The other big change of simultaneous movement really helps speed things along, with full games taking roughly 15-30 minutes. Although some thematic variety is missing since the whole mode is centered around navigating a grid, there are minor cosmetic elements that do a good job of fleshing out the maps.

And if variety is a concern, there’s 15 different maps to play on. Previous Mario Parties felt stagnant and constraining, whereas Toad Scramble allows for more experimentation. The main elements of travelling around a board, battling bosses and winning minigames and stars remain, but the free movement it offers is such a refreshing change. Toad Scramble, the game’s major selling point, has finally let NDCube experiment with the Mario Party formula yet maintain the series’s feel. Thankfully, Star Rush is filling a need that its 3DS predecessor Island Tour fell well short of meeting, and finally gives the 3DS a quality minigame collection. If friends aren’t having fun and talking smack with each other, then it’s hard to keep going to the party. We’ve covered Mario Party: Star Rush extensively in the past both after E3 and at Gamescom, but the biggest test for any Mario Party is how it plays with friends.

This title lifted that feeling and brought the wackiness of Nintendo based minigame parties in a new package for all to enjoy. The previous Mario Party on the 3D handheld barely left an impression on me and I felt mostly bummed while playing it. Within the several hours that I played, it became clear how the Nintendo 3DS really needed a game like this. All that remained was playing it with friends, having a good time and mostly talk a lot of smack against one another. After a couple of extensive hands-on impressions with Mario Party Star Rush, I have seen most of what the game had to offer me.

Mario party star rush all characters