Mario Party: Star Rush is a party game for the Nintendo 3DS and the fourth handheld entry in the Mario Party series. Up to four players, controlled by humans or AI, compete across grid-like boards and a wide selection of minigames with the goal of collecting the most Stars. Unlike earlier games in the series, players roll dice and move around the boards simultaneously rather than taking turns, a change intended to make matches faster and better suited to portable play. It offers several modes, including a main mode in which players recruit additional characters as allies, and supports local multiplayer, including options that let several people play from a single copy of the game.
Mario Party Star Rush gets rid of a few bad ideas from the previous games in the series, but it just doesn’t have the staying power to keep players come back for more week after week.
Mario Party Star Rush’s modes range from OK to uninteresting, and even the fun mini-game challenges can’t make up for the boring overall package. The sheer repetition of events is a major problem that saps the excitement out of this party. After a few trips through Mario Party Star Rush’s modes, you’ll have seen nearly everything it has to offer.
Mario Party: Star Rush can be a charming title at times, and definitely shows some promise. However, the game tries too hard to separate itself from its predecessors which causes its mechanics to fall under the pressure of trying something drastically new.
Overall, Mario Party: Star Rush has some fun and original mini-games, and looks great. Toad Scramble’s new fast-paced simultaneous is enjoyable enough, but it’s too bad it can’t be played online.
What started as a fantastic idea ended up as a pile of wasted potential.
