'Mario Party: Star Rush' doesn't make you wait your turn
Finally, a board game where everybody plays at once.
The mini-game mayhem of Mario Party can be a lot of fun, but the franchise has always suffered from its board game origins: when it's not your turn, there's nothing to do but wait. With Mario Party: Star Rush, that changes -- Nintendo's next entry in the series does away with individual player turns in favor of a more hectic group "scramble" turn. In other words, Mario Party is getting a fast-paced upgrade, and that's a good thing.
Nintendo kind of snuck the announcement of the new 3DS game in under the rug, hiding it at the end of a press release for the new Zelda game -- but the game looks like a fresh take on a old idea. The group mini-games are still the main focus, but the game board no longer has set paths. Instead, characters can move across at tiled landscape at will, and every player moves simultaneously. This opens the game up to more robust strategies, like choosing to start the 'boss fight' minigame right away.
If you're not a Toad fan however, there is a trade-off: Star Rush's main mode is called Toad Scramble, and everybody plays as the anthropomorphic mushroom man. The other Mario characters still play a major role as recruitable Ally characters, but aren't technically playable themselves. I guess that settles the argument of who gets to be Luigi.
Mario Party: Star Rush will be available on 3DS on November 4th.
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