Roulette Rush

Roulette Rush is an umbrella party game released for the GhostDrive console. Intended to be a love letter to the Mario Party series, primarily its entries on the Nintendo GameCube along with Mario Party 8 and Super Mario Party, it plays like an interactive board game with minigames in between turns, and features a cast of characters chosen entirely by .
==Opening Movie==
The game opens with a view of the gates of the Grand Carnival, with Bowser, Perry, Vividria, and Rigby walking through. Spotting an area labeled "Party Plaza", they run through, before the scene cuts to a view of Rogueport, with Rigby throwing a Star Orb at a space while giggling and moving forward two spaces. On the next turn, Bowser hits the Star Orb's space as he trips, letting loose a Star. As he lies on the ground, reaching for it, the Star floats towards Rigby as he chuckles.
The next scene depicts Sonic in a large robot of sorts, firing laser beams into an arena that Garrosh, an Inkling, and Turtwig are frantically running around in to avoid the lasers. Unfortunately, Turtwig isn't too lucky and is sent flying out of the area, sending Garrosh and the Inkling into a panic. Afterwards, the following scene has Venom waiting in line for ice cream in the Grand Carnival behind Diddy Kong, who's taking ages to order. Frustrated, Venom shoves Diddy aside as he points at a crudely made popsicle resembling Mario, with Diddy also trying to shove him aside simultaneously.
Afterwards, the following scene has Dr. Eggman using his Death Egg Robot to chase Sans, Robin, Stitch, and an Arwing within the Beltino Orbital Gate, with Eggman eventually colliding with their Landmaster-esque vehicle as they cower in fear. However, a nearby 9-Volt begins shouting at Eggman, and the two of them begin to bicker as the group in the Landmaster watch in confusion. Then, the opening movie cuts to a shot of all the playable characters together in the Party Plaza, looking around and smiling at each other. Then, they look up as the game's logo appears in the sky.
==Story==
===Premise===
After the events of Mario Party 8, MC Ballyhoo began to devise the biggest carnival of all time, one that would go across dimensions and bring in as many people as possible. Via his contacts from Flipside, he traversed the multiverse and brought in all sorts of individuals to help, most notably Isabelle, who'd act as his assistant, and both 9-Volt and Dr. Eggman, who'd help run the festivities in their own fashion.
During Ballyhoo's research, he managed to stumble upon a resource known as Fortunium. Known only as the "mineral of all chance", he believed it would make his carnival as enticing as possible. It was Fortunium that would allow for the Stars, Coins, and Orbs of the carnival to exist, albeit at a cost. According to ancient legends, should Fortunium be misused, the consequences would be dangerous. Tampering with Fortunium was like twisting fate to serve one's own needs. Fortunately however, Ballyhoo knew never to tamper with luck.
Once the festivities were set up, MC Ballyhoo commenced the start of the Grand Carnival, with characters from all sorts of franchises coming in. Would they find riches? Or would they be inconvenienced by bad luck?
===Solo Tower Story===
The Grand Carnival's visitors may have been unique in their backgrounds and pursuits, but they all had one goal in mind: securing the grand prize. Said prize was a secret however, with Ballyhoo's employees tightly guarding it. As the games went on however, Dr. Eggman began to speculate about the prize himself. Strangely, he wasn't told of it, presumably due to his past history with stealing objects. Thus, under the guise of it "being a great opportunity to research better partygoing", Eggman began to study the Fortunium that made up the resources fought over in the carnival, secretly intending to use it for his own pursuits.
As the player clears boards in the Solo Tower, they begin to notice an increasing number of Eggman Spaces on the boards, likely due to Eggman's research. By the time the final board is cleared and Ballyhoo is about to unveil the grand prize, Eggman attacks the main stage in his Egg Mobile, breaking open the box containing the grand prize, with the box's contents being shocking.
The prize was a personal teleportation device to allow for transportation between worlds.
As the crowd is consumed by the chaos, the player leaps up to the Egg Mobile, attempting to fight Eggman for control of it. However, in the process, a Fortunium-powered laser is fired at the teleportation device. A gold aura emanates from it as it begins to suck in everything, warping the landscape around it. The other large gateways the characters used to get to the carnival also begin to react strangely to the teleporter, with the whole carnival being consumed in the chaos. The last to be sucked in, surprisingly, are both the player and Ballyhoo, with Ballyhoo telling the player that he has a feeling something big is on the horizon. The duo are then sucked in as the screen fades to black, showing the following text:
For better, or for worse, the worlds involved in the Grand Carnival have collided.
What is their fate?
Who survived?
Those questions are best answered in a story intended for another day.
==Gameplay==
Roulette Rush is a party video game where the primary goal is to collect more Stars than your opponents, with the requirements to obtain them depending on the board chosen, as you land on spaces travelled to via Dice Blocks. At the beginning of the game, the board's objective and quirks are explained to you by Isabelle, followed by the rolling of Dice Blocks to determine the turn order. Players will then take turns to roll Dice Blocks and move across the board, taking on the effects of any spaces they land on, before a minigame begins after everyone's turn. Winning a minigame will grant you coins, which can be used to purchase items known as Orbs, pay for special quirks on the board, or even pay for a Star depending on the board.
However, several unique mechanics exist across all boards. For one, Dr. Eggman will have a constant presence on the board via Eggman Time, which causes a negative event of some sort to occur every five turns. In addition, when the game only has four turns left, a special Last Four Turns event occurs, which allows whoever's in last place to gain some sort of bonus via spinning a roulette wheel. And at the end of every game, three Bonus Stars are handed out if the setting is enabled, and are shown beforehand:
*The Happening Star is given to whoever landed on the most ? Spaces.
*The Minigame Star is given to whoever won the most coins from minigames.
*The Orb Star is given to whoever used the most Orbs.
*The Red Space Star is given to whoever landed on the most Red Spaces.
*The Running Star is given to whoever travelled the furthest distance.
*The Shopping Star is given to whoever spent the most coins in shops.
Roulette Rush also makes use of a companion app for smartphones which can show game information in the standard party mode, and can also be used for special minigames in the Smartphone Nexus.
==Gamemodes==
Roulette Rush's gamemodes are laid out within the hub world of the Grand Carnival, which can be freely explored. NPCs dot the carnival as well, and can be talked to. Alternatively, you can simply use a menu to access gamemodes.
===Party Plaza===
The Party Plaza holds the primary party gamemode, in which players battle it out for Stars. Three gameplay modes can be chosen after the board is chosen:
*The Battle Royale gamemode pits four players against each other.
*The Team Battle gamemode has two teams of two duke it out.
*The Duel gamemode has two players, and two players alone, playing against each other.
After the main gamemode is chosen, you'll have to decide on turns (Anywhere from 10 to 50), whether or not to add in Bonus Stars that are awarded at the end of the match (as well as which Bonus Stars to have), whether or not to allow character-specific Dice Blocks, and which minigames you want to see before you dive into the action.
In addition, a World Tour option is available, in which you'll decide on an order of boards, and then play through them all, swapping over after a certain number of turns.
===Smartphone Nexus===
The Smartphone Nexus is where the companion app for Roulette Rush comes into play, featuring a wealth of modes that use it. In a similar vein to many games on the Wii U console, most of the Smartphone Nexus's modes employ asymmetric gameplay, though some have everyone using the app.
Smartphone Modes 	Smartphone Modes
Party Master 	Party Master has one player using the smartphone app to control the main party mode while up to four others play normally, allowing for a truly customizable experience. The smartphone user is capable of adjusting the following on the fly:
*Stars, coins, and Orbs per player. This allows for on the fly adjustments to game balance as well as "injecting" specific Orbs into the game.
*Default special Dice Blocks.
*Which minigames will show up.
*Rolling back turns.
Eggman Party 	In a similar vein to the Bowser Party mode in Mario Party 10, Eggman Party has a player using the smartphone app to control Dr. Eggman in his Death Egg Robot. Using modified versions of the normal boards, players will be grouped together in a vehicle as they try to get to the end, away from Eggman. After all the regular players have moved, Eggman will roll his Dice Blocks to move, causing a 1 vs. 4 Minigame to be played should he catch up to the players. The vehicle team has hearts which are lost should they take damage in these minigames, and if a player loses all their hearts, they're out. Eggman has to defeat all the players in the vehicle team to win, while the vehicle team has to reach the end of the board.
Deception 	Inspired by social deduction games like Mafia, Werewolf, Town of Salem, and Among Us, Deception can be played with up to fifteen people, with smartphones used to designate player roles and manage turns. Up to three players will be marked as Killers, with the ability to kill other players each turn, and one will be marked as a Sheriff, able to observe others to see who is suspicious and who isn't. Play consists of a daytime and nighttime phase, with Killers voting on a target to eliminate, and the Sheriff investigating a target each night. When the day arrives, players will be informed of deaths and then put into discussion to try and deduce who is suspicious and who isn't, with players voting on who to "execute" and reveal. The game ends when all the Killers are found, or if they manage to kill everyone in their way.
Quiz Show 	Inspired by Kahoot!, each player will have to use the smartphone app to answer questions presented on the TV screen. Players can either use random questions, or create their own, and will receive more points for answering quicker.
Ghost Hunters 	Drawing from the Luigi's Ghost Mansion game in Nintendo Land, Ghost Hunters has one player controlling King Boo via smartphone while the others are on the TV. King Boo can only be seen on the TV screen by players flashing their flashlights on him (as well as on the smartphone screen), so you'll need to work together and sniff him out.
Impersonation 	Players must try to impersonate voice clips of various characters in the game using their smartphones' microphones. The closer the impersonation, the more points you score.
Find the Phone 	One player has to hide their phone somewhere in the room within the time limit, and the other players have to find it. The phone will let out a noise to help track it down.
1 vs. 4 Minigames	Play any 1 vs. 4 minigames here, in which one player uses a smartphone while up to four others use controllers.
===Solo Tower===
The Solo Tower holds the game's singleplayer/story mode, which consists of Duel-style games against another player on each board, with modified victory conditions and the addition of Solo Spaces on the board. Should those conditions be met, the game instantly ends and you move onto the next board. Along the way however, completing side objectives will add to your total score, making it something to come back to for those who want to unlock minigames or simply play for a higher score each time.
===Royale Arena===
The Royale Arena, inspired by Fall Guys, has one-hundred players competing in minigames and being eliminated if they're in last place up until there's a winner. This battle-royale-style mode is sure to get folks excited.
===Minigame Arcade===
Minigame Arcade is where players who seek to play minigames and minigames alone can find some fun. Various options are available:
Minigame Modes 	Minigame Modes
Free Play 	Free Play allows you to play any minigames you've unlocked without restrictions or rulesets.
Bridge Battle 	Players win minigames to proceed further along the bridge.
Dueling Tournament	Players compete in Duel minigames in a tournament structure, aiming to be the last one standing.
Decathalon 	Players compete in ten set minigames to obtain more points than anyone else by the end.
Ship Struggle 	Ship Struggle plays similarly to the board game Battleship, with players looking to strike at and take out enemy ships. However, to destroy enemy ships, you'll have to win minigames to land a hit, otherwise the shot will miss. Optionally, the Roulette Rush companion app can be used so that each player can see their own ships independently of the others.
===Online Pavilion===
The Online Pavilion allows access to Roulette Rush's online modes. While minigames can be played casually online, everything in the Party Plaza and Minigame Arcade can be played with friends, due to the issue of random players ragequitting if it was allowed with anyone.
===Gift Shop===
The Gift Shop is where you can spend the Roulette Points you obtain in the other modes to buy:
*Specific minigames.
*Music and sound effects to listen to in the Sound Test.
*Figurines of characters that can be put on display.
===Bonus Lounge===
The Bonus Lounge is where several special minigames can be played, some of which use the GhostDrive Pro Controller. They're generally more "meaty" than other minigames, with longer durations and adjustable rules.
===Options Office===
The Options Office is where game settings are adjusted.
==Characters==
Roulette Rush features a diverse roster consisting of a variety of characters from all sorts of media, all chosen by Krexxal. Each character also has their own special Dice Block, which can be used instead of the regular one if the need arises provided that they were enabled, and you can also use other characters' special Dice Blocks once via Ally Spaces, or purchase them from shops.
===Playable===
Characters	Characters	Characters	Characters	Characters	Characters
===Supporting===
With two exceptions, supporting characters aren't playable.
Characters 	Characters
MC Ballyhoo	The host of the Grand Carnival, MC Ballyhoo and his Bonneter companion Big Top have set up the greatest carnival in history. While they leave most of their duties to their assistant Isabelle, the duo do show up at the end of each party to crown the winner, as well as in the Solo Tower.
Isabelle 	Brought in from her own dimension to act as Ballyhoo's assistant, Isabelle is cheerful and always ready to work. She describes the rules of each gamemode and board, and also runs the Last Four Turns event.
9-Volt 	Another vital ally brought in by Ballyhoo, 9-Volt runs the 9-Volt Spaces and does something beneficial for the player upon landing on one, whether it be starting up a 9-Volt Minigame or simply giving them something.
Dr. Eggman 	This genius, 200 IQ scientist was paid handsomely by Ballyhoo to work with the Grand Carnival, though he tends to conduct schemes of comical villainy that usually don't go well. Eggman runs the Eggman Spaces and works to harm the players landing on them in a variety of ways. Eggman also runs the Eggman Time event that occurs every five turns. He's also playable in the Eggman Party mode in the Smartphone Nexus.
King Boo 	The nemesis of Luigi and the ruler of the Boos, King Boo is playable in the Ghost Hunters mode in the Smartphone Nexus.
==Boards==
A wide variety of boards exist in Roulette Rush, once again chosen based on Krexxal's favorite franchises.
Boards	Boards
==Orbs==
Orbs are items that are either obtained by passing by Orb Spaces, or purchased from Orb Shops. They consist of Green Orbs, which affect the player directly, Yellow Orbs, which are thrown onto a space and cause something to happen to the player who lands on it, Red Orbs, which work like Yellow Orbs except they affect anyone who passes the space it was thrown onto, and Blue Orbs, which can't be used and usually have a special function per board. You can carry up to four Orbs, six if you're doing a team game.
Orbs 	Orbs
Twice Orb 	The Twice Orb allows you to roll the Dice Block twice, combining the totals of both. Rolling doubles gives 10 coins, 30 coins if it's two 6s.
Thrice Orb 	The Thrice Orb allows you to roll the Dice Block three times, combining the totals of all three. Rolling three of the same number gives you 30 coins, 100 coins if it's three 6s.
Slowdown Orb 	The Slowdown Orb causes the Dice Block to roll slowly.
Shield Orb 	The Shield Orb protects you from the effects of opponents' Orbs during your turn.
Warp Orb 	The Warp Orb switches your position with that of a random opponent.
Ally Orb 	The Ally Orb has the same effect as landing on an Ally Space, granting you one-time access to a random character's special Dice Block.
Flight Orb 	The Flight Orb teleports you to the Star's location, though this Orb only appears on boards where the rules have you purchasing Stars directly.
Robbery Orb 	The Robbery Orb steals 10 coins from whoever lands on it, giving them to the owner of the Orb.
Dice Orb 	The Dice Orb has whoever landed on it rolling a Dice Block, handing over a number of coins equal to what they rolled.
Reversal Orb 	The Reversal Orb sends whoever landed on it back to the start of the board.
Pickpocket Orb	The Pickpocket Orb steals an Orb from whoever landed on the space, handing it to the Pickpocket Orb's owner.
Territory Orb 	The Territory Orb gives the owner control of another Orb on the board that belongs to whoever landed on the Territory Orb's space.
Star Orb 	The Star Orb steals a Star from whoever lands on it, or 20 coins if they don't have a Star, before giving it to the Orb's owner.
Fire Orb 	The Fire Orb causes whoever passes by to lose 10 coins.
Shock Orb 	The Shock Orb causes whoever passes by to lose a coin for each space they walk past afterwards.
Teleport Orb 	The Teleport Orb sends whoever passes by to a random space.
Stop Orb 	The Stop Orb prevents whoever passes by from moving any further.
Swap Orb 	The Swap Orb functions like the Warp Orb, except it's triggered by passing by the space it's on, swapping the positions of the Orb's owner and whoever passed by.
Triforce Orb 	The Triforce Orb can only be found in the Great Sea. Collecting three of them will remove them from your inventory and give you a free Star.
==Spaces==
Spaces 	Spaces
Blue Space 	Blue Spaces give three coins.
Red Space 	Red Spaces take away three coins.
? Space 	The green ? Spaces cause some sort of event to happen depending on both the board and the location of the ? Space.
Duel Space 	Starts a Duel Minigame between the player who landed on the Duel Space and a player of their choice.
Solo Space 	Solo Spaces only appear in the Solo Tower, and start up a Solo Minigame.
Bank Space 	Whenever a player passes by a Bank Space, they have to pay five coins to it. Whoever lands on the space gets all the coins at the space.
9-Volt Space 	9-Volt appears and performs one of the following events:
*9-Volt Bonus: 9-Volt allows the player to roll a special Dice Block that grants coins equal to the number rolled.
*9-Volt Minigame: 9-Volt starts up a 9-Volt Minigame.
*9-Volt Roulette: 9-Volt and the player each roll a Dice Block. If the player rolls higher than 9-Volt, or if he gets a 1, they get a free Star.
Eggman Space 	Dr. Eggman appears and performs one of the following events:
*Coins for Eggman: Eggman takes away 10-30 Coins from the player.
*Eggman Revolution: Eggman divides everyone's coins evenly among them, keeping the surplus for himself.
*Eggman Shuffle: Eggman uses a teleportation device to swap the positions of all players.
*Eggman Minigame: Eggman starts up an Eggman Minigame.
*Eggman Bonus: Eggman rolls a Dice Block to determine if the player loses Coins, an Orb, or a Star. If they have nothing, he gives them 10 coins instead.
Lucky Space 	The player is taken to a linear area with a Star at the end of it, before being sent back to the main board.
Ally Space 	Another random character who isn't being used by anyone currently playing gives the player their special Dice Block, albeit it's consumed on use.
Character Space	Character Spaces are created via Orbs, and cause a harmful effect to those who land on them. If the original creator of the space lands on it, they receive five coins instead.
==Minigames==
Roulette Rush features a wide array of minigames of differing types. The minigame that occurs at the end of the turn depends on what spaces everyone landed on, sorting players who landed on the same space into the same team. If everyone landed on the same kind of space, a 4-Player Minigame, or occasionally a Battle Minigame or even a Co-op, is played.
For a full list of all 94 minigames, click here.
Minigame Types	Minigame Types
4-Player 	4-Player minigames pit all four players against each other.
1 vs. 3 	1 vs. 3 minigames pit one player against the others, with a differing set of victory conditions for each team.
2 vs. 2 	2 vs. 2 minigames have two teams of two play against each other.
1 vs. 4 	Only available in the Smartphone Nexus, 1 vs. 4 minigames have one player using the smartphone app while four others use controllers.
8-Player 	8-player minigames involve eight players.
Battle 	Battle minigames are similar to 4-Player minigames, except each player bets a certain number of coins to put into the "pot". The higher you place, the more you get from the pot.
Duel 	Activated via Duel Spaces, Duel minigames pit two players against each other, with the winner deciding on their reward via a roulette afterwards.
Solo 	Solo minigames have a player playing alone, and are only found in the Solo Tower.
Co-op 	Co-op minigames have all four players working together.
Eggman 	Eggman minigames are only played if someone lands on an Eggman Space, and generally feature higher stakes than other minigames, with the penalty for losing often being the loss of coins or even a Star. Both singleplayer and multiplayer variants exist.
9-Volt 	9-Volt minigames are only played if someone lands on a 9-Volt Space, and require you to collect as many Fronks as possible in the multiplayer variant, or simply complete a goal before 9-Volt in the singleplayer variant. At the end, you'll receive coins in an amount equivalent to the number of Fronks collected if it was a multiplayer minigame, occasionally being doubled or tripled via a roulette spun before the minigame, while if it was singleplayer, you'll get to spin a roulette wheel that either grants you coins or even a Star.
Bonus 	Bonus minigames are only played in the Bonus Lounge, and some involve the use of the GhostDrive Pro Controller. They're generally longer than other minigames and have more customizable rules.
==Development==
Roulette Rush was born from Krexxal's previous failure with an umbrella, a third-person shooter known as CROSSOVR. He had abandoned the concept due to issues with balancing out representation of franchises, and over time would begin to resent umbrellas and become jealous of those who found success with them. At the same time, the impending release of Super Mario Party had renewed Krexxal's interest in the series (he also had fond memories of playing it as a kid, aside from a ragequit over the pinball board in Mario Party DS), but at the same time he didn't want to create a Mario Party game due to it being unoriginal. After some time, the idea clicked and he got to work.
Using a roster originally intended for a collaborative project, Roulette Rush began development. The roster would see adjustments, but Krexxal didn't care about franchise bias.
==Trivia==
*Roulette Rush is intended to be a project to coincide with Krexxal's eighteenth birthday on the 17th of October, and as such it's speculated that there will be content relating to that.
Category:Party Games
Category:Umbrella Games
Category:Ghostrealm Games
Category:GhostDrive Games