Best Mario Party: Island Tour Boards

Bowser's Peculiar Peak, a lava-based Bowser board, is my personal favorite in Mario Party: Island Tour out of all seven boards. The main thing that makes all the boards in Mario Party: Island Tour stand out is their unique gimmicks and gameplay. Bowser's Peculiar Peak, known as Bowser's Bizarre Volcano to European gamers, offers a very fun, though not entirely original, gameplay style. Unlike other boards where you aim to reach the goal first, here you must try not to reach the goal first.

You must ensure you come in last at all costs. There is a lot of luck involved, and a bit of skill as well, making the gameplay very chaotic and heart-pounding. Although a lot of luck is involved, it's not purely luck-based, which is good. The different events here are super interesting, and you can't miss a turn by a CPU player because it's always exciting. You never know if they will land on something and switch places with you, which could be either good or bad.

Minigames are played after each turn. Depending on your placement, you may get an extra dice block. First place receives no dice block, second place gets a 1-2 dice block, third place a 1-3 dice block, and fourth place a 1-6 dice block. These dice blocks are combined with a regular dice block, so you roll both dice and the numbers are added together. Make sure not to get a bonus dice block because, as I said, you are supposed to stay as far away from the goal as possible. However, if the two dice blocks roll the same number, you won't have to move at all, making these dice blocks somewhat of a treat.

The first player to accidentally reach the goal must do a Bowser Challenge. If you roll a 4 or higher, you lose the game, coming in fourth place. Bowser then announces the winner, who is the character furthest away from the goal.

I can't tell what this board is based on, but since it is set in a volcano full of lava and boardwalks, my first guess is World 8 in Super Mario 3D Land, as that was a... more

This spooky mansion board is one that I think a lot of classic Mario Party fans would appreciate. Why? Because it's the most skill-based board, by far. In-game, it's said that "Shy Guy's Shuffle City" requires more skill, but I disagree. This board barely involves any luck. I love this board as well. It's 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 always have three cards and use one per turn. You won't run out of cards because after each turn, a minigame will play and you can choose a new card. First place chooses first, and so on. It's about choosing the right card to land on the right space. The cards have different numbers, and you move that many spaces. Some cards have a roulette that decides the number, making it somewhat luck-based, but not entirely.

The thing I love most about this board is the overall layout. There are two halves. The first half is outside two mansions in a spooky playground or something. It's generally short, and at the end, there are two spaces, each with a picture of a mansion. One is green, and one is red/orange. The spaces correspond to two mansions that look exactly like the ones on the spaces. You must be the first to land on either of them, and depending on which space you land on, the second half of the board will take place in that mansion. This makes the gameplay change every time you play, making it super exciting.

These two mansions aren't just copies of each other. The orange one is bright inside and has many move-forward spaces, making it the "lucky" mansion. This allows you to move forward easily, but your opponents will also have an advantage. The green mansion is dark inside and has many move-back spaces, making it the "unlucky" mansion. This gives you a disadvantage, but the same goes for your opponents. It's awesome. I personally prefer the green mansion because it looks more beautiful to me, but that's just my... more

My third favorite board in the game is Perilous Palace Path. This is the longest board and kind of the most basic one as well. However, that's what I love about this board. It's like the beginner board for new players. 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. Here, you must reach the goal first to win, and the dice block mechanic appears. This time, 1st place gets a 1-6 dice block to have a higher chance of rolling 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 the outside of Peach's Castle, as the goal in the board is Peach's Castle, but I don't think the board is based on anything noteworthy 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.

This is an interesting one as it's the only one that cannot be played with COM players. You have to play it with real people. Not only that, but it has to be three or four people. Two is not enough, which is understandable considering the gameplay. This makes this board a little hard to play as most people usually only own PS4s and Xbox Ones, and not many people in your neighborhood 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 I can play this board a lot.

This board's gameplay resembles 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 that board a bit. Everyone will start with three cards as usual, but there's a twist: 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. If you have the Bowser card, you cannot win the game.

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. This is lucky for them. This is a super fun mechanic and very exciting, making this board a lot of fun.

I've said how a lot of boards in this game don't resemble many places in other Mario games, but this board goes even further. This board is basically like some sort of casino. A 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 it sounds like something that would play at a bar. It's pretty decent, I think.

I guess... more

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 style that 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 into four separate 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 receive as many mini-stars as the "enemy" first in line, and so on. However, there are some twists to it as well, so 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 different paths, and COM players will always make sure to land on a minigame space. 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. 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, it's so obvious. Even some soundtracks in the game are taken from that game. Overall, it's a good-to-great board for me.

Overall, this is my least favorite board in the game. I still don't actually hate it. I can play it every now and then. I respect all the boards in the game, but I can safely say this one barely had much effort at all.

Let's get this straight. This board is the most linear, literally just a big line in the middle of space. This board can even be completed in under twenty minutes, and it can be as low as ten minutes. This makes the board one you might play when you don't have much time but just want to play something quickly.

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. If you're unlucky, you may not move at all. However, there are bonus boosters. Depending on how many you have, you can multiply the dice rolls by 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 by anything will always be zero, so you also risk wasting all the boosters.

This is generally irritating. Like Banzai Bill's Mad Mountain, it's all luck, no skill. Actually, this one has some more skill than Banzai Bill's Mountain, which is a plus. Despite this, I put it below that board because at least the gameplay aspect of that board was sort of fun, and the Banzai dice block made it quite chaotic and exciting. Here, it's just stale. Despite all this negativity, I still think it's decent. Why? 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 isn't actually the best part.

That's the music. Ironically, while being the worst board in the game, it... more

This is a luck-based one, and personally, it'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 part of 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 a button deactivating 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 the lower cannon will send everyone to the start of the board.

However, next to these spaces, there are "safe" spaces as well, where you can go instead in case a Banzai Bill is launched. 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 forward. You can either go safe but further away from the goal or get as close to the goal as possible and risk getting sent back to the start. Personally, I think this is a fun idea as it plays with the "risky but closer" and "safe but further away" method, but this is annoying. With the Banzai Bill dice block, it makes this board super luck-based with no skill involved. Sure, there are minigames, but they only come every third round, which can be irritating. 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 a decent board.

I can safely say this board is based on World 6 from New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Like this board, that is a... more