Rather than giving you a mini-game at the end of each round (which lets them be regularly spaced), mini-games here are only triggered when you land on a specific mini-game space. Mini-games are usually every player for themselves, which means everyone has a shot a victory.īut as anyone who's played a Mario Party game will tell you, it's not the board that's important - it's the mini-games, and it's here that Mario Party: Island Tour has taken a slightly unusual turn. There's a decent selection of characters to choose from too, from perennial bad guys Wario and Bowser, to mushroom man Toad, Princess Peach, the portly Mario himself, and everyone in between.

With support for four player download play, which lets four friends with four 3DSs play together with only a single copy of the game, this is one that's bound to go down well on long car journeys, or quiet family holidays, even if we do wish companies other than Nintendo would take advantage of the functionality.

As a game that's definitely best enjoyed with friends, a robust multiplayer offering is important, and thankfully, Mario Party: Island Tour doesn't disappoint here. While it may have a slightly different format, though, Island Tour ticks all the boxes you'd expect from a Mario Party - especially one that's on a handheld. Whether it's a simple dash across the cosmos in a straight line a course divided into sections, where reaching the end of the each section nets you a different number of stars depending on whether you came first, second, third, or, er, last or a stage where you simply have to pray that you'll manage to scoot along a cliff side without being knocked off, every board on offer follows a similar pattern.

Instead of long winded, go-around-the-board-several-times-buying-stars affairs, each course is now simply a race to the finish (much like the recent Wii instalments), with a variety of environmental hazards for you to trust luck to help you avoid along the way. While most Mario Party games have traditionally been fairly long winded affairs that revolve around travelling the board, collecting coins by landing on green squares, and then trying to buy as many stars as you can, Mario Party: Island Tour, the first 3DS Party, instead continues to try to take the series down a slightly different path. Handily, the game tells you roughly how long each board will take to complete.

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