Mario Party: Island Tour Reviews

Mario Party: Island Tour is ranked in the 14th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Jan 27, 2017

"Strategy has been removed."

Review in Finnish | Read full review

Feb 9, 2014

Slow animations make these already mundane board games not worth a purchase

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4 / 10.0
Feb 5, 2014

Island Tour retards the Mario Party formula, removing all the new features of Mario Party 9, while giving very little back to help keep players engaged.

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Cubed3
Top Critic
6 / 10
Feb 1, 2014

Want to play a title where there is no guarantee of winning, no matter how good a player's skill level? Then Mario Party: Island Tour is something to pick up. Fun is there to be found, in small pockets of good mini-games (although not consistent or regular), but - as a big fan of Mario Party in general - this isn't the greatest of games.

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Alan Bell
Top Critic
6.9 / 10.0
Jan 29, 2014

Fun in the (rare) right circumstances.

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GameGrin
Top Critic
6.5 / 10.0
Jan 20, 2014

Mario’s detours from platforming have always been hit and miss, and Island Tour, sadly, hasn’t reached the top of that scale. It’s an enjoyable experience, let down by limited multiplayer options and a general lack of replayability.

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Jan 15, 2014

Ultimately, however, it feels like going on an island tour in a hot and cramped bus that's travelling at 10mph. There are things to see and fun to be had, but only if you're prepared to wait for it.

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5 / 10
Jan 14, 2014

Mario Party: Island Tour is ultimately disappointing. It looks and sounds like a first-party Nintendo product but a great deal of the fun has been stripped out of it by tedium. The best way to experience the game also requires each participant to own a 3/2DS which makes it one of the most expensive multiplayer experiences out there (but cheaper for it being download play enabled).

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5 / 10
Jan 10, 2014

Plenty of honest effort has been expended here, but Mario Party has never seemed like a sensible kind of game to turn into a portable title.

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5 / 10.0
Jan 7, 2014

Mario Party: Island Tour is too random for its own good.

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Nintendo Enthusiast
Ryan C.
Top Critic
6 / 10.0
Dec 19, 2013

The Mario Party franchise and I have always had a rocky relationship. I love its charming aesthetics and generally fun mini-games, but its focus on luck and random “surprises” always left a sour taste in my mouth. My favorites were the N64 titles, with sprawling maps and mad dashes to the power stars. Later entries tried to change the formula with varying success. Island Tour once again tries to shake things up ever so slightly, and again, has varying success.

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5 / 10
Dec 12, 2013

Mario Party: Island Tour never seems a natural fit on the 3DS. It feels more like the game has been hammered into shape to fit as well as it can on the platform. Yet, with no online support and inconsistent mini-game quality, those concessions just aren't enough to warrant the franchise's move to handheld.

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7 / 10.0
Dec 10, 2013

The simplified objective makes for a more fun experience, and I wish they made more Mario Party games on the console in this style. That being said, it still is just Mario Party for a handheld console. Don't expect anything more than that. .

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Dec 9, 2013

Mario Party: Island Tour fails to innovate the franchise and comes across as a major misstep.

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7.5 / 10.0
Dec 4, 2013

What could and should be a worldwide spectacle is confined to a house party, that much of the time may include only you and three AI competitors. If you have the hardware and bodies to fill this party then buy this game immediately. If not, you might want to wait for a price cut.

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5 / 10.0
Dec 3, 2013

A game with some neat ideas, but one that ultimately doesn't work on a handheld. Take out the party mode, add online multiplayer, and a formidable game may appear.

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3.5 / 5.0
Nov 27, 2013

The Mario Party series has been around for a long time now, yet even after so many iterations, it doesn't feel like each subsequent entry is a departure from its predecessor. In some cases, that is a good thing, but in Mario Party's case, it needs more than new music and a spin on game boards to evoke a sense of innovation. The mini-games must be more than simple variations of past offerings or lackluster uses of system features (like the touch screen and microphone). And the series absolutely needs online multiplayer, no exception. That said, I still had fun with Mario Party: Island Tour, and it was nice to have a brief but satisfying match while out and about.

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4 / 10.0
Nov 27, 2013

The only true merit of Mario Party: Island Tour is the ability to play Mario Party with your local friends on the 3DS. As long as they have a 3DS and are close-by, playing via Download Play is fairly quick and painless. However, the lack of online play and the overall single-player experience is a pretty big bummer. Unless you’re desperate and need a quick Mario Party fix on the go, stick with a console version if you can.

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Nov 27, 2013

The variation in objectives stretches past the typical bored-game rigmarole and into uncharted territory that frequently invites cruel, comeback-heavy sabotage.

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USgamer
Top Critic
Nov 26, 2013

You might add a little to the score if you’ve got friends who are frequently ready and willing to play, but Mario Party: Island Tour ultimately feels par for the series’ course. It’s still good, but is mostly hurt by a higher barrier to entry for multiplayer, a lack of continuing the push towards truly "Mario" feeling mini-games, and the series’ ever-present dominance of luck over skill.

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