Mario Party: Star Rush

Mario Party: Star Rush
Developer	Nd Cube, CAProduction
Publisher	Nintendo
System	Nintendo 3DS
Release Date	PAL October 7, 2016 JP October 20, 2016 US November 4, 2016 KO April 27, 2017
Genre	Party
Rating	ESRB: E

Mario Party: Star Rush is a party game released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2016. It is the fourteenth installment of the Mario Party subseries as well as the third handheld release and th‏e second game for the 3DS.

Gameplay

This game follows the traditional gameplay of the Mario Party series, but with some variations. One is that all characters move for their turns at the same time, and the other is that the boards' spaces are not arranged in linear paths. Rather, there are full areas of spaces that characters and traverse, with only a few of the spaces having any special effects. Additionally, the only mode initially available in the game is Toad Scramble, in which players control one of four differently colored Toads in navigating boards. Toads can find and recruit the other playable characters on boards, and each character has a special ability they can use on the board as well as unique dice blocks. The goal is still to collect the most stars, and there are also bosses that can appear on boards.

There are other modes that can be unlocked by playing Toad Scramble, in which players can choose among the standard Mario Party cast rather than being restricted to playing mainly as Toads. One is Coinathlon, where up to four players can compete in races by collecting coins through minigames. Another is Mario Shuffle, a two-player competiton that utilizes amiibo. Then there is Balloon Bash, where players compete for stars by seeking out Coin Balloons and Star Balloons. There was also a rhythm game called Rhythm Recital, in which up to four players could work together to play different musical tracks from throughout the Super Mario series. Challenge Tower was a mode in which a single player has to scale a tower, while Boo's Block Party was a puzzle game. There was also a minigame mode and a museum.

As with the previous title, Star Rush is compatible with the 3DS's Local Play and Download Play features to enable up to four players to play together. This game also introduced a free downloadable app called the Mario Party: Star Rush Party Guest app, which allowed players who did not own the game to participate in more modes over multiplayer, with the option to transfer the data to their own copy of the game.

Legacy

Sequels

The next Mario Party game to be released was Mario Party: The Top 100 for the 3DS in 2017, which compiled minigames from the console Mario Party games. The next main Mario Party game would be Super Mario Party in 2018.