Mario Party 3

Vital Stats
System(s): Nintendo 64
U.S. Release Date: May 7th, 2001
Current street price: $49.99
Save: Battery Back-up
Size: 8 characters, 6+ battle boards, 6+ duel boards, 70+ minigames
Players: 1-4 simultaneous
ESRB Rating: E (Comic Mischief)

In a Nutshell
Mario and friends compete in yet another board game to claim the millenium star.

Story
Note: This story comes straight from the MP3 instruction booklet.
A Star is Born...
In the center of the vast universe, a remarkably bright star was born. It was a star that is born only once in a thousand years, the Millenium Star. According to legend, whoever possessed this mystical star was destined t become the Superstar of the universe. However, since the Millenium Star was but a newborn, it fell from the starry sky.
Around that time, Mario and his friends were all happily relaxing when suddenly the Millenium Star came crashing down. Mario and his friends soon began arguing about who should keep the Millenium Star.
Suddenly, The Millenium Star gave off a brilliantly bright flash of light. And with that bright flash, Mario and his friends were transported inside a toy box!
Greetings. I am the Millenium Star. You must pass my test to prove yourself worthy of possessing me. You must journey across many lands and collect the Star Stamps. If you can collect all seven, I shall accept you as the top Superstar in the Universe.
Who will collect the seven Star Stamps and become the universe's top Superstar?

Gameplay Overview
Just like it's two prequels, Mario Party 3's main mode is the party based board game mode. The object of the board game is to collect the most stars. Stars are bought with coins which are gained by landing on vasious spaces on the board and through mini-games that take place fater each turn. New to Mario Party three is the Duel mode, which is specifically designed for two players. In this mode, each player hires one or two partners (taken from the large cast of Mario's supporting characters) who follow them on their front or rear. When players pass each other on the duel board, and attack event takes place, and the opponent or one of the opponent's partners is damaged. Mini-games play a smaller role in this mode, but still take place occasionally. Partners available in the duel mini-games include:

Koopa: Cheap to hire, with a high strength for the money.
Bob-omb: attacks the opponent directly, but explodes after one attack.
Whomp: A defensive force, but has literally no attack power.
Snifit: Expensive, but strong. Occasionally finds coins for you in between turns.
Pirhana Plant: The most powerful partner, with a very high salary.
Chain Chomp: Expensive for a weak attack, but can attack both partners and the opponent at once.

Mario Party 3 includes an expanded one-player story mode, in which your chosen character battles for various star stamps on all the party and duel boards sequentially. Through the story mode, new game boards and mini-games can be opened up. Mario Party 3 also introduces many new items, and the ability to carry tree at a time during the board game.

What's the Big Deal?
The 1 and 2 player game: While Mario Party's one and two could be player with one or two human players, it wasn't that great of an experience. The party modes quickly become tiresome as you wait for the computer to take it's extremely slow turns, and the one-player specific modes are just rehashes of the mini-games. It's refreshing, then, that Mario Party 3 includes expanded play options for one and two players. The story mode provides a great focus for the lonesome player, and an incentive to continue on against the computer oppoennts (opening up new boards, seeing how the story turns out, etc.) When you only have one firend available for play, the duel mode is the perfect option: Easy enough to pick up immediately but with enough depth to keep you both interested for a while. There is also an option to skip computer-only mini-games and to have the characters and text move much faster than in the previous Mario Party's. All these things combined make Mario Party 3 a much smoother experience for those times when you don't have three friends over.

Notes of Interest
Waluigi and Daisy return from Mario Tennis.
More than 70 all new mini-games
First appearance of Snifit on N64
Toad is replaced by Tumble the Magic Die as your guide
Good news: New voice samples. Bad News: They're just as annoying

Quote
"I am so stupid"
-Bowser

Ending
Haven't gotten to the end yet, sadly. Anyone wanna help me out? mail me.

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