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Mario Party 3 for Nintendo 64
Mario Party 3 for Nintendo 64 has you join Mario and his friends in a contest for the Millennium Star. On the boards you roll dice, choose routes at junctions and collect coins to buy stars. After a shared round, a mini-game follows for individual competitors or changing teams. The game contains seventy new mini-games, with challenges involving jumping, aiming, cooperation and reacting at the right moment, among other skills.
You can now keep three board items. These let you prepare a longer move, a different direction or the theft of an item, for example. There are also separate duels for two participants. On those maps, you hire helpers who stand in front of or behind your character and attack or defend during encounters. Their salaries come from your coins. You therefore need not only to reach your opponent, but also to keep enough money to pay for protection.
The regular board contests support one to four people on the same console, each human player using their own Nintendo 64 controller. The computer can fill the remaining places. You play the separate story alone, facing prescribed challenges on both regular boards and duel maps. There you collect Star Stamps to demonstrate your progress. You can thus practise the same rules without other players, while local group matches leave room for discussion and unexpected counterplays.
Region and language
Our Nintendo 64 games are PAL editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With Mario Party 3 for Nintendo 64, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Mario Party 3
Hudson Soft again made Mario Party 3 for Nintendo. It appeared in Japan in 2000 and in Europe on 16 November 2001, as the third Nintendo 64 instalment. The familiar basis of dice, stars and mini-games remained, but the sequel gave greater importance to actions between the short contests. The expanded inventory allows several items to be kept, so choosing a tool also means choosing when to use it later.
The duel maps are more than a different mini-game arrangement. They have their own routes, helpers with different traits and a supply of health points instead of the usual contest for stars. A helper’s position determines whether it can attack during an encounter or absorb damage. Continuing salary costs also force you to track your coin income. This addition therefore places other decisions alongside the dice and dexterity the series already used.
The solo story links both types of boards through the Millennium Star’s tests. This gives the third game a different structure from the first Mario Party’s mini-game island or the second game’s coaster challenge. Once unlocked, individual mini-games can be practised again. This original cartridge keeps all contests local, with the computer replacing absent participants. Online play and the additional saving features of later digital editions are not features of this Nintendo 64 version.
Similar games for Nintendo 64
Mario Party 3 retains Mario Party’s star hunt on Nintendo 64 but lets you keep three board items and adds duels with hired helpers. It also has a separate solo story. The first game ties its solo challenges to Mini-Game Island and keeps the board rules simpler. Both constantly change mini-games, but the third instalment gives you more tools to deliberately alter the balance on the board between competitions.
Mario Party 3 and Mario Party 2 share stars, board items and alternating individual and team mini-games on Nintendo 64. The second game’s inventory holds only one item; the third raises that to three and adds separate duels with paid helpers. Mario Party 2 stands out through the costumes and theatre surrounding its boards. The choice is between simpler inventory management and more opportunities to keep several resources in reserve.
Mario Kart 64 and Mario Party 3 mix dexterity with items that can overturn a contest on Nintendo 64. Mario Kart has you use those tools while driving, alongside cornering and avoiding obstacles. Mario Party 3 pauses the action for a board turn and lets you keep three items. You therefore plan across several turns more often, whereas in the kart race you must continually judge the distance to other racers.
Super Smash Bros. offers battles for up to four people with their own controllers on Nintendo 64, matching Mario Party 3’s group contests. A fighter’s controls remain the same in Smash, making timing and knowledge of attacks increasingly important. Mario Party 3 instead shifts between many different tasks and team arrangements. Coins won also count on the board. Your reaction in a mini-game can therefore affect a later purchase or counterplay.
Pokémon Stadium shares Nintendo 64’s alternation between thinking and short dexterity tests, but separates its Pokémon battles from its mini-games. Mario Party 3 instead connects mini-game rewards to board events. Its duel helpers also differ from Pokémon: their position and continuing salary determine what they can contribute. In Stadium you mainly choose attacks within a battle, whereas Mario Party 3 intertwines route planning, income and short contests.
