Honestly, people were pretty harsh on the Nintendo 3DS era of Mario Party. When Mario Party Island Tour dropped in late 2013, the franchise was in a weird spot. NDcube had recently taken the reins from Hudson Soft, and everyone was still reeling from the "car" mechanic in Mario Party 9 where everyone moved together. Island Tour was a return to solo movement, but it did things differently. It wasn't trying to be Mario Party 2. It was trying to be a handheld game you could play on a bus.
That distinction matters.
If you go back and look at the Metacritic scores, they’re sitting in the mid-60s. Critics hated the luck-based boards. They hated the lack of online play. But if you actually sit down with a copy today, there is a weird, chaotic charm here that the "polished" home console versions sometimes miss. It is a game designed for short bursts of absolute nonsense.
The Boards in Mario Party Island Tour Actually Had Personality
Most Mario Party games follow a standard formula: get stars, use coins, win. Mario Party Island Tour threw that out the window for almost every board. Instead of a uniform goal, each of the seven boards has its own specific win condition.
Take Perilous Palace Path. It’s the closest thing to "classic" Mario Party, but even then, it’s a literal race to the finish. You aren't hunting stars. You’re just trying to survive the clones and the traps. Then you have Banzai Bill’s Mad Mountain. This board is basically a game of "chicken." You have to decide whether to hide in alcoves or risk moving forward, knowing a giant bullet might reset your entire progress. It’s frustrating. It’s mean. It’s exactly what the series should be.
Rocket Road is probably the most unique of the bunch. It replaces standard dice with boosters. You’re multiplying your rolls to blast toward the end, and it feels more like a math-based racing game than a traditional board game. It’s short. You can finish a round in 15 minutes. For a handheld game, that’s actually a feature, not a bug.
People often complain that these boards are "too linear." They are. But linearity allows for a different kind of tension. In a circular board, you can always catch up eventually. In Island Tour, if you see your friend approaching the finish line, the panic is real. There is no "next lap."
StreetPass and the Lost Art of Handheld Connectivity
We don't talk enough about how much Nintendo leaned into the 3DS hardware features. Mario Party Island Tour used Download Play, which was a godsend for kids (and broke college students). You only needed one cartridge for four people to play. That is an insane value proposition that Nintendo doesn't really offer anymore in the Switch era without everyone owning the game or a "Lite" version.
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The StreetPass Minigame is another relic of a better time. You’d walk around, pick up data from other players, and then battle their "shadows" in minigames. It was a passive way to keep the game alive. Today, the StreetPass community is mostly dead unless you’re at a gaming convention, but the fact that it was integrated so deeply shows that NDcube understood the platform. They weren't just porting a console experience; they were building for the 3DS.
The Minigame Quality Gap
Let’s talk about the minigames themselves. There are 81 of them. Some use the gyro sensor, some use the microphone, and some are just classic button mashers.
- Choicest Voice: You have to imitate a character's voice into the mic. It’s goofy and feels like something out of WarioWare.
- Buzz-Fill: A weirdly satisfying game about filling a beaker with bees.
- Starship Strike: A 3D space shooter that actually makes decent use of the 3DS depth slider.
There is a tactile variety here. While modern entries like Super Mario Party Jamboree have more "refined" games, Island Tour felt experimental. It wasn't afraid to be a little janky if it meant trying something new with the hardware.
Why the Luck Factor Isn't the Dealbreaker You Think It Is
A common criticism of Mario Party Island Tour is that it’s "all luck." Critics pointed to the Bowser’s Peculiar Peak board, where the goal is literally to not get to the end (because Bowser is there), and the dice rolls are heavily manipulated.
But here’s the thing: Mario Party has always been a digital version of Sorry! or Candy Land. It’s a social equalizer. If you want a game based purely on skill, you play Smash Bros. or Mario Kart. You play Mario Party to watch your friend get screwed over by a random dice roll at the last second.
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Island Tour leans into the "party" aspect by making the boards fast and the punishments severe. It’s a "mean" game. It rewards risk-taking, even if that risk doesn't always pay off. In a world where modern Nintendo games often feel like they’re holding your hand, there’s something refreshing about a game that is perfectly happy to let a CPU Luigi ruin your entire afternoon because of a bad roll.
Kamek’s Carpet Ride and Hidden Depths
One of the best boards that people overlook is Kamek’s Carpet Ride. It’s not about racing to the end. It’s about landing on specific spaces to earn "Just-Right" points. You have to use specific cards instead of dice to control your movement.
This board actually requires strategy. You have to look ahead, count spaces, and sabotage your opponents' ability to land on their target. It proves that the developers weren't just lazy; they were trying to segment the game. You want pure chaos? Play Banzai Bill. You want to think? Play Kamek.
The Bowser Tower Grind
For the solo player, Island Tour offered Bowser Tower. It’s a vertical climb where you face off against clones in minigames. It’s not groundbreaking, but it provided a sense of progression that was missing from the earlier handheld entries like Mario Party DS. You’re unlocking bubble collectibles and memories, which, sure, are just digital trinkets, but it gave you a reason to keep the 3DS charged.
The Reality of 2026: Is It Still Worth Playing?
If you find a copy of Mario Party Island Tour in a bargain bin today, grab it.
The 3DS eShop is closed, so physical copies are the way to go. While it doesn't have the "prestige" of the N64 classics, it is the perfect "travel" game. It boots up fast. The minigames are snappy. The visuals, while dated compared to the Switch, have that bright, saturated Nintendo charm that holds up better than the "realistic" attempts of the Wii U era.
The biggest hurdle is the lack of online play. You really need people in the same room. But if you have a group of friends who still have their 3DS systems tucked away in a drawer, a four-player session of Island Tour is a chaotic blast. It’s a reminder of a time when Nintendo was willing to be a little weird with their biggest franchises.
How to Get the Most Out of Island Tour Today
If you’re diving back in, don't play it like a standard Mario Party. Embrace the gimmicks.
- Use Download Play: Don't make your friends buy the game. One cartridge is all you need for the full multiplayer experience. It’s the game’s best feature.
- Toggle the AR Features: Some minigames use the AR cards that came with the 3DS. If you still have those, it adds a layer of "2011-era tech magic" that is fun to revisit.
- Start with Star-Crossed Skyway: It’s the most balanced board for newcomers. It uses "Mini-Stars" which feels like a bridge between the older and newer styles of play.
- Ignore the "Pro" Meta: There is no "pro" way to play Island Tour. Just pick Peach or Waluigi and prepare to lose friends over a Banzai Bill blast.
The game isn't perfect, but it’s a fascinating piece of Nintendo history. It represents a transition point for the series—a bridge between the experimental Wii era and the "back to basics" approach we see now. It's loud, it's fast, and it's occasionally very unfair. In other words, it's exactly what a Mario Party game should be.