is a 2000 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 introduces 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 received generally mixed reviews, with critics divided on its new minigames and gameplay features, and whether it was a meaningful improvement over its predecessors. It was a commercial success, with over 1 million copies sold worldwide, making it one of the best-selling Nintendo 64 games. The game was the final first-party Nintendo 64 title released in North America. It was followed by Mario Party 4 for the GameCube in 2002. Content from Mario Party 3 was remastered as part of Mario Party: The Top 100 (2017) for the Nintendo 3DS and Mario Party Superstars (2021) for the Nintendo Switch. The game received its first official re-release on the Nintendo Classics service on October 27, 2023.

Gameplay

thumb|Bounce 'n' Trounce, one of the 71 mini-games in Mario Party 3

Mario Party 3 is a party video game featuring eight playable characters of the Mario franchise: 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. The gameplay is presented in the form of a traditional board game, and includes five themed game board maps. 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.

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. 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; 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. 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. 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. The partners can be positioned in front of or behind the player, and must be paid a salary at the beginning of each turn; the partner will leave if their salary cannot be paid. Later that month, Nintendo released 12 more screenshots of the game's adventure boards. The game was about 70% completed during the time being.

The game had a marketing budget of $4 million.

Reception

Mario Party 3 received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. TheGamer also placed Mario Party 3 first in its ranking of 17 Mario Party games, praising its boards, minigames, and visuals.

The game sold over 1,000,000 units worldwide; however, largely due to being released late in the Nintendo 64's lifespan, it did not sell well in western regions.

Awards

Mario Party 3 won the "Console Family" award from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences during the 5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.

Notes

References

  • Official Nintendo Japan Mario Party 3 site

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