Best Mario Party: Island Tour Boards

This is about the boards and I gotta say, Nintendo did a really good job with the boards here. Unlike in Mario Party 9 (which did have great boards as well), in which all the boards follow the same gameplay, all the boards in Mario Party: Island Tour each have their own unique type of gameplay which makes them very original. Some are more luck-based, some are more skill-based, some have cards to move, some have dice blocks, some have rocket fuel, and so on. So with that being said, here's the list.
The Top Ten
1 Bowser's Peculiar Peak

Bowser's Peculiar Peak, a lava-based Bowser board, is my personal favourite board in Mario Party: Island Tour, of all the seven boards in this. The main thing that makes all of the boards in Mario Party: Island Tour stand out is their gimmicks and gameplays. Bowser's Peculiar Peak, or Bowser's Bizarre Volcano for us European gamers, has a very fun, and while not original, a very fun type of gameplay. Literally every other board in this game is about moving forward to get to the goal first, but this is the opposite day.

You must do everything to make you don't come first to the goal. You must make sure that you are last at all costs, and considering there's a lot of luck involved and a bit skill as well, this makes the gameplay very chaotic and heart-beating. While it's true that not a lot of skill is involved and a lot of luck is found on this board, it's not JUST luck which is good. And the thing is, all the different events here are super interesting, you can't miss a turn by a COM player because it's super exciting. You will never know if they land on something and switch place with you. It could mean either good or bad.

Minigames will be played after each turn and depending on which place you got in, you may get an extra dice block. First place receives no dice block and the lower you came, you get bigger dice blocks, like, 2nd place gets 1-2 dice block, 3rd place a 1-3 dice block, and 4th place a 1-6 dice block. And these dice blocks are combined with a regular dice block so you roll both dices and the numbers are combined. And make sure to get no bonus dice block because as I said, you are suppose as far away from the goal as possible. However funny enough if two dice blocks roll the same number, you won't have to move at all, so this makes these dice blocks somewhat of a treat as well, very luck-based, but fun.

The first one to accidentally make it the the "goal" will have to do a Bowser Challenge. In the quickest way... more

2 Kamek's Carpet Ride

This spooky mansion board is one that I think a lot of classic Mario party fans would appreciate a bit. Why? Because it's the most skill-based board. By far. Ok, in-game it's said that "Shy Guy's Shuffle City" has more skill but I disagree a lot. I mean this board barely has any luck. I love this board as well. This board quite skill-based to say the least. It's generally short (but not too short and fast).

In this board, you use cards to move. You will always have three cards, and you use one per turn, you won't run out of cards though as a minigame will play after each turn you will be able to choose a new card. 1st place chooses first and so on. And as I said, you will always have three cards, and it's about choosing right card to land on right space. The cards will have different numbers on them and depending on which number it is, you will move that much spaces. Some cards have a roulette that decides the number which makes it sorta luck-based but still not really.

The one thing that really makes me love this board though is the overall layout. There are two halves of it. The first half is outside two mansions on like a spooky playground or something. It's generally short and at the end there will be two spaces. Both have the pics of a mansion, one is green and one is red / orange. As you'll notice just next to these spaces there will be two mansions that look exactly like those on the spaces. You must be the first one to land on either of them and depending on which of these spaces you land on, the second half of the board will take place in the mansion whose space was landed on. That's what I love about this board. The gameplay will change every time you play this board. It makes it super exciting.

These two mansions aren't just copies of each other either. No no. They are very different from each other. The orange one is very bright inside and has a lot of move forward spaces, being like the lucky mansion. This allows you to... more

3 Perilous Palace Path

My third favourite board in the game goes to Perilous Palace Path. This is the longest board and kinda the most basic one as well. However that's what I love about this board. It's like the beginner board for new players and while the board is a bit basic it's got tons of different events and gimmicks that make this board so fun nevertheless.

Basically it's the opposite of Bowser's Peculiar Peak, as you here must reach the goal first to win and the dice block mechanic apppears here, and this time, 1st place get's 1-6 dice block in order to have a higher chance to roll a number to first get to the goal. Items appear here as well, and all items have different purposes.

Just like with Bowser's Peculiar Peak and Kamek's Carpet Ride, I can't tell what this board is based on. I think this board may actually not be based on much. It most closely resembles like, outside Peach's Castle as the goal in the board is Peach's Castle but I don't think the board is still based on anything noteworthy at all otherwise.

I love the music. It doesn't really resemble anything in the mario series but it just sounds so nostalgic and memorable for me. It's a very happy song to say the least.

4 Shy Guy's Shuffle City

This is an interesting one as it's the only one that CANNOT be played with COM players. You have play it with real people. Not only that but it was to be three our four people. Two is not enough and that is understandable considering the gameplay. This makes this board a little hard to play most people usually only own PS4's and Xbox Ones and stuff, and not many people in your neighbourhood might own a 3DS. I actually managed to play this board though as two of my siblings own a 3DS and that way we could play this board at least. Even more lucky is that they like this board so yeah I can play this board a lot.

Anyways, this board's gameplay resembles a bit Kamek's Carpet Ride as you use cards to move here as well and you must get to the end. However there is no such thing as a second half here, and it's actually quite different despite resembling a bit that board. Everyone will start with three cards as usual but there's a twist as one player will get a bowser card. This is not a good card, you see every third round there will be something called a "Bowser Penalty" and whoever has the card will be affected by it. And if you have the bowser card you cannot win the game.

However after every round players will trade a card with each other. You can't see which card you take though, so if unlucky you may take someone else's Bowser card, but this is lucky for them. This is a super fun mechanic and very exciting method and it really makes this board a lot of fun.

I've said how a lot of boards in this game don't really resemble much places in other mario games but this board really goes even further. This board is basicallt like some sort of casino. Super fun and original idea for a mario party game I must say. It might not be based on anything but it's fun nevertheless.

The music is decent. I never really cared that much about the music here but I like it a bit. It's a bit hard to explain what it's like, but sounds like something that would... more

5 Star-Crossed Skyway

Here's a pretty great board and an awesome throwback to Mario Party 9. Very nostalgic for a mario party 9 fanboy like me. It's the second longest board and has a gameplay I know a lot of classic mario party fans won't like. No there's no car sadly but this game is about mini-stars. Yeah that's right. Basically this board is divided in four seperate sections. At the end of each section, there will be four mario "enemies" that will hold a certain amount of mini-stars. Depending on who stands first in line, the first player to make it to the end of the section will recieve as many mini-stars as the "enemy" first in line and so on. However there are some twists to it as well so that it won't get too boring.

I personally love this method and all the twists. The one thing that brings this board down though is that minigames sometimes occur way too often. There are a lot of minigame spaces and a lot of different paths and COM players will always make sure to land on a minigame space and it can get very, very annoying at times. But I still like the board.

It's safe to say that this board is based on Mario Party 9 indeed. While the music used isn't from there, it's more of a calm theme that feels nice, this board is still based on that game considering it uses Mini-Stars. I mean so obvious. Even some soundtracks in the game are taken from that game so obviously. Overall it's a good-to-great board for me.

6 Rocket Road

Overall this is my least favourite board in the game. I still don't actually hate it, I can play it every now and then, I respect all boards in the game but I can safely say this one barely had much effort at all. Let's just get this straight. This board is the most linear, literally, just a big line in the middle of space and this board can can even be completed under twenty minutes, it can be as low as ten minutes. This makes the board to be one of those you may play when you don't have much to do but just want to play something through fast.

You move with a dice block with the help of rocket boosters. The dice block has the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, so as you see, if unlucky, you may not move at all. However there are these bonus boosters and depending on how many you have, you can multiply the dice rolls with the number of boosters you have (although five is the highest). So if lucky you could move a total of 25 spaces. However, 0 multiplied with anything will always be zero. So at the same time you have a risk of just wasting all the boosters.

This is generally irritating and like Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain, it's all luck, no skill. Actually this one has some more skill than Banzai Bill's mountain though I feel like which is a plus. Despite this I put it below that board because at least the whole gameplay aspect of that board was sorta fun and the the banzai dice block made it quite chaotic and exciting. Here it's just stale. Despite all of this negativity I have on the board, I still think it's decent actually. Why? Well you'll notice in the next two paragraphs.

What this board is based on is something I adore. This board may just be a road in space, but when you think of space in Mario one thing that comes to mind is Super Mario Galaxy. Yes this board is based on that masterpiece. You can see planets and stuff and at the end of the board you can even see the comet observatory from the first galaxy game which is awesome. However that... more

7 Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain

This is a luck-based one, and personally this one's just decent. Not any higher than that. It's definitely the most luck-based one as well. It's all luck, no skill. Lots of people hate this one. I still think it's pretty fun at times. It's the shortest board in the game. You must get first to the goal, with a dice block.But wait, the #6 on the dice block is replaced with a Banzai Bill. If you roll a "banzai bill", a cannon will send one and send you back to the start of the board.

There are two halves of the board. A lower and a higher on this mountain. A cannon can be found at the end of each half. When the game starts only the lower cannon will be active, but once the first player reaches the middle, there will be button de-activating the lower cannon and activating the higher cannon instead. If the higher cannon is activated, all players will be sent back to the middle of the board and lower cannon will send everyone to the start of the board.

However, next to these spaces, there are these "safe" spaces as well, where you can go instead in case a banzai bill is launched, as if you are there, you won't get sent back. However this will mean you have to walk more spaces to reach the goal than if you had moved forwad. You can either go safe but further away from goal, or get as close to the goal as possible and have the risk of getting sent to the start again. So yeah. Personally I think this is a sorta fun idea as it plays with the "risky but closer" and "safe but further away" method but this is sorta annoying. With the banzai bill dice block it makes this board super luck-based and no skill is involved in the slightest. Yeah sure there's minigames but they only come every third round which can be irritating. And what you win in the minigames is a certain number of spaces you can move. First place moves the most, last place moves nothing. Because of this I consider it to be a decent board only.

I can safely say this board is based on World 6... more