One board’s goal is to collect mini-stars, another board focuses on items that affect players, etc. It’s almost as if they took each aspect of the original Mario Party and chopped it up into different modes. I had kind of hoped for a mode that resembled the original premise of Mario Party - screwing over other players to collect the most coins and stars. Estimated play times are also shown, which I found helpful but somewhat unreliable. For example, the Rocket Road game is rated at two skill, four minigame, and five luck because it’s basically a game where you roll a die to get to the end of a line, but also contains many tiles that make you switch places with opponents (i.e., lots of luck involved).
Each party mode is rated in three different categories: Skill, Luck, and Minigames.
Party mode focuses on the core of the Mario Party series - characters progress on a game board with the goal of either getting to the end first or collecting the most mini-stars. Mario Party: Island Tour presents a variety of game modes: eight main party modes, three minigame modes, and StreetPass minigames.