Mario Party 3
Video Description
Summary: A Millennium Star is born once every thousand years. Whoever possesses it is destined to become the Superstar of the universe. Mario and his friends argue about who should keep it. Who will be the true Superstar?
This is the last Mario Party game for the Nintendo 64. It has the most items and features compared to the previous two, especially when it comes to managing items since you can finally now hold three instead of one. There is a new game mode, duel mode, which adds new boards and game style. But, they have gotten rid of the various mini-game modes as a result.
I love the playthrough by SlimKirby and recommend checking out his playthrough.
This game was played in RetroArch using the Mupen64Plus-Next core. I am also using the widescreen mod created by gamemasterplc. Unlike the mods for the first two games, this one only does the mini-games and not the game board. However, the game board is zoomed out more than usual, giving a larger area to see. I’m thinking this is because there is a glitch with the emulator that has horizontal lines across the screen while on the board. I tried different settings and couldn’t get rid of them, so that’s just my guess. It also requires specific settings, specifically 16kbit EEPROM, or else it won’t save. There is no way to adjust this within the core settings, so I had to edit the INI file and lock it so no changes could be made as it would revert.
Story
The Millennium Star is born once in a thousand years, and whoever possesses it will become the Superstar of the universe. Mario and his friends find the star and begin arguing about who should keep it. With a bright flash of light, they are transported inside a toy box. The Millennium Star puts them to the test to collect seven Star Stamps, and whoever does will become the Superstar. However, the Superstar is a fake, with the real one being inside of Tumble’s (the magical dice man) head.
Gameplay
The core gameplay is pretty much the same as previous Mario Party games. You roll a die and move on a board, landing on various spaces such as blue spaces which give you coins, red which make you lose coins. The bank space is still there from the prior game, as is the shop. Happening spaces are also present that are dependent on the board you’re playing on. There really aren’t many changes regarding the gameplay, but there are a few new modes.
The “party mode” is the standard Mario Party mode from the first two games where you choose your board, or choose mini-games to play. However, there is an all new “story mode” where you go through all the boards as your selected character and try to get the seven Stamps by winning the boards. Doing so will allow your character to have their face on Mt. Mariomore (the gigantic rock statue similar to Mt. Rushmore). But, you also get to unlock the two secret characters and boards. Unlike the previous two games where the characters were just Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and DK were selectable, now there is Waluigi and Daisy.
There are six boards:
- Chilly Waters
- A cold snowy land with a huge ice block in the center. If more than one person lands on spaces on the ice block, both of you will go off to the side as it cracks. Additionally there is a snowman ready to throw massive snow balls at you. It’s up to you if you want to avoid them.
- Deep Bloober Sea
- An underwater sea adventure where there are a fair amount of happening spaces. Landing on the ones near the center will result in a Bloober picking you up and moving you to the other side of the path. Landing on a happening space near the anglerfish will result in it sucking you in and blowing you out in the direction the arrow on the top of its head points to. If you mash the button, you can prevent it from sucking you in. (The title is spelled correctly as Bloopers were initially called Bloobers.)
- Spiny Desert
- A desert that has sand pits that will transport everyone in the radius to the opposite side of the map, where there are also happening spaces to do the same going back. To make it even harder, there are two stars, but one is a mirage and will disappear when you pass it if it’s not the real star.
- Woody Woods
- There is plenty of nature here. There are Monty Moles that will switch the direction of signs each turn, when landing on a happening space, or when the player passes his hut and pays to have the direction switched. There is also Woody and evil Woody that will allow you to get a fruit from their tree which can contain coins or a the ability to roll again (for Woody), or lose coins and move backwards.
- Creepy Cavern
- This board is divided in half. The only way to access the two sides is either with a skeleton key, or with the Thwomp mine karts that move on each side of the board when landing on a happening space or when paying them coins. The Whomp King is also in the center and he will move left and right and block the path, preventing you from going up on the right side and down on the left side. The only way he’ll move is by landing on the happening space near him or by giving him the item he desires.
- Waluigi’s Island
- This board is filled with traps, and it’s a complete mess. One obstacle is a counter that has a ton of happening spaces in a circular pattern around it. Landing on a happening space lowers the counter. It starts at five and when it gets to zero, everyone in the vicinity will lose all their coins. Adjacent to this trap is a directional pad that an arrow goes clockwise for you to chose a direction. Another part of the map to get to Boo has a split path. Choose wrong and you go back to start before you get to see Boo. And finally, there is a separate island with spaces that alternate their properties. It could be all blue, red, Bowser, Game Guy, Chance Time, or item spaces. It could be deadly if you get trapped over there.
There is also another game mode, duel mode. This one works very different from the standard boards. It’s a one-vs-one battle where you have coins and hearts. The first player to have an empty heart container will lose. There are also partners, such as Boo, Piranha Plant, Thwomp, and so on. The teammates have different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and they cost a salary. If you’re unable to pay, they will go away. Partners can be placed either in front or back and new partners can be gotten from your main base when you make a lap around the board. If you have two of the same partner, they will each get +1 attack.
The teammates are primarily used to attack the other player to deal damage to their health. A teammate can attack when they’re in the front and can do direct damage if the opponent doesn’t have a teammate behind them, but if they do, it’ll be a battle of the teammates. When a teammate dies, and damage exceeds the health of the teammate, the player who possessed that teammate will loses the remaining heart points.
The two players roll the die and go on an empty board. The spaces they land on will turn into a square with their face on it, and when the opponent lands on it, they will lose coins as it goes to the player. Or if you land on your own, you get coins. There are also u-turn space that reverses your character, a power-up space to double the stats, and cost, of your teammate, and a Game Guy square to play a luck mini-game to double your coins or lose them all. There are happening squares to cause a random event to happen, and a five turn clock in the center that whenever you pass, it counts down by one, and when reaching zero will result in a mini-game.
There are six boards:
- Gate Guy
- A small board with gates to access a middle area to use as a shortcut.
- Arrowhead
- There are multiple paths on this board. There is a central area that you can keep circling and exit from the top left and bottom right. You could go through there instead of going past your opponent’s base. Because the center is so small, it’s very easy to get an attack on your opponent if you get a high enough roll.
- Pipesqueak
- A square map with four pipes, one in each corner. Going down a pipe will transport you to a random pipe. This could cause an advantage or disadvantage depending on where you land. If you skip half the board and land behind your opponent, and then get a high enough roll to go down another pipe and get out of reach of their attack, then it’s great. Otherwise, they could do the same to you.
- Blowhard
- A relatively small map that is perfectly square but with a giant fan in the center that will switch your partner’s positions when you go towards it. You don’t have to and could just go along the outside of the board, but it’s there if you need it.
- Mr. Mover
- A complex board that joins in the center, making it easy to get an attack on your opponent, or for them to get you. At the bottom between both the character’s bases is a conveyor belt that switches directions. If you get caught on your opponent’s side, you could be in for some pain.
- Backtrack
- A star shaped board that has reverse spaces that flip the direction you’ll go, and position of your partners. It could screw you over, or work in your favor. It can be tricky if you keep landing on the spaces and your opponent keeps attacking you.
Unlike the previous games, this one doesn’t feature games involving mini-games. It is likely due to the fact that there is a story mode and duel mode. You can still do free play with the mini-games, including some secret ones that can be unlocked. You can also do a match of multiple randomly selected mini-games. And play Game Guy’s mini-games. Another thing to note is that mini-games when playing a board are marked as ??? until you play them. They are then unlocked in the mini-game room.
Graphics
The graphics are identical to the first two games on the same system. It consists of images for most backgrounds, and 3D elements overlaid on top of them. Much like the first two games, I had to crop a lot of the border out since the boards render at a lower resolution.
Sound / Music
Catchy music to be had again in a Mario Party game, with a unique theme for each mini-game. This time, however, there is an official soundtrack. This is the only Mario Party game at the time of writing this review that exists.
Albums
Game Info
About the Author
