Mario Party 3

Mario Party 3 is the third installment of the Mario Party series, the last one for the Nintendo 64. The game is centered around the Millennium Star, who replaces Toad as the host. Mario Party 3 has players now hold up to three items. It also offers a special twist to the game unique in the Mario Party series: duel boards, on which two players fight each other using partners. Mario Party 3 is followed by Mario Party 4.

Story and Objective
From the Mario Party 3 instruction book: A Star is Born: In the center of the vast universe, a remarkably bright star was born. It was the star that is born only once in a thousand years, the Millennium Star. According to the legend, whoever possessed the mystical star was destined to become the Superstar of the universe. However since the Millennium 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 Millennium Star came crashing down. Mario and his friends soon began arguing about who should keep the Millennium Star. Suddenly, the Millennium Star gave off a brilliantly bright flash of light. And with that bright flash, Mario and his friends were transported into a toy box! "Greetings. I am the Millennium 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?

In Battle Royale Mode, players have to get as many Stars as possible. Stars can normally be obtained at a cost of 20 coins.

In Duel Mode, players have to defeat their opponent with their partners. Each player starts with five heart pieces.

In Story Mode, a single player must battle his or her way to earn the rank of Super Star. To do so, they must fill their stamp card with Star Stamps. The stamps are wit, kindness, strength, love, courage, beauty, mischief and confusion. The pattern is Battle Royale, Duel, Battle Royale, Duel; this continues until the player's next objective is to earn the Beauty Star Stamp. At this point, the player plays a Duel against Daisy, followed by a final Battle Royale on Waluigi's Island.

For the Millennium Star, his original plan was to have a straight run-through of seven (since there are seven Star Stamps) Battle Royale Boards. However, when the Millennium Star is about to stamp the player's stamp card, another character bursts from the castle and say they deserve this. The two argue, and Millennium Star decides to go to a Duel Board. The player wins (they must to continue) and the other character runs away in disappointment. After the stamp is received, the next Star Stamp is shown and another Battle Royale begins.

When the Beauty Star Stamp is revealed though, Daisy makes a sudden appearance before a Battle Royale could even begin. The Millennium Star mentions it, but Daisy strikes a pose causing the Millennium Star to fall in love with her and offers her the Beauty Star Stamp. The player says it is not fair and the two argue. The Millennium Star snaps out of it and says they will go to Backtrack to settle it. Suddenly, Bowser appears and tries to take the stamp but Daisy swats him away in one blow. After the battle, Daisy mopes and runs away. Tumble states Daisy said she never lost, not even to her father. The player then receives the Beauty Star Stamp.

The Mischief Star Stamp is then revealed, but then Bowser appears and unknowingly sends it flying into the castle, declaring the player must battle him to earn it. Everyone notices it is gone, and Waluigi comes out of the castle with the stamp trapped in a cage. Waluigi and Bowser fight each other, but to everyone's surprise, Waluigi won. He tells the player they will go to Waluigi's Island. Bowser tells the player to avenge him for what happened. Although long time foes, the player silently agrees and chases after Waluigi. After the battle is over, Waluigi is pounding the floor in frustration yelling he won't forget what happened. The Millennium Star gives the player the Mischief Star Stamp.

Despite winning all the stamps, the Millennium Star declares there is one person left the player must battle. The player is seen thinking hard of who could it be. Both the player and Tumble are surprised when the Millennium Star exclaims the player must defeat him in Stardust Battle to win. When the player defeats him, they ask to be the greatest superstar in the universe (although ownership of the Millennium Star was the original offer). The Millennium startles everyone admitting he isn't the real Millennium Star and flies away in shame. The player drops to the ground in disappointment, unable to believe it was all for nothing.

Suddenly, Tumble begins glowing and his dice head opens to reveal the real Millennium Star, who was watching the player the whole time. After returning the castle and the grounds to its normal state, he promises the player he will make them the superstar of the universe. The credits roll. The final scene is Mario lying on a folding chair, Luigi and Peach are talking to each other nearby, and Donkey Kong is sitting near the three just watching. In the back, Wario and Waluigi are apparently arguing, Daisy is sitting and watching the butterflies, and Yoshi is in the far back chasing a butterfly. The closing scene is a table with a box with the words "Mario Party" on it. A dice (the same color as Tumble's head) is thrown onto the table and the word "END" appears on the lower right corner.

Modes
As in all Mario Party games, there are always other modes to play:
 * Mini-game Mode: Players can play all the mini-games that they have collected here, even secret mini-games.
 * Story Mode: A single player can go through the storyline. It is set what boards have to be completed in what order. There are Battle Royale and Duel boards. After each Battle Royale board, the player has to fight a certain character on a duel board for a Star Stamp. If the player is to duel with the character they are playing as, they will battle Luigi instead.
 * Party Mode: A multiplayer that can go through Battle Royale, Dual Mode, Mini-game Mode and can also go through settings. Daisy and Waluigi are only playable in this mode.

Duel Boards
Duel Mode can be played in Duel Mode and Story Mode. Duel Mode can be selected by selecting the red star in the main menu. Duel Boards can only be played with two characters. The objective is to defeat the opponent by attacking them with partners. Each player has a heart gauge, consisting of five segments. The game is over when 20 turns ends (when '20 turns' is selected in game length) or when one player's heart gauge is empty.

Players start with one partner and can gain another (or replace one) when they reach their start space, which also gives them ten coins. Partners are given to the player at random using a roulette (on every third return, the player gets a "Lucky Roulette", which slows the roulette, allowing the player to more easily obtain a desired partner). Each partner has a salary where they are paid when the player's turn starts. If a player cannot afford to pay the salary, the partner(s) is gone.

In the middle of every board is Belltop, a mechanical toy. Every time a player passes him, the numbers on his hat goes down by one. Whenever the hat reaches 0, all players go to him and play a duel mini-game. After the winner receives his/her coin prize, the timer is reset to 5.

In Story Mode, after a Battle Royale map, the player's character is about to receive a Star Stamp when another character emerges from the castle and says they deserve it. To settle this dispute, both characters are sent to a Duel Board (with the exception of Waluigi, who challenges the character to his Battle Royale board, Waluigi's Island). The winner receives the Star Stamp. (Note that Luigi's board can be anyone except Backtrack)

Duel Mode Partners
Combinations\Pair\Duo

If the player gets 2 of the same partners, the Millenium Star will call it a glorious (_____) (fill the blank with the partner). It also raises the attack by one (with the exception of Thwomp and Whomp, whose salaries are decreased by one instead). The following combinations will cause the Millenium Star to comment on it, but the attack won't be raised.
 * Whomp and Thwomp make an earth shaking combination!
 * Toad and Koopa Troopa make an economical pair!
 * Mr. Blizzard and Snifit make a long-range pair!
 * Boo and Mr. Blizzard make a chilling combination!
 * Bob-omb and Chomp make a dangerous duo!

Items
Items appear only on Battle Royale boards. They can be bought at an item shop or obtained on a Item Space. Either Toad or Baby Bowser runs the shop, both selling different items.

Unlike the previous instalments, Mario Party 3 allows the player to carry three items at once, as opposed to the single item the player can carry in Mario Party 2.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Bros. 3: Part of the music track "What Should We Do?!" (played in minigames like Treadmill Grill and Spotlight Swim) is a cover of Super Mario Bros. 3 castle theme.

Reception
Mario Party 3 received favorable reviews. It has a 74% rating from Metacritic, based on 12 reviews, and a 73% from Game Rankings based on 17 reviews. IGN gave it a 6.4 and GameSpot gave it a 7.5. In Japan, Famitsu magazine scored the game a 31 out of 40.

Mario Party 3 is the 25th best selling game for the Nintendo 64, selling approximately 1.64 million copies, 1.02 million copies in Japan, and 624,468 copies in the US, as of December 31, 2009.

Trivia

 * This is the fourth game in the overall Mario series that Daisy participates in (after her return in NES Open Tournament Golf for the Nintendo Entertainment System and in Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64). Additionally, it is the second game to feature Waluigi (after his debut appearance in Mario Tennis N64). Daisy and Waluigi are the first two additions to the Mario Party series installments overall.
 * This is the first Mario Party game not to give Bowser the main antagonistic role, and also the only one without a Bowser themed board.
 * This is the only Mario Party with 2 different Item Shop hosts that are randomly decided between themselves before purchasing an item.
 * This is the Mario Party that has the most boards, 12, which is 3 more than the next highest of Mario Party 6.
 * This is the first Mario Party game to have a file select screen.
 * This is the final Mario game to be released on the Nintendo 64 internationally, six months before the release of Luigi's Mansion on the Nintendo Gamecube.
 * This is the final installment of the Mario series overall which features Princess Peach and Princess Daisy in their classic main dresses (though in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Peach wears her classic dress instead of her current dress), as well as Daisy's hair being longer, having tan skin and having a red crown.
 * This is also one of the final two games next to Mario Kart: Super Circuit to have the Mario franchise use its N64-era art direction, which had been in place since Super Mario 64 in 1996; within the next 12 months, the 3-D art direction of the Mario franchise would be revamped with Luigi's Mansion, Super Mario Sunshine, and Mario Party 4.