The best Mario Party games have triumphed through inspired board designs, clever hidden features and unexpected reversals of fortune. The sad thing is, however, that the board games don’t make you smirk, smile, snort or chortle nearly often enough. Time and you set him off, causing any players in the way to be blastedīack to the start of the current section. One board even takes place on a series of causeways under fire from the Switches scattered around the board let you switch the order, meaning you can ensure that smug-looking Toad that just breezed past you is in for a nasty surprise when he reaches the goal. Another is more about collecting tiny stars than finishing first, with each section of the board ending in a prize-grab where the first player normally gets the bigger prize. One sees you making your way through a the koopa wizard Kamek’s creepy mansion by drawing cards, each one giving you the chance to move a set number of spaces or take a gamble on a range like 1-6 or 4-6. To be fair, the different boards mix it up a little. The winner gets some kind of bonus, then it’s on to the next player. In some cases this might be a mini-game, where you’ll square off against each other to find out who can score the most when lassooing the mushroom-like Goombas, or who can get through a set of sliding-tile puzzles first, or who can last the longest in a shrinking arena full of deadly ghosts. Each of you takes turns to roll a virtual dice and move so many spaces, with the chance that you might land on a square that sends you backwards or forwards, or kicks off some other special event. The main game sees up to four players - human or virtual - tackling a range of boards, with the normal aim being to make it from start to finish before your rivals. It’s a fun game in specific circumstances, but a lot of the time you’re left wondering why it has been made this specific way, and for whom. At their worst, however, they’re a crushing bore, and Mario Party: Island Tour falls nearer the wrong end of the spectrum. The combination of Mario-style virtual board games and quickfire mini-games strikes a chord with Mario’s younger fans and their families, and at their best the games have been a decent laugh. With nine home console outings and two previous handheld efforts, it’s safe to say that someone out there likes a Mario Party.
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