Review: Mario Party: Star Rush (3DS)

Play with up to four players simultaneously, exploring different worlds as you freely move your Toad across maps and recruit Mushroom Kingdom allies. Break free of turn order, with all player plotting strategy, rolling dice, and moving… all simultaneously! Team up with your friends in the real world to compete or cooperate to take down bosses in each game board.

Pros:

• Familiar Mario graphics we are used too.
• 3021 Block download size.
• Full 3D implementation.
• Game play is that of a board game with plenty of mini games.
• Local wireless support for up to 4 players.
• Download play= A cool feature is you can have 3 players download and play the game with you locally. In short you can play up to 4 players locally with just one copy of the game.
• Character museum is where you can view character models and bios.
• Amiibo support= You can stamp the corresponding Amiibo in the character museum and earn bonus points. Amiibo can also be used to ern double items in the mini game section.
• Play games and earn points to level up your party level.
• Party level unlocks new characters and mini games.
• AI characters will fill the player count and can which character the AI plays can be chosen.
• Three difficulties= Normal, Hard, Very hard and a random option.
• Toad scramble is like your main game mode. 4 worlds with 3 levels within each. You roll a dice and move around the board collecting coins/powerups, Recruit characters to your party and play mini games.
• Boss fights happen in the middle of a world and at the end. With every boss fight you can actually practice the fight before doing it for real.
• Unlock more game modes which can be selected from the main menu. Mini games a plenty grouped into genres like coin dash or balloon popping themes.
• Really easy to pick up and play.
• Infinite replay ability.
• The game on the whole works well.
• Boss fights have a feature where the person who triggers the fight goes straight in, Other players have to smash a button to join quickly. The further away you are the longer you have to smash it.
• All players move on the board at the same time.
• You can play the game competitively or cooperatively.

Cons:

• Slow game play in Toad scramble.
• Outside of Toad scramble it is just a mini game collection.
• Some mini games are boring and very plain.
• The rolling of the dice for AI feels very cheap and they always get the perfect roll.
• Not much fun alone.
• Difficulty settings seem to only increase the AI cheapness of the dice roll and lucky board placement.
• The replay ability is highly impacted if you are playing solo all the time.