Also, for anyone wondering how to extract models from the .zdat archives: use QuickBMS and this script. You can also modify the files, which opens up possibilities for mods. There are also .bmdl files NOT in an archive, so those are easy to deal with.

Gotcha.

To focus solely on the minigames would work like a charm, but so would have a mode to play through the boards in order, maybe even in random order to spice it up. Given how the whole game is written, the boards wouldn't need more of a story anyway.

How exactly is focusing solely on the minigames a recipe for disaster? Mario Party Superstars did exactly that and general consensus is that it's one of the BEST games in the entire series. And for the record, Bowser's Tower definitely could've been better executed, but I've definitely played far worse story modes in the series than that (looking at you, MP3's Story Mode).

Not to mention, with the way the boards are completely linear in Island Tour compared to MPDS, it's not like they really could've recycled the style of DS' Story Mode one way or another.

Bowser's Tower is a dumpster fire that shows a missed opportunity. ND Cube could've made it a story mode to rehash the one from mario party DS with the difference being that you compete with the bubble characters. But NO, they just had to focus strictly on the minigames.

And you successfully did

I'll see if I can rip a bunch of models from this game - players, NPCs, bosses, the like, though I sadly can't promise animations which could unfortunately stop me from re-ripping the already ripped models. My guess as to why they weren't previously ripped is the materials; all the un-ripped characters have one material, with the eye texture being blended on top of the base texture via separate UV maps, and that might not have been figured out.

UPDATE: Mario's up, as well as the three bosses from earlier. My other submissions (and the initial Mario) got rejected for the meshes having multiple UV maps, so I'll need to go back through and make adjustments accordingly. I also must mention that I pretty much have every boss and NPC ripped (aside from a few ones that seem to be in a minigame-specific .zdat rather than the universal NPC .zdat), so it's just a matter of tweaking them for TMR's standards.

UPDATE 2: We got more models coming! Most other playable characters are here, and I'm starting to submit more NPCs: particularly the ones with singular UV maps, as that's the easiest to deal with.

The only Mario Party game I've ever played. My Nana got this game for me on my 11th birthday :D

Models with intact smd animations, doesn't get much better than this

@teh_supar_hackr
Yep.

Bubble characters?

Fuck! The one thing I needed from this game (Tox Box) and they don't have it

more models soon?

Could you rip Bowser too?

Plz rip the rest of the playable characters