Games

Mario Party: Island Tour lets you take the fun on the road with your Nintendo 3DS system! Face off against friends and family in the all-new, ultimate Mario Party – a portable minigame extravaganza that’s bursting with gameplay possibilities. If you’ve never played a Mario Party game before, you’re in for a treat. There’s always something new to see on the Party Islands. In this ultimate showdown you can take on the road, blaze through the 7 new game boards, some of which take just minutes to play. Wrangle goombas and blast out of cannons as you tilt, tap, and draw through new minigames harnessing the unique functionality of Nintendo 3DS. Compete in new multiplayer modes including mind bending puzzles, minigame challenges, or enter a whole new reality with AR Card play for up to 4 players*. Whether in single or multiplayer, this is a portable party that never ends.

KEY INFORMATION The wild multiplayer action of the Nintendo GameCube hit, Mario Power Tennis, returns with added Wii controls and widescreen presentation. Game storyline: The stars of the Mushroom Kingdom are gathering for a tennis tournament, and the competition is going to be fierce. Using the Wii Remote, players actually become their Mushroom Kingdom heroes on the tennis courts. Every lob and smash a player makes is translated into motions by their characters on the court. How to progress through the game: Play multiplayer games with friends or progress through tougher and tougher tournaments in singles and doubles play. As players win tournaments, clear minigames or challenge Gimmick Courts, they unlock new characters, courts and challenges. Characters: Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Shy Guy, Koopa Troopa and other Mushroom Kingdom characters. Special powers/weapons/moves/features: With simple swing movements, players can hit topspin, backspin and smashes, and by charging up, they can hit with varying degrees of power or perform other character-specific moves that make even crazier things happen on the court.

The games include volleyball, hockey (both field and ice), dodgeball, and basketball in the vein of the two companies' earlier collaboration, Mario Hoops 3 on 3. There are power-up items which give advantages to the team that attains them. Each game has an Exhibition mode, in which up to four human players compete in individual matches, and Tournament mode, where up to three players play matches in a tournament structure, with modes of difficulty named Mushroom, Flower and Star. Mario Sports Mix also includes several party games based on the mechanics of each sport. Smash Skate is based on Hockey, Bob-omb Dodge is based on Dodgeball, Feed Petey is based on Basketball, and Harmony Hustle is based on Volleyball.

Take to the pitch as Mario Strikers Charged arrives with a new roster of features. The follow-up to "Super Mario Strikers" delivers bigger shots, massive hits and the chance to play gamers around the world. Mario Strikers Charged is high-impact, all the time. More captains, more playing fields, more sidekicks: It's crush or be crushed in this wild kickfest.

Mario Super Sluggers, the sequel to Mario Superstar Baseball, continues the arcade-style gameplay of Mario sports games. Mario and friends are invited to the Baseball Kingdom to play games against each other. When Bowser hears this, he immediately interrupts the party. There are several game modes to choose from like in the previous game. In Exhibition mode, players play a single game against each other. Players can choose different options such as how many innings to play, if captains can use star powers (each captain has a different star swing and pitch), and toggle error items off and on (error items can be thrown at fielders). The single-player Challenge mode is different this time around. Instead of choosing a team captain, players start with Mario who must find teammates to take on Bowser Jr. and Bowser. Teammates aren't unlocked by playing a game rather they only join the team by clearing certain objectives. Most of the action takes place on areas with an overhead perspective; each area is based around a team captain. Each captain has a special ability to find teammates and coins, which are used to buy items to aid in the quest or in a game against Bowser Jr. or later against Bowser. More coins can be gotten in minigames. Toy Field mode is slightly different to the one featured in Mario Superstar Baseball. Like in the GameCube game, players take turns batting to get points; a turn is granted to whomever grabs and holds the ball after a certain amount of time has passed. Unlike in the previous game, however, fielders can attack each other to steal the ball away from whomever has it. The batter can also throw items at the fielders to cause them to drop the ball and grant the batter another turn.

The superstars of the Mushroom Kingdom have gathered on the diamond to power up America's game! Pick a captain, fill your team with your favorite characters from the Mario universe, then hit the field. Each captain has a special Star Skill for pitching and batting, so whether you're hurling fireballs as Mario or blasting curving banana-ball dingers as DK, you've never played ball like this!

Shots are performed by pressing one, or both, of the two main buttons (A or B), which make the ball spin in different ways. Pressing a button twice strikes the tennis shot with more power and spin. Additionally, pressing the two buttons in a different order can result in a different type of shot altogether, such as a lob or drop shot. all 4 buttons can be pressed at the same time to hit a very powerful smash shot. The longer a button is pressed before contact is made with the ball, the stronger the shot will be. The control system allows players of all levels to become familiar with the mechanics of the game within a very short time, whilst also encouraging advanced players to take advantage of the variety of shots on offer to come up with different strategies for winning points. A total of seven types of shot are possible using only the one main button of the controller. These gameplay mechanics were later brought to the other games of the Mario Tennis series in Mario Tennis GBC, Mario Tennis: Power Tour and Mario Power Tennis.