Mario Party: Island Tour

Mario Party: Island Tour
Developer	Nd Cube, Nintendo SPD
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo 3DS
Release Date	US November 22, 2013 CH January 10, 2014 PAL January 17, 2014 JP March 20, 2014 KO March 20, 2014
Genre	Party
Rating	ESRB: E

Mario Party: Island Tour is a party game released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013 and 2014. It is the twelfth installment of the Mario Party subseries (not counting the arcade and e-Reader releases) and the third handheld installment. It is also the first installment of the series on the Nintendo 3DS.

Story

Mario and his friends are invited and then forced into a vacation at the Party Islands. Bowser is jealous of them, so he builds Bowser's Tower and throws his own evil party. He locks all of the fun from the islands within bubbles and creates bubble clones of Mario's group to guard his tower. The player character and a green Toad work together in scaling Bowser's Tower to stop him.

Gameplay

This installment's gameplay is a variation of the traditional gameplay from the early games. Four players take turns in making their way through a board. However, instead of collecting items, their goal is to race to a set destination on the board. The different boards of the game also feature different variations on the rules. Like other Mario Party games, Island Tour features a variety of minigames, some of which utilize the features of the 3DS such as the AR, gyroscope, stereoscopic 3D, mic and touch screen. The game supports up to four players through local multiplayer or Download Play.

This game has several different modes. In addition to the standard Party Mode and Minigame Mode, there is also a single-player story mode known as Bowser's Tower, which involves completing various minigames while scaling the tower in question. The game also utilizes the 3DS's StreetPass feature to compete against others in special minigames.

Legacy

Sequels

The next Mario Party game was Mario Party 10 for the Wii U in 2015. The next handheld installment would be Mario Party: Star Rush in 2016.