Mario Party: Star Rush

, Princess Peach, Toadette, Donkey Kong, and four Toads battling King Bob-omb, one of the game's bosses|alt=Yoshi, Princess Peach, Toadette, Donkey Kong, and four Toads (colored yellow, blue, red, and green) battling King Bob-omb, one of the game's bosses Following the format of previous Mario Party titles, Mario Party: Star Rush is a party video game wherein up to four characters from the Mario franchise compete in a virtual board game. During board games, players roll dice and move around game boards interspersed with minigames. Mario Party: Star Rush features a total of 53 minigames, 12 of which are exclusive to the Coinathlon game mode. The main game mode is Toad Scramble, in which all four playable characters are different-colored Toads. There are five worlds and fifteen game boards to choose from, giving players the opportunity to earn coins. On each board, players are all tasked with collecting the most Stars, which can be earned by coming first in boss battles. In the Mario Shuffle game mode, two players are each given two dice and three cardboard cutouts representing different playable characters, taking turns rolling both dice and moving a character toward their opponent's side of the board. Mario Party: Star Rush is compatible with several of Nintendo's Amiibo, figurines that can be scanned to give players advantages such as unlocking playable characters, recruiting allies, and receiving special items. ==Development and release==

Nintendo announced Mario Party: Star Rush on June 14, 2016, in a press release for the 2017 Nintendo Switch title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild during its E3 2016 coverage. Video game journalists described the announcement as "hidden" and "buried" due to it appearing at the end of the press release. Additional details were shown in an official trailer the following day, including competitive boss battles and the ability to pick up allies in the Toad Scramble mode. Mario Party: Star Rushs removal of the series's traditional turn-based gameplay in favor of simultaneous movement was intended to make the game much more fast-paced and better suited for portable play. Following Star Rushs announcement, Engadget's Sean Buckley praised the "more hectic" simultaneous movement as a "fast-paced upgrade" that required less waiting from players. Buckley additionally complimented the non-linear game boards, writing that the new system "opens the game up to more robust strategies". Pocket Gamers Clement Renaudin also noted the removal of the car mechanic, as well as the new movement system for "opening up new strategies and possibilities like blocking other players". Mario Party: Star Rush was developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo as the second installment in the series for the Nintendo 3DS – following Mario Party: Island Tour (2013) – as well as the fourth handheld Mario Party title overall. Star Rush was released in Europe on October 7, 2016; in Australia on October 8, 2016; in Japan on October 20, 2016; and in North America on November 4, 2016. ==Reception==

Critical response Mario Party: Star Rush received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Sales In Japan, Mario Party: Star Rush sold more than 26,000 units in the first week of its release, placing it at #2 on the sales charts, behind Battlefield 1. This marked a significant decrease from the 50,000 units sold by the game's predecessor, Mario Party 10 (2015), as well as the 132,000 units sold by the previous handheld title, Mario Party: Island Tour, during their respective debut weeks in Japan. As of December 16, 2016, Mario Party: Star Rush had sold more than 88,000 copies in Japan. Legacy Mario Party: Star Rush was succeeded by Mario Party: The Top 100, a 2017 minigame compilation for the 3DS. This system would later return in Super Mario Party Jamboree, a 2024 title for the Switch, with players now recruiting allies by winning minigames. ==Notes==