Mario Party 3 closes out a run of games built for the Nintendo 64, and it plays it safe. The board game formula stays the same: four characters, turns on a game board, party games, and a hunt for stars across several themed boards. Anyone who played the earlier games in the series will know the shape of it within minutes.
The Story Mode
This game adds a light story wrapper. Players are set against a powerful star said to do harm to the world of Mario, and the tale behind it is thin, mostly an excuse to link boards together. Still, it gives players working through the game alone a reason to keep moving from one board to the next, rather than picking boards at random with no sense of order.
The wrapper never asks much of the player. It simply carries them forward, board after board, until the last star is won.
New Characters and Boards
Two new characters join the roster this time around, giving longtime players fresh faces to pick from at the start of a match. The boards themselves are a mixed set, some more liked by players than others, with different rules and paths shaping how each game plays out.
The mix of boards keeps the core play from turning dull across a full playthrough. Some boards ask players to plan ahead. Others reward luck alone.
Party Games
The party games remain the heart of the package. Battle games, matches between two players, and team games add new twists to the usual free-for-all, and the format built for two rivals in particular gives matchups a different feel than earlier games in the series.
- Matches between two players stand out for changing the pace of play when only two rivals are involved.
- Battle games keep the whole group involved even when turns are unequal.
- Standard group party games remain the most familiar part of the package, and still among the most solid.
Party games are short, but they carry weight. A single win or loss can send a whole match in a new direction.
Multiplayer Value
Mario Party 3 is built for groups, and that has not changed. The game rewards a room full of friends more than a run through story mode taken alone. The wild changes in star counts and item use still produce the turns of fortune the series is known for, and a game that looks won can turn on a single roll near the end.
Friends gathered around one screen remain the best way to play it.
Mario Party 3 does not try to make something wholly new out of the formula. Instead, it improves the pieces already in place from earlier games. The boards show a wider mix of ideas than before. The party games feel a touch more polished. None of it amounts to a bold change of direction, but none of it needs to be.
The result lands as a solid, if familiar, game: 7.4 of 10.
