Mario Party: Star Rush

Mario Party: Star Rush is a party game for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the second Mario Party game released for the system after Mario Party: Island Tour, and the fourteenth game overall. 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 Mario characters from the start, take control of a color-coded member of the Toad species and collect Mario characters around the board. Also unlike previous installments all players move at one turn, streamlining the gameplay.

However unlike the previous three entries in the series, Mario Parties 9 and 10, and Island Tour. This game has a mode called Star Rush, that returns to the old gameplay formula seen in all installments until Mario Party 8 and'' Mario Party DS. ''As such, players are able to move on their own,  playing along with the gimmicks of the boards in order to get the most Stars and win the game.

Gameplay
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 and Coinathlon, with both modes having different ways play a minigame; in Toad Scramble, 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 Mario character, instead, starting out with a colored member of the Toad species, corresponding to a player; said 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 Mario character, including Toad himself as an option if players wish to play as a Toad in other modes.

Star Rush on the other hand is a bit of throwback. To an extent, the old form of gameplay seen in the Mario Party entries before 9, has been brought back and modified a small bit. For one, players can now move freely without waiting for their turn and can travel in any direction on the board, for two, minigames can only be activated after two turns are taken instead of one. However it still keeps the social, strategic gameplay in which everyone travels on their own across the different eight boards of the mode in search of Power Stars  by rolling Dice Blocks with numbers 1 to 10 and moving around spaces that can either help or hinder the players. Like in Mario Party 8, spaces take different shapes depending on the board, and each board has an unique gimmick to it in order to get a Star. Only one board features the classic method of buying scattered Stars by paying 20 Coins. Additionally, the last five turns event returns, and similarly to Mario Party: Island Tour, it gifts the losing player a rare Toy for use, and allows them to choose the minigame. The losing player will also have to choose a special event at random (such as extra example) like in past games.

Party Modes
Ten different 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, players will have the option to fight against an even harder version of the final boss.

Toad Scramble
=== "Fight in an all out Quartet Duel Match, in order to steal 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. === The central mode of the game, Toad Scramble has the players start out as four different colored Toads. All with Star Hats,  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, where 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 on a different spot. Up to five bosses can appear on a board. When a player plays against a boss, other players need to tap  to travel to the boss space to participate as well.

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 each others' 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 the 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.

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 Luigi's Monstrous Mansion featuring Peepas impersonating as allies and punishing players that pick them up or rising lava in Insulting Inferno 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 minigame 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 other rivals if other players have rivals; 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 rivals.

In the final board, 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 boards) for the following criteria being met. Three of each are chosen at random: After these have been rewarded, 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 much Stars earned, players can earn a Star Rush or, with many Stars earned, a Super Star Rush, where the game then marks maps that have these accolades won in.
 * 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 used the most items.
 * 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.

"Compete to collect the most Stars! Grab coins from Blue Spaces and battle it out in so many different minigames!  Exchange your coins for Stars with these Coins!"- Star Rush pause description
The gameplay of Star Rush, follows the tradition of the Mario Party games prior to 9. Up to four players must collect the most Power Stars on the eight giant boards, that have many different events going on under the amount of turns, chosen by the player. The only main difference is that instead of the characters each having a turn. The characters can now move freely, without waiting. Each character rolls a 1-10 dice while moving across the board.

At the end of two turns, a minigame occurs: the type of minigame depends on the spaces players land on, Blue or Red (Lucky spaces translate to Blue Spaces, Unlucky spaces translate to Red Spaces. Event, Duel, and Friend/Foe Spaces are randomized.) If all four characters get the same color, the minigame is 4 player. If three characters get one color and the fourth gets another, the minigame is 1 v 3. If two players each get one color, the minigame is 2 v 2. Duel Minigames can activate if a player either lands on a Duel Space, or uses the Duel Glove to "duel" a random player for coins or Stars. Battle Minigames also occur at random intervals in the middle of the game, having each player give up a specific amount of coins, and having the, battle it out for who gets a share of the coins through a minigame.

During the Story Mode, Boss Minigames also exist at the end of each board, where the player must battle the boss in some kind of minigame in order to win and proceed.

Every board in this mode, has its own sort of Star collecting gimmick, where there are so many different ways to collect Stars. One is the normal way, which is exclusive to one board in the game. Where players, simply find a Star and collect it for 20 Coins. Another is a new way, where the goal of the board is to catch Funky Kong and give him 30 Coins for a Power Star, while avoiding Wingo, who will give the player a Dark Star instead, or just simply subtract the amount of coins the player has.

Before the last five turns starts, a mini-event occurs, and the player in last place gains a random Toy as a little helpful hand, and allow the player to select the change to the board. the coins received/taken away from Blue and Red Spaces are increased by two, and landing on the same space as someone will trigger a Duel Minigame between the two players. During the last turn, all Toys cannot be bought in the shop and after all turns are up, the Bonus Star ceremony will play out (if it is turned on), and then the player with the most Stars and Coins will become the Star-Rusher.

The bonus starts are: After getting first place in a board in Story Mode, the player will face a boss, otherwise they will receive a Game Over and be forced to replay the board. After beating the boss, the player moves on through the mode to the next board, however if they lose, they will be given the options to replay the boss and try again or quit.
 * Minigame Star: It is given to the player who has won the most coins from minigames.
 * Toy Star: It is given to the player who used the most toys. Only counts if the player has used the Toys, and not just bought or obtained them.
 * Event Star: It is given to the player who has landed on the most happening spaces.
 * Marathon Star: It is given to the player who advanced the most spaces. Using other means to skip spaces such as certain balloons or certain happening spaces does not count. Double and Triple Dice Block Balloons, however, can be used to accomplish this star.
 * Shopping Star: It is given to the player who spent the most coins on balloons. Simply visiting shops doesn't count.
 * Red Star: It is given to the player who has landed on the most red spaces.

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 === 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. 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 on, the harder the challenges get.

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

Solo Modes
A single player mode that follows the game's storyline. The player is put through the seven main boards of the game, requiring them to win a Battle Royale on each and defeat its boss in a minigame to continue to the next board. CPU difficulty will increase as the player progresses, and the game can be saved at any time.