Mario Party: Island Tour Reviews
Mario Party: Island Tour’s single-player campaign is laughably bad, and the ambitious, content-rich multiplayer options and unique game boards are ultimately dragged down by mostly boring minigames and unfortunate system-jerking motion control. A group of friends might only have fleeting good times with this collection.
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.
Mario Party: Island Tour is too random for its own good.
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).
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.
The variation in objectives stretches past the typical bored-game rigmarole and into uncharted territory that frequently invites cruel, comeback-heavy sabotage.
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.
Good luck finding three friends that will waste their time with this
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.
Mario Party: Island Tour fails to innovate the franchise and comes across as a major misstep.
Slow animations make these already mundane board games not worth a purchase
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.
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.
"Strategy has been removed."
Review in Finnish | Read full review