Mario Party: Star Rush

Mario Party: Star Rush is a party game for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the second Mario Party game released for the system 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 was released 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 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. At the beginning, the Toad Scramble mode is the only mode players can play, however, players unlock other modes as they play the game.

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 four ally characters can be recruited for each team, having five characters in total at play. 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, one of the several events happen. One event is a Dice Block roll: the two players roll a die; whoever rolls higher wins. Another event has players choose cards with numbers facing upside-down; whoever picks a higher numbered card wins. The last even is stopping a shown, then hidden timer for 5 seconds: whoever stops closer to 5 seconds wins. When players win the Ally Duel, they steal an ally from the losing 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 Coin Trio, Blooper, Lava Bubble, Lightning Bolt, Kamek, Double Medal, and Money Bag, and the frequency of these items change depending on the placement of the players. Whichever player crosses the finish line first wins the game.

In longer games, Bowser can show up to force players to play Bowser's Gauntlet minigames; players first receive a warning when a Bowser's Gauntlet minigame will occur, which occurs the next minigame. Players need to survive the minigames; when players get eliminated, they get sent back a number of spaces, depending on how early they got eliminated. If players survive the minigame, they receive no penalty.

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 consecutive wins. The further the player gets on, the harder the challenges get.

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
Up to four players must collect coins and stars on a mini board with 10, 20, or 30 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. Star Balloons can come in twos or threes, and players can purchase multiple of them at once if they have the funds. When a Coin Duel is initiated, just as an Ally Duel for Toad Scramble, whichever player wins the Coin Duel earns coins.

Rhythm Recital
Up to four players can cooperate and play classic Mario tunes using the touchscreen. Players can choose an instrument from an instrumental set. There are ten songs in total :
 * Overworld Theme from Super Mario World
 * Main Theme from Super Mario 3D Land
 * Overworld Theme from Super Mario Bros.
 * Super Bell Hill from Super Mario 3D World
 * Overworld Theme from New Super Mario Bros.
 * Slide from Super Mario 64
 * Castle Theme from New Super Mario Bros. Wii
 * Underwater Theme from New Super Mario Bros. U
 * Gusty Garden Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy
 * Chill from Dr. Mario

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. Blue spaces are safe to proceed in any dicretion, yellow means that there is an Amp in one direction, red means there are two Amps in two direction, and purple spaces mean that the space is surrounded by Amps. Black spaces are spaces not climbed on at the moment. X spaces means that space cannot be climbed on. Players can mark spaces with a checkmark using ,,, and to help mark locations with Amps in them. Finally, Amps cannot be adjacent to each other. At first, players have the options to climb the following towers: Beginner, which has 30 floors, Intermediate which has 50 floors, and Expert, which has 70 floors. If all are played, players can unlock the 500-floor Master Tower.

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. The playable characters can be chosen as the hub character. amiibo options are also found here: when players use amiibo, they unlock stamps.

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. amiibo can be used to unlock locked characters as well. However, each mode has different effects for each amiibo when used on, as described in the following table.

On a side note, nonMario amiibo can be used at the main menu screen. If used, they cause a variety of effects to appear, such as many balloons floating up.

Level up system
As players spend more time playing the game, and accomplish various objectives, they gain party points, and if they get enough party points, they level up. Players start at level 1, and each level up unlocks more gameplay options.

Characters
Mario Party: Star Rush has a total of 19 controllable characters in the entire game. Four playable characters, the colored Toads, are controlled only in the Toad Scramble mode while three characters are exclusive to the Mario Shuffle mode.

Other playable characters
These characters can be collected in Toad Scramble, but are the main playable characters in other modes. The four unlockable characters, Toadette, Rosalina, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong are unlocked by playing through the game. However, if players have an amiibo of the character, they can unlock the character by tapping them in.

Unlocking criteria
Unlockable playable characters can be unlocked by reaching respective party levels or scanning respective amiibo.

Mario Shuffle playable characters
In addition to the above playable characters, these characters are exclusively playable in the Mario Shuffle mode when players tap their amiibo in.

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

Bosses
In Toad Scramble, a set number of bosses occupy a set space on a board. Players can battle them in their specific minigame for a Star when players land on the space in front of them. In Balloon Bash, a Boss Battle starts when two Coin Balloons are popped at the same time. In this instance, the 1st and 4th players and 2nd and 3rd players are put on a team to fight the boss, which is chosen at random, except for Bowser.

Other
These characters primarily act as obstacles or part of the background scenery in various minigames.

Board features

 * ? Block
 * Coin Balloon
 * Lakitu
 * Star Balloon (Balloon Bash only)

Boards
Boards can be played in three modes: Toad Scramble, Balloon Bash, Mario Shuffle, and Coinathlon. Out of the four modes, Toad Scramble and Balloon Bash have differing selectable boards, each with their own layouts and gimmicks.

Toad Scramble boards
Mario Party: Star Rush features 15 boards in the main mode, Toad Scramble, the most boards out of any Mario Party game in the series. The names of the boards are based off levels in various Mario platformers.

World 0 features a grassland theme, World 1 features a tropical island theme, World 2 features a ghost house theme, World 3 features a birthday cake theme, and World 4 features a lava theme. The latter three worlds are unlocked by finishing a game on a map from the previous world.

Balloon Bash boards
Balloon Bash features 3 boards, unlocked by playing them in succession.

Minigames
Mario Party: Star Rush has a total of 53 minigames, a considerably lower amount than its predecessors (in comparison, Mario Party: Island Tour has 81 minigames and Mario Party 10 has 75 minigames). In Toad Scramble and Balloon Bash mode, players select and play 4 out of a total of 26 Free-For-All minigames when they pass a coin balloon, whereas in Coinathlon, players play from a pool of 12 minigames under the label "Coin Chaos". Boss battle minigames are triggered when players land in a boss battle space in front of the eponymous boss in Toad Scramble. In Balloon Bash, they are triggered when two Coin Balloons are popped. The 1st place and 4th place player are put on a team and the 2nd and 3rd place players are put on another team to fight the boss, which is chosen at random except for any of Bowser's 3 battles. However, unlike Toad Scramble and Minigames, the first phase of each fight is fought instead of two phases. The 3 Bowser minigames are triggered in Coinathlon at random when Survival Mode is turned on, usually after the player has run half of the laps. This is the second Mario Party game to not feature 1 vs. 3 minigames, the first being Mario Party: Island Tour. This game is also the third Mario Party game to not have a category of 2 vs. 2 minigames.

Staff
Mario Party: Star Rush is developed by Nd Cube, who has been handling development of the Mario Party series ever since Mario Party 9, though most of the members at Nd Cube are former Hudson Soft employees, the company that handled the Mario Party series until Mario Party DS.

Critical reception
Mario Party: Star Rush has currently received generally mixed to positive reviews, receiving a 70 from Metacritic based on 24 reviews and a 66.43% from GameRankings based on 7 reviews. The game has generally been praised for the new direction in the overall Mario Party series as well as its multiplayer functionality with friends, though its weaker points is that the game is not meant for single players and the low amount of minigames has been cited. Thomas Whitehead of Nintendo Life gave Mario Party: Star Rush a 7/10, praising the new direction of the series and the Party Guest feature while saying that it is not particularly spectacular and players shouldn't rush out to buy it. In his conclusion, he stated that "Mario Party: Star Rush achieves its goals. It's entertaining, charming and offers some easy-going minigame fun." Daan Koopman of Nintendo World Report gave the game a a 7.5 out of 10, also praising the new direction of the main mode, saying that "Toad Scramble does a good job of changing up other Mario Party elements as well, which helps makes games competitive but still tests of skill." However, he criticized the low variety of minigames, the Rhythm Recital mode, and that some modes need more content.

On the lower end, Nick Gillham of God is a Geek gave Mario Party: Star Rush a 5 out of 10. He notes that while the game is initially fun, especially with other people, it wears out and the game does not have much staying power. He also criticized how the maps have too much empty space in them and that the extra modes are superfluous and not as good as Toad Scramble.

Sales
During the opening week of October 17 - October 23, 2016, Mario Party: Star Rush sold 26,473 units in Japan.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros.: The overworld theme is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * Super Mario World: The overworld theme is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island: The minigame Dodge Fuzzy, Get Dizzy is a reference to the level, Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy.
 * Dr. Mario: Chill is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * Super Mario 64: The slide theme is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * WarioWare series: Wario's Character Museum bio mentions Wario being the president of the WarioWare, Inc.
 * New Super Mario Bros.: The overworld theme is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * Super Mario Galaxy: Gusty Garden is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * New Super Mario Bros. Wii: The castle theme is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * Super Mario 3D Land: Players enter the game modes in a similar fashion players enter levels in this game. The main theme of this game is also playable in Rhythm Recital. Various sound effects have been reused from this game as well.
 * New Super Mario Bros. U: The underwater theme is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks.
 * Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon: Poltergust 5000 sound effects are used in the minigame Jewel Janitors.
 * Super Mario 3D World: Samurai Smackdown is themed after Hands-On Hall. Super Bell Hill is one of Rhythm Recital's tracks. Light Boxes make a return in King Boo's Light Smite.
 * Mario Party 10: Artwork and character animations has been reused from this game.
 * Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash: Bowser Jr.'s artwork has been reused from this game sans the tennis racket.