It never replaces the local experience, but an online options would have been a fantastic addition. I’m sure everyone and their mum has a 3DS in further afield locations, but in the more rural parts of the UK, getting three 3DS owning friends together in the same room isn’t always an available reality.

That said, I feel like online play would have helped. Only one friend needs a Mario Party: Island Tour cartridge to facilitate a full four player game, making it easier than ever to get a match going. With separate screens there are fewer shared emotions, less connection between your competitors, and most importantly, no hilarious moments where you can troll your friends by ripping out their controllers at a decisive moment.Īt least local multiplayer is still included, made easier by a life-saving decision to include download play. Even though multiplayer is supported between multiple 3DS systems, something is lost without the single screen and console being shared by your fellow players.

Mario Party is about the local, connected experience. The third time Mario Party has graced a handheld system, it’s about time someone at NDCube realised it just doesn’t work. With my escalating love of the series and NDCube in mind, I struggle to come to terms with how the developer has dropped the ball so significantly with Island Tour. 'With my escalating love of the series and NDCube in mind, I struggle to come to terms with how the developer has dropped the ball so significantly with Island Tour. Despite the massive changes to NDCube’s first party game on the Wii in 2012, Mario Party 9 was a blast, with the fresh ideas and more strategic design decisions arguably refining the local multiplayer shenanigans further than ever before.

Granted, many of Hudson’s staff jumped to NDCube along with the Mario Party franchise, but I was still concerned the series’ winning formula would be tampered with. I was concerned when developer NDCube took over from series originator Hudson Soft. And that makes Island Tour’s subpar quality all the more painful. Yes, Mario Party is effectively a board game made digital, but I love it. Mario Party has always been a series that divides me from my peers, as for all its dodgy design choices and repetitive sequels, it’s a series I can’t get enough of.It’s all about those clutch plays, the local multiplayer banter, and that moment when you rob a star from an old friend at the last moment, creating a rift in your friendship like only the best board games can.

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