Need something short and sweet for a group of younger players? Pick Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain, which is all about the luck of choosing whether to recklessly rush to the finish or play it safe and hide from giant bullets in caves. Each board is rated based on how heavily luck factors into play, how much skill has to do with winning, and whether the board features more or fewer mini-games. There's not an awful lot of innovation in Mario Party Island Tour, but it can still be a lot of fun, especially in download play mode among a group of friends each with their own 3DS. Players also earn points as they progress that can be spent on dozens of memorabilia bubbles.

StreetPass mini-games let players engage in simple asynchronous activities against people they pass on the street (no personal information is exchanged). Kids also can choose to play specific mini-games they like or to embark on a 90-minute quest to win 30 mini-games in a row on the way to the top of Bowser's tower. There are seven themed boards, most with the goal of simply reaching the finish line first. Some of these mini-games will be pretty familiar, such as those that involve pushing or punching friends off moving platforms in an effort to be the last one left standing, while others are entirely new and make good use of the 3DS's unique capabilities, such as drawing constellations among stars to match those shown on the top screen.

Nintendo sticks to its proven formula one more time, offering up multiple game boards, each with their own themes and objectives and all populated with some 80 new mini-games. MARIO PARTY ISLAND TOUR is the third hand-held edition of Nintendo's popular party game series and the 12th overall since the franchise launched 15 years ago on Nintendo 64.

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