Mario Party 3

Mario Party 3
Mario Party 3 Boxart
Developer(s)	Hudson Soft
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Release date	December 7, 2000 May 7, 2001 September 3, 2001 November 16, 2001
Genre(s)	Party
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E (Everyone) OFLC: G

Mario Party 3 (マリオパーティ 3, Mario Pāti Surī^?) is the third in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular Nintendo characters. It was released for the Nintendo 64 in North America on May 7, 2001 following a Japanese release on December 7, 2000. It was released in Europe much later (as the final Nintendo 64 game to be released in the territory) on November 16, 2001. It is also the eighth Mario game for the Nintendo 64. As a result of its late release in Europe, PAL copies of Mario Party 3 are difficult to obtain and are sold for high prices on the internet.

Mario Party 3 is the third and final Mario Party title for the Nintendo 64. A total of eight characters are available to choose from: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong, and the newly-added Waluigi and Princess Daisy. Mario Party 3 features duel maps, in which two players try to lower each other's stamina to zero using non-playable characters such as chomps. It is the last Mario game where Princess Daisy appears in a yellow and white dress. It is the first Mario Party game to save data into three different files.

Gameplay

The objective in Mario Party 3, as in the other games, is to move the player's character around the board and collect coins and stars. The player with the most stars (and most coins if stars are tied ) at the end of the game wins. Coins are found on many spaces on the board and also earned in minigames. Stars are found on the board for purchase and can also be acquired through certain items or special events.

Players take turns moving around the board by hitting a dice block, the game's equivalent of rolling a die. The character moves the given number of spaces and may trigger special actions or events by passing or landing on certain spaces. After all four characters have moved, a minigame begins. Minigames can also be triggered by certain special event spaces.

This game introduces story mode to the series, in which one player starts a campaign through every board, challenging computer controlled opponents at a shortened version of party mode. The player's objective is to defeat the other characters and earn stamps from the Millennium Star.

The game, as usual, contains a standard party mode in which up to four players play through a board.

Battle minigames are featured here as in Mario Party 2. These games are like the 4-player games, but generally more elaborate. Battle games are usually tense because every player has to put a certain number of coins (10, 20, 30, 50, or sometimes 0, in which the battle is cancelled) into a pot. First place gets 70% of the pot, second place gets 30%, and a random player gets any coins lost in rounding.

Duel games pit two players against each other. In Party Mode, one player initiates the duel, and bet coins against another player. The winner of the duel wins all of the coins in the bet.

Every game in the Mario Party series contains 50 to 80 minigames of a few different types. Four-player games are a free-for-all in which all players compete against each other. 2-on-2 and 1-on-3 minigames put players in groups, so they have to cooperate in the minigame to win, even though they are against each other in the main game. In most situations, winners of these games make 10 coins each.

New to this edition are Game Guy minigames. When a character landed on a Game Guy space, he/she is forced to surrender all of his/her coins and play a chance- based minigame. If the game is won, the coins of the character are multiplied, usually twofold, but its possible to win up to 64-fold. However, if the game is lost, then the character will not receive his/her coins back. These games proved to be unpopular and were not continued in subsequent Mario Parties.

Playable characters

Notably, this is the first Mario Party game to feature playable characters other than the original six. Princess Daisy and Waluigi were added to the character selection, albeit in limited form.

Reception

Mario Party 3 had mixed reviews, most of which were positive. Scores included:

IGN: 6.41

GameSpot:7.5

Metacritic: 74 out of 100 (Based on 12 reviews)

Game Rankings:73% (Based on 17 reviews)

Awards

The game also won the Console Family Award at the 2002 Interactive Achievement Awards

External links

• Mario Party 3 at MobyGames