Mario Party: Star Rush

Mario Party: Star Rush
	; For alternate box art, see the game's gallery.
Developer	NDcube; CAProduction
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Release date	October 7, 2016[?]; October 8, 2016[?]; October 20, 2016[?]; October 20, 2016[?]; October 20, 2016[?]; November 4, 2016[?]; April 27, 2017[?];
Language(s)	English (United Kingdom); English (United States); French (France); French (Canada); German; Spanish (Spain); Spanish (Latin America); Italian; Dutch; Portuguese (Portugal); Russian; Japanese; Korean;
Genre	Party
ESRB:	- Everyone
PEGI:	- Three years and older
CERO:	- All ages
ACB:	- General
USK:	- All ages
GRAC:	- All ages
GSRR:	- Six years and older
Gmedia:	- Three years and older
Mode(s)	Single player, Local multiplayer
Format	Nintendo 3DS: Game Card Digital download
Input	Nintendo 3DS: Gamepad
Serial code(s)	LNA-CTR-BAAE-USA;

Mario Party: Star Rush is a game for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the second Mario Party game released for the system after Mario Party: Island Tour, and the fifteenth game overall (twenty-second if arcade games are counted). The game, as with most entries of the Mario Party series, is a multiplayer-oriented party game, where up to four players compete in an interactive, digital board for the most stars. What sets this game apart from its precedents in the Mario Party series is its main mode, Toad Scramble, where, instead of players using designated Super Mario characters from the start, take control of a color-coded member of the Toad species and collect Super Mario characters around the board. Also unlike other Mario Party games, all players move at one turn, streamlining the gameplay. The board designs are non-linear as well, also unlike previous boards in the Mario Party series, where players travel in a straight line around the boards. This concept is retained in Mario Party: The Top 100 in the Minigame Match mode and Super Mario Party in the Partner Party mode. The game is compatible with amiibo, which have various different uses depending on the mode that is played on. The game required 3018 blocks (386.3 MB) for a digital download from the Nintendo eShop until it was removed from the service on March 27, 2023 after its discontinuation. Players who purchased the title before this date can still play it as long as it is on their Nintendo 3DS device.

Mario Party: Star Rush also had a version of the game called Mario Party: Star Rush - Party Guest. This app could be downloaded off the Nintendo eShop for free. While it could be played alone with very restricted minigames, the primary focus of the app is to play full multiplayer with other players with only one game cartridge. If a player bought Mario Party: Star Rush, they could transfer saved data from Mario Party: Star Rush - Party Guest to the game; however, Mario Party: Star Rush - Party Guest was also removed from the service on March 27, 2023 after its discontinuation, making this version no longer available to download as well, although players who purchased it before this date can likewise still play it as long as it is on their Nintendo 3DS device.

Gameplay

Gameplay of Toad Scramble, the main mode.

Mario Party: Star Rush's board gameplay is the main focus of the game. Players traverse around a board, using a Dice Block numbered from 1-6. Due to the nature of the boards, most spaces landed on the boards in Mario Party: Star Rush do not trigger a special effect, while there are very few spaces that do: for example, specifically landing on a ? Block space grants the player a random item for use. Minigames can be collected from playing Toad Scramble, Balloon Bash, and Coinathlon, with both modes having different ways play a minigame; in Toad Scramble and Balloon Bash, for example, players need to pass a Coin Balloon to trigger a minigame.

Toad Scramble is the only mode where players cannot choose a designated Super Mario character, instead, starting out with a colored member of the Toad species, corresponding to a player; said Super Mario characters can be used only when collected in the board, set as the leader, or with a use of an amiibo. In all other modes, however, players can choose and play as a specific Super Mario character, including Toad himself as an option if players wish to play as a Toad in other modes.

Game modes

The main hub of the game.

Ten game modes appear in Mario Party: Star Rush. At the beginning, the Toad Scramble mode is the only mode players can play, however, players unlock other modes as they play the game.

The game features a hub for a main menu, where players can visit areas by either using touchscreen controls or moving around. Toad is the default character, but players can change their hub character by visiting the Character Museum. When players reach Level Star, a giant gold Mario statue can be seen over the Character Museum.

Toad Scramble

“Compete to win the most Stars! Nab Stars by getting 1st place in boss battles and by trading your coins at the end of the game.”

—Toad Scramble pause screen description

A player acquiring Yoshi in Toad Scramble.

Up to four players can enjoy Toad Scramble, the central mode of Mario Party: Star Rush. Each player in the beginning starts out with a member of the Toad species, where their colors correspond to each player: red being Player 1, blue being Player 2, green being Player 3, and yellow being Player 4. Players are then notified of the appearance of a boss character in the map, as well as potential ally characters that the Toads can recruit. The goal of the game is to amass the most Stars, and players can retrieve Stars by placing first in boss minigames. Players can face off against bosses by landing on the space in front of them. Every time a boss minigame is completed, a new boss appears on the board in a different spot. Up to five bosses can appear on a board; the number of bosses faced is dependent on which board was selected. When a player plays against a boss, other players need to tap to travel to the boss space to participate as well.

An Ally Duel taking place between Donkey Kong and Yellow Toad

When players recruit ally characters, the ally characters help out by increasing dice roll amounts with their own special Dice Blocks and helping the players earn points simultaneously in Boss Battle minigames. Ally characters have certain field abilities unique to them as well; for example, Mario can stomp on Goombas in grass while Princess Peach can make flowers bloom. Whenever a player recruits an ally character, they can switch characters before the start of any turn in order to directly use them. Up to four ally characters can be recruited for each team, having five characters in total at play. Players can duel for each other's ally characters by participating in an Ally Duel, either by landing on the same space as another player or by using a Duel Glove. When an Ally Duel is triggered, one of the several events happen. One event is a Dice Block roll: the two players roll a die; whoever rolls higher wins. Another event has players choose cards with numbers facing upside-down; whoever picks a higher numbered card wins. The last event is stopping a displayed, then hidden timer for 5 seconds: whoever stops closer to 5 seconds wins. When players win an Ally Duel, they can select and steal an ally from the losing player. If the losing player does not have an ally character, the winning player earns coins instead. If two characters pass through an ally at the same time, the lower-ranked character receives the ally.

Dotted throughout the board are coins that can be collected by running through them. Players can land on special spaces as well, such as a ? Block, which gives players an item that can help players and hinder their opponents. Players can land on a Lakitu space, where at a fee of one coin, players can travel to another player's space, where an Ally Duel occurs if this happens. Cannons can blast players to marked locations elsewhere on the board. Some boards come with unique features, such as World 2-2 featuring Peepas impersonating as allies and punishing players that pick them up, or rising lava in World 4-1 that burns players who are too low in elevation to other areas of the board as well as taking away some coins.

When a player passes through a Coin Balloon, the player earns coins, as well as starting a minigame. Similar to the Battle minigames of previous Mario Party installments, the player who landed on the space can choose a minigame out of four randomly selected, rather than traditionally letting a roulette decide which minigame to play. Duel Balloons function in a similar manner, except the player who wins first place in the minigame can select and steal an ally from another player; if the minigame ends in a tie, a card duel similar to the one in an Ally Duel is played to determine who can steal allies.

In the final board of each World, Bowser always appears as the final boss. When a Boss Battle is about to be started with him, he punishes the player furthest from him in a variety of ways, decided by a roulette similar to events from Bowser Spaces from previous entries. If a player does not have the items Bowser demands, Bowser either does nothing or rewards them instead, depending on the penalty.

At the end of the game, the game rewards bonus coins (if the game is not played on any World 0 board) for the following criteria being met. Three of these criteria are chosen at random:

Wanderer Bonus: Awarded to players who started the least Boss Battles.
Loner Bonus: Awarded to players who have spent the least amount of time with any allies.
Slowpoke Bonus: Awarded to players who moved the least in the board.
Sightseer Bonus: Awarded to players who have moved the most in the board.
Item Bonus: Awarded to players who have collected the most items, including items collected by characters' abilities.
Balloon Bonus: Awarded to players who have popped the most balloons, including Coin Balloons and Duel Balloons.
Duel Bonus: Awarded to players who have won the most Ally Duels.
Champion Bonus: Awarded to players who have won the most minigames.

After these have been awarded, players are awarded with a Lucky Ally bonus for coins, which can be any ally partner, including amiibo characters. Coins are then converted to Stars, with every 10 coins equaling one Star. Whichever player has the most Stars at the end of the game is the winner. Depending on how many Stars were earned, players can earn a Star Rush or, with many Stars earned, a Super Star Rush, and the game marks maps that these accolades have been won in.

Coinathlon

“Play minigames to earn coins as you race around a track! Each coin moves you forward one space. Use items to help you reach the finish line first!”

—Coinathlon pause screen description

Toadette participating in Coinathlon with three other players.

In a mode that up to four players can play, players must collect as many coins as they can in a set of three 60-second designated coin minigames labeled under "Coin Chaos" to progress a set number of laps around a map. As players collect coins in minigames, they proceed through the map as the minigames happen. Players can earn a variety of items via collecting coins; when characters collect enough coins, a transparent box containing an item shows up. Players can retrieve the item by touching the box, and when players press , they can momentarily use that item to either stun their opponents or help them gain an advantage in collecting coins. The items available are Coin Trio, Blooper, Lava Bubble, Lightning Bolt, Kamek, Double Medal, and Coin Bag, and the frequency of these items change depending on the placement of the players. Initially, the three minigames start out as Level 1 minigames, but after one cycle of all three minigames, a Level 2 variation of the three minigames are played, where there are more hazards and coins to collect, and it goes up to Level 3, the most challenging variation of the minigames. Whichever player crosses the finish line first wins the game. Records are kept for the time spent on a course; when players complete a course faster, the high score will be overwritten by a new one.

In longer games, Bowser can show up to force players to play Bowser's Gauntlet minigames; players first receive a warning when a Bowser's Gauntlet minigame will occur, which occurs before the next minigame. Players need to survive the minigames; when players get eliminated, they get sent back a number of spaces, depending on how early they got eliminated. If players survive the minigame, they receive no penalty.

Coinathlon comes in two modes. One mode is Free Play Mode, where players can choose the number of players, laps, and minigames available. In the other mode, Rival Race, players can take on a series of challenges to try to earn 10 consecutive wins. The further the player gets in the challenge, the harder the challenges get.

In multiplayer versions of this mode, players cannot play against computer opponents.

Mario Shuffle

Mario Shuffle in play.

“Be first to get your character pieces to the other side of the board! Move strategically, and don't let rivals land on your spaces!”

—Mario Shuffle pause screen description

Mario Shuffle is a two-player oriented game mode that focuses on amiibo functionality. Players race across a linear, one-way board to a goal with amiibo. The red team tries to make it to the very right of the board, while the blue team tries to make it to the left side of the board. Players roll two dice, and allow the outcome of the dice to affect two figurines. When a player crosses an opposing piece, the player jumps over the piece, making that piece unable to move for one turn. If a player lands on an opposing piece, the player knocks the piece back to the start of the board. Players can land on spaces that either make the piece continue further or move back, depending on the directions on the space. If players do not have amiibo, a cardboard cut-out of a player character is used instead. A total amount of six characters can be used, each split into two teams of three. The first team who makes it across the board to their goal wins the game.

Unlike other modes, CPU opponents are decided randomly and cannot be manually changed.

Balloon Bash

This section is about the game mode in Mario Party: Star Rush. For the minigame in Mario Party 10, see Balloon Blast Bash.

“Compete to collect the most Stars! Grab coins from Coin Balloons, and battle it out in minigames. Exchange your coins for Stars by grabbing Star Balloons.”

—Balloon Bash pause screen description

Gameplay of Balloon Bash.

Up to four players must collect coins and stars on a mini board with 10, 20, or 30 turns and minigames after a player touches a coin balloon. The gameplay is very similar to Toad Scramble, except players navigate through smaller boards and are able to use designated Super Mario characters rather than a player Toad, and the main goal of the game is to collect the most Stars from Star Balloons that can appear in parts of the board. Players can earn Stars if they spend 10 coins on arrival with a Star Balloon. Star Balloons can come in twos or threes, and players can purchase multiple of them at once if they have the funds. When a Coin Duel is initiated, just as an Ally Duel for Toad Scramble, whichever player wins the Coin Duel earns coins.

Similar to Toad Scramble, in the last parts of the game, the game rewards the players in last place with an item, such as a Duel Glove or extra coins. At the end, results are tallied up, with Bonus Stars given depending on the players' performances. Most of these bonuses are the same from Toad Scramble, barring some features exclusive to Toad Scramble. Also similar to Toad Scramble, players can earn Star Rushes and Super Star Rushes if they have enough Stars.

Rhythm Recital

Players in Rhythm Recital.

Up to four players can cooperate and play classic Super Mario tunes using the touchscreen or by tapping with correct timing. Players can initially choose an instrument from the orchestra instrumental set, which each has a different set of notes while the percussion set is unlocked when the players achieve an A rank on 5 different songs. After every song, the player is graded due to their performance: attaining a lot of "Perfects" grades players higher while missing some notes degrades the score. Players can select CPU players to fill in player slots, however, they have no effect on the performance and are therefore props. There are ten songs in total:

"Overworld Theme" from Super Mario World
"Main Theme" from Super Mario 3D Land
"Overworld Theme" from Super Mario Bros.
"Super Bell Hill" from Super Mario 3D World
"Overworld Theme" from New Super Mario Bros.
"Slide" from Super Mario 64
"Castle Theme" from New Super Mario Bros. Wii
"Underwater Theme" from New Super Mario Bros. U
"Gusty Garden Galaxy" from Super Mario Galaxy
"Chill" from Dr. Mario

In-game text

♪Perform to the beat of the music notes!

Controls

/ – Perform

Challenge Tower

“Climb to the top while avoiding hidden Amps! Yellow, red, and purple spaces mean there are Amps nearby, so climb with caution!”

—Challenge Tower pause screen description

Luigi in Challenge Tower.

A single player mode where the player climbs a tower with glowing spaces on it. Players need to pay attention to the color of the spaces as they ascend, while also avoiding Amps on their way up to the tower. Blue spaces are safe to proceed in any direction, yellow means that there is an Amp in one direction, red means there are two Amps in two directions, and purple means there are three Amps in three directions. Black spaces are the ones that are not climbed on at the moment. X spaces mean that these spaces cannot be climbed on. Players can mark spaces with a checkmark by pressing , , , and buttons to help mark locations with Amps in them. Amps cannot be adjacent to each other. At first, players have the options to climb the following towers: Beginner, which has 30 floors, Intermediate, which has 50 floors, and Expert, which has 70 floors. If all are played, players can unlock the Master Tower, which has 500 floors. In the Master Tower, players can save their game for every 100th floor reached. When players clear the Master Tower, they unlock the Tower Cup.

Boo's Block Party

“Rotate the blocks, and line up three or more of the same number. Clear a shiny block to clear all other blocks of that same color.”

—Boo's Block Party pause screen description

Boo's Block Party.

A puzzle game that involves spinning sides of a number block numbered 1-4 to earn points. Points are earned when 3 or more sets of numbers match. When players break enough blocks, they can choose to either send the blocks to the opponent's screen or shuffle the blocks around randomly. The game ends when the blocks reach the top of the screen and stay past the top for three seconds. In single-player mode, a player can go for a high score for as long as they can without letting their blocks go past the top of the screen.

Character Museum

Main article: Character Museum

Viewing Princess Peach in the Character Museum.

The character museum allows players to view characters collected in the game. The playable characters can be chosen as the hub character. amiibo options are also found here: when players use amiibo, they unlock stamps. The quality of the stamp is dependent on how long players touch the touch screen. Players can choose to reapply stamps if the outcome is not desired. When players unlock stamps, they earn an extra set of points to increase their Party Level. If players have unlocked the Staff Credits, it can be viewed in here. Players can also play minigames from here, by viewing the minigame appearances tab for respective enemies.

Names in other languages