Mario Party 3 by Nintendo
Price: $49.99
Availability: Usually ships within 1-2 business days
Platform: Nintendo 64
ESRB Rating: Everyone (Content suitable for persons age 6 or older.)
Note to Customers: Realistic Violence
Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Average Customer Review: 4.2 Based on 75 reviews.

Features:
Installment in the Mario Party series
Board-game-style layout
Numerous minigames
Includes a 1-player story mode and a 2-player duel mode
For 1 to 4 players
Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and all your favorite characters are back in Mario Party 3. This game features 70 minigames that make you use your N64 controller in ways you never thought imaginable. Like its predecessors, up to four people can participate in five areas in board-game-style play. As you traverse the board, you'll have your chances to compete in the aforementioned minigames. Then it's all about button mashing and analog-stick twisting. The gamepad techniques are easily explained, but some of them are tougher than they look.

The single-player story mode is an absolute chore filled with as much watching as playing. You're not supposed to play this game alone, hence the word "party" in the title. Multiplayer modes include party, battle royal, and duel. The first two are the basic free-for-alls found in previous games, while duel mode is an interesting addition that combines elements from Othello and Monopoly with the minigames. The various modes help shorten multiplayer game time, which was a problem in previous versions.

Mario Party 3 continues the series' tradition of being the top dog of party games. With its numerous easy-to-learn minigames, it's perfect for when you and your friend are looking for quick, mindless fun. --Raymond M. Padilla

Pros:
Loads of great minigames
Simple enough for anyone to learn
New characters from Mario Tennis

Cons:
Single-player mode is arduous
Tough to justify buying more than one Mario Party title
The required amount of button mashing and analog-stick twisting is hard on hands

Amazon.com Preview:
Let's just be clear from the start: the Mario Party games aren't about parties--you won't be feeding potato chips and punch to your character--they're about competition. The series is called Mario Party because, well, when you and some friends or family sit down to play it, the party spontaneously happens.

The story (if you need one) behind Mario Party 3 is that the precious Millennium Star has fallen into Princess Peach's courtyard and Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and Donkey Kong (his friends call him DK) all want to claim it for their own. Hence the wild and furious competition.

The layout is like that of a traditional board game, with players rolling dice to advance. Unlike your traditional game board, though, this one is filled with all sorts of strange hazards, like giant rolling snowballs and runaway mine carts. The idea of the game is to collect the most coins, which are earned in a variety of team and individual minigames. The minigames range from a pizza-eating contest to Dorrie Dip, which lets you ride on the back of the giant lake monster from Super Mario 64.

But even having the most coins won't ensure your victory. Boo's thievery, X's game of chance, and Bowser's nasty tricks all have their ways of redistributing the game's momentum. To win in this game, it's not enough to be good--you've also got to be lucky. But that, of course, is what makes this series so much fun.

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