into two teams of three. The first team who makes it across the board to their goal wins the game.

Balloon Bash
Players, with up to four players, must collect coins and stars on a mini board with 20 turns and minigames after a player touches a coin balloon. The gameplay is very similar to Toad Scramble, except players navigate through smaller boards and are able to use designated Mario characters rather than a player Toad, and the main goal of the game is to collect the most Stars from Star Balloons that can appear in parts of the board. Players can earn Stars if they spend 10 coins on arrival with a Star Balloon. When a Coin Duel is initiated, just as an Ally Duel for Toad Scramble, whichever player gets a higher dice roll earns coins.

Rhythm Recital
Up to four players can cooperate and play classic Mario tunes using the touchscreen. Each character has their own instrument. Two songs confirmed available are the Overworld theme from Super Mario 3D Land and Gusty Garden Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy.

Challenge Tower
A single player game where a player climbs a tower with LED spaces on it. Players need to pay attention to the color of the spaces as they ascend, while also avoiding Amps on their way up the tower. Players can also attempt to complete the 500-floor Master Tower, the hardest tower difficulty.

Boo's Block Party
A puzzle game that involves spinning sides of a number block to earn points. Points are earned when 3 or more sets of numbers match. When players break enough blocks, the blocks get sent to the opponent's screen. The game ends when the blocks reach the top of the screen. In single-player mode, players can face off against Boo in an endless mode to compete for a high score.

Character Museum
The character museum allows players to view characters collected in the game. amiibo options are also found here.

Minigames
Players can play Free-For-All, Boss, Bowser, and Coinathlon minigames in this mode.

Multiplayer
Players can use the Nintendo 3DS's Download and Local Play features to play with their friends. The following table illustrates which features are available in each mode, leaving out Challenge Tower, as Challenge Tower is a single-player only game.

However, new to the Mario Party handheld titles is the Mario Party: Star Rush - Party Guest feature. Similar to Download Play, it enables up to four players to play the game with only one game cartridge, but it gives players who do not have a copy of Mario Party: Star Rush to play with modes that only Local Play users have access to. Players need to download the Mario Party: Star Rush - Party Guest app off the Nintendo eShop into an available SD card slot and then hook up with systems that have a copy of Mario Party: Star Rush to enjoy. Additionally, progress such as unlocked characters and minigames are saved, and if players buy a full Mario Party: Star Rush copy, they can transfer the data into the copy.

amiibo features
amiibo can be used in Mario Party: Star Rush for the benefit and bonuses of the player, with each game mode supporting the Super Mario line-up of amiibo figures as well as the Mario characters in the Super Smash Bros. line up of amiibo. However, each mode has different effects for each amiibo when used on, as described in the following table.

Characters
The following characters confirmed via Nintendo's Treehouse Live stream at E3 2016 as well as Gamescon 2016 and the 9/1 Nintendo Direct.

Other playable characters
These characters can be collected in Toad Scramble, but are the main playable characters in other modes. In addition to these characters, Toad with a blue vest is also playable in other modes.

Abilities and Dice Blocks
In Toad Scramble mode, each character has a unique ability and Dice Block.

Bosses

 * Mega Goomba
 * King Bob-omb
 * King Boo
 * Petey Piranha
 * Mega Blooper
 * Mega Dry Bones
 * Mega Monty Mole
 * Kamek
 * Bowser Jr.
 * Bowser

Other

 * Goombrats
 * Shy Guys
 * Peepas
 * Goombas
 * Galoombas
 * Monty Moles
 * Amps
 * Koopa Troopas
 * Bloopers
 * Cheep Cheeps
 * Gold Cheep Cheeps
 * Urchins
 * Fuzzies
 * Wigglers
 * Boo
 * Swoopers
 * Gold Piranha Plants
 * Spikes
 * Lakitu
 * Hammer Bro
 * Bob-ombs
 * Piranha Creepers
 * Magmaarghs
 * Bullet Bills

Board features

 * ? Block
 * Coin Balloon
 * Lakitu

Free-for-All
There will be 26 Free-for-All minigames.
 * Acornucopia
 * Parkour War
 * Wheelin' and Wigglin'
 * Greedy Eats
 * Dodge Fuzzy, Get Dizzy
 * Bridgesaw Puzzle
 * Lava Labyrinth
 * Fruit or Foe
 * Haunted Hallways
 * Piranha Plantemonium
 * Jewel Janitors
 * Shooting Stars
 * Pop Quiz
 * Fruit Parade
 * Bumper Bugs
 * Splat-a-Stamp
 * Top it Off

Boss Battle

 * Petey Piranha’s Shell Smackdown

Coin Chaos

 * Steal Diver
 * Rolling Rumble
 * Silver Lining
 * Conveyor Meltdown
 * House of Boos
 * Tiles and Tribulations
 * Goomba Gold Rush
 * Pinball Brawl
 * Samurai Smackdown
 * Leafboard Hoard
 * One-Stop Toad Shop
 * Cheep Cheep Reach

Bowser's Gauntlet

 * Bowser’s Fence Fury