Mario Party 3[a] is a party video game developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. The third installment in the Mario Party series, it was first released in Japan on December 7, 2000, in North America on May 7, 2001, in Australia on September 3, 2001, and in Europe on November 16, 2001. As with the previous installments, the player chooses between eight playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and Donkey Kong from the first two games, alongside newcomers Princess Daisy and Waluigi. The game features duel maps, where two players try to lower each other’s stamina to zero using non-player characters such as Chain Chomps.
Mario Party 3 was the third and final Mario Party game for the Nintendo 64. It was followed by Mario Party 4 for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002. Content from Mario Party 3 was remastered as part of Mario Party: The Top 100 for the Nintendo 3DS and Mario Party Superstars for the Nintendo Switch, released on November 10, 2017 and October 29, 2021 respectively. The game is set to receive its first official re-release on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in 2023.[1]
Gameplay
Mario Party 3 is a party video game featuring eight playable characters: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Princess Peach, and Donkey Kong are available to play in all modes, while newcomers Princess Daisy and Waluigi are unavailable in the game’s Story Mode. In the game’s storyline, Mario and his friends witness the descent of the Millennium Star, a mystical star born once every thousand years that allows whoever possesses him to become the “Superstar of the universe”. When the group begins to debate the Star’s ownership, the Star transports the group into a large toy box and proclaims that the group members must prove their worthiness and earn the Millennium Star’s acceptance by collecting the seven “Star Stamps” scattered across several lands.[2] The gameplay is presented in the form of a traditional board game, and includes five themed game board maps.[3] Mario Party 3 includes multiplayer compatibility; each game on a board map consists of four players, including at least one human player and up to four. Any character who is not controlled by a human will instead be controlled by the game as a computer-controlled character. The skill level of the computer-controlled characters can be individually adjusted between “Easy”, “Medium”, or “Hard”. After the players and board map have been determined, the player chooses how long the board map game will last: “Lite Play” consists of 20 turns, “Standard Play” consists of 35, and “Full Play” consists of 50. The player can also set a “Custom Play” that consists of any number of turns between 10 and 50, but restricted to multiples of 5. Upon starting a board, players each hit a dice block to determine turn order, with the highest number going first on each turn and the lowest number going last.[4]
The goal of Mario Party 3 is to collect the most Stars within the allotted amount of turns. Stars must be purchased from the Millennium Star with coins, which can be earned through a selection from one of 70 mini-games that is played once at the end of each turn.[5] Each time a Star is purchased, the Millennium Star will move to a different location on the board. The first player initiates a turn by rolling a dice block that determines how many spaces they will advance on the board, ranging from one to ten spaces. Each board map has a variety of spaces. Plain blue and red spaces cause the player who lands on one to respectively gain or lose three coins;[4] the amount of coins is doubled to six during the final five turns.[6] Red spaces marked with an insignia of Bowser‘s head will cause Bowser to appear and hinder the player’s progress. Green “!” spaces will initiate a single-player Chance Time mini-game, in which selected characters must give or exchange coins or stars; the player who landed on the space is given three blocks to hit, determining which characters and prize will be involved. Green spaces marked with a Goomba initiate a four-player Battle mini-game, in which coins are taken from the players and the winner receives the majority of the accumulated coins. Green “?” spaces result in an event occurring on the board map; each board features different events which can help or hinder certain players. When a player passes a green space marked with a bag of coins, they must deposit five coins into a “Koopa Bank”; players who land right on the space can withdraw all of the coins that have been deposited. Green spaces marked with a Shy Guy initiate a single-player Game Guy mini-game, in which the player may either win a multiplied amount of their coins or lose all of their coins.[4]
The players can obtain items for use on the board, and can each carry up to three at a time. If a player is carrying an item, they can use it before rolling the dice block. Items can aid the player in such ways as providing additional dice blocks or stealing another player’s item. One item, the Skeleton Key, allows the player to use shortcuts located on each board map.[7] Items can be purchased from shops on the board or won from special single-player mini-games initiated by landing on green spaces marked with Toad‘s head. A new addition to Mario Party 3 was Rare Items, being items that are less commonly found but have a powerful effect, e.g. forcing the game to the last five turns. Boo appears in certain locations of the map, and can steal coins or a Star from another player on behalf of any player who passes him; stealing coins costs five coins, while stealing a Star costs 50 coins. If a player is targeted for their coins, they can limit the amount of coins that Boo steals by repeatedly tapping the A button.[4]
After all four players have made a movement on the board, a mini-game is initiated. The type of mini-game that is played is determined based on the color of space that each player landed on. Players that have landed on a green space will be randomly assigned either red or blue as their color. before the mini-game is selected. If all players are the same color, a 4-player mini-game is played. If players are on separate colors, they will split into teams and play either a 1 vs 3 or 2 vs 2 mini-game. The specific mini-game is then selected via roulette. Before the mini-game’s initiation, players can review the rules and controls as well as practice the mini-game. Coins are rewarded based on the results of the mini-game, with the winner(s) receiving ten coins.[6] Another turn is initiated following the end of a mini-game, and the process is repeated until the allotted number of turns have been completed.[5]
During the final five turns of a game, a one-on-one Duel mini-game is initiated when a player lands on the same space as another.[6] Duels can be initiated prior to the final five turns if a player uses the Dueling Glove item.[7] After the end of the last turn, if bonuses are toggled on, the winners of three awards are announced, with each winner receiving one additional Star; the first two awards are given to the player(s) who collected the most coins in mini-games and throughout the board map game, and the third is given to the player(s) who landed on the most “?” spaces.[4] The winner of the game is then determined by the number of total coins and Stars collected by each player. If two or more characters have acquired the same amount of coins and Stars, the winner will be determined with a roll of the dice block.[6]
