Throwback Thursday Mario Party 3

Throwback Thursday Mario Party 3

I’m giving you guys more and more Throwback Thursday games. I just can’t stop. Another game that’s close to my heart is Mario Party 3 which is one of my favorite Mario Party games.

Mario Party 3 was released on May 7, 2001 on the N-64. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong return alongside new characters such as Princess Daisy who actually first appeared in Super Mario Land as the damsel in distress and after her first appearance in Mario Tennis she’s been in almost every Mario game. Another newcomer is Waluigi who’s Luigi’s nemesis who first appeared in Mario Tennis.

Mario Party 3 plays just like the previous two games. Four players play on game boards then play mini-games. Boards still have the classic Blue, Red, Happening, Battle, Bowser and many more but there is a new space called Game Guy space which is probably the most hated space ever and it’s my only dissapointment. Players who land on this space have to surrender all their coins to Game Guy. You’ll have to face Game Guy in a mini-game. If the player wins they get double the amount of coins but if the player loses they lose all their coins.

Now what’s a Mario Party without the mini-games. Snowball Summit is a mini-game where players build snowballs and hit players off the hill. I also love Toadstool titan where players break bricks to find the mushroom to knock players off the screen. Now one mini-game i found interesting is M.P.I.Q. This is a questionnaire mini-game that test players about their knowledge in the Mario world. Players still have 1 vs 3, 2 vs 2, Duel mini-games, Battle, Item and some secret mini-games. Now players for the first  time need to unlock mini-games. When selecting mini-games players will notice question marks which means the mini-game hasn’t been played yet. So players will always be curious to see what mini-game it is.

A new feature that Mario Party 3 are the Duel Boards. This can only be played by two players and the objective is to defeat your opponent by attacking them with their partner by depleting the opponent's health. Players use partners such as Koopa Troopa or Goomba but there are partners that have special abilities. Chain Chomp attacks opponents simultaneously. Now players have 20 turns if players are still alive during those 20 turns the player with the most health wins. I thought duel mode was pretty interesting but it didn’t appear in any other Mario Party games after 3.

Mario Party 3 features  Story Mode a first in the series. Now you can only play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario and Donkey Kong. They all want the Millennium Star now I don’t want to get to get too much into the story but I’ll give small details. Player has to win on each of the  game boards and get a star stamp. Now players will also have to duel it out against other characters in the game to get their stamps and there will be one final battle for the player to win and get the Millennium Star. I thought it was pretty cool to have a Story Mode in a Mario Party game. I believe that Nintendo wanted to do something different and they probably took a risk by adding this mode but it was worth it.

Now you still have the mini-game room where you can pick out which mini-game you want to play but like I said before you have to unlock them first in order to play them.

In the end Mario Party 3 touched my heart as a kid. I remember getting the game like it was yesterday. I liked the new addition of characters, the mini-games are fun, Story is a blast to play and Duel mode is fun. My only grip with the game is the Game Guy space. It’s completely unnecessary. I sometimes don’t even blame the players for wanting to reset the game for losing against the Game Guy maybe it’s salty but just that space alone is my only negative thing about this game. Now it is hard to find this game in a store or find a cheap price online. Players can download this as an emulator but I really want this game to be on the Wii U virtual console. I’m just waiting….