Mario Party 3 is my favorite and what I think as the best of the Mario Party series. The Mario Party games are well known as family games and within my family, it was a tradition to buy the new Mario Party for Christmas each year. In this 3rd installment you're given a nice selection of characters including the 2 new additions Waluigi and Daisy who prove troublesome when playing the main game. In fact, each Mario Party is unique in some way and that's no different for this.

Graphics: 10
There's absolutely nothing wrong with these greats, in fact, I think they're some of the better graphics the N64 had to offer. What I like about these graphics is that they help pull you until the game. They're easy on the eyes and it helps keep you entertained. The animations are the same way. Personally, I liked the Snow Board the best because I thought it looked cool and it was probably the most fun for me. On top of that, the items were a couple steps above the items created for Mario Party 2. They look cool and they did cool things. Honestly, I felt that the items in this game are the best of any Mario Party to do this. These graphics are perfect for a Mario Party game.

Sound: 9
I've always loved Mario and the music that comes with it is addicting. The music of this game is definitely party based which really adds to the concept of playing this kind of game. The game offers plenty of different songs for the different mini-games and for playing the actual board. I consider that a thumbs up for offering so much. The one thing I dislike it that it seemed like the sound effects were louder than the music. Personally, I like to hear the music because I already know the sound effects are going to be repetitive especially if we end up playing the same mini-game again later. If the effects were turned down a bit then I would have easily given this a 10.

Addictiveness: 10
Do you have friends or family? No? GET SOME! Mario Party 3 is a great game to have a bunch of friends or family to play with you. The computers are cool but it's so much more fun to talk trash to each other over silly mini-games or watching the star change location and appear on the same space someone is on. The game is fun, entertaining and can be competitive if you have people to play with. There's over 70 mini games to play and even in the last moments of the game, the entire game can change thanks to the chance spaces. Mario Party is probably one of those family games that bring your family together for 5 minutes and by the end of a 50 turn game you're at each other's throats. Good times! The game can be very addicting with the right people.

Story: 6
Surprisingly, there is a little bit of a story here. The opening scenes show how this version of Mario Party begins and afterwards you can play your game's story mode. Story mode only really takes the character you select and you adventure through the different boards. Afterwards, you will duel other characters until you make it up to the Millennium Star (I think that's his name?). I definitely feel like they could have added more to a story. 

Depth: 9
Surprisingly there is a lot the game has to offer. Starting with the Story Mode you can go on the main game's adventure competing against different opponents until you've faced the Millennium Star. The cool thing about this mode is being able to duel your opponent in a 1 on 1 battle on a dueling board. This duel starts you out with a partner  who is ahead of you. If you catch up to your enemy by moving forward you will be able to inflict damage on their rear. You can also have a second partner who protects you from the rear and they will take the damage. What's cool is that the duel gets more involved and you have different partners that do different things.

You also have like 70+ mini games. I know I favor like 10 mini-games above all else and love playing them. Mini games range from smashing the "A" button as fast as you can to battling each other with 1 on 1 mini games, 2 on 2, free for all, 1 vs 3 and even battle royale. You always have several different boards you can play on which adds excitement to the game because you're not trapped playing the same board every time you get on. On those boards you have many different spaces. Blue spaces add 3 coins, Red spaces take away 3 coins, ? spaces are action spaces, ! chance spaces and so on. To add to this, Shy Guy is a lot gambling fun.

The most in-depth aspect of the game probably begins and ends with your items which are unlike any other Mario Party. To start, there are your basic items that came over from Mario Party 2 where items were first introduced. Using those items, they went ahead and added cool new rare items. There's a possibility that you're able to encounter some of these rare items that can really help alter game play. In this Mario Party, the game can change on the flip of a coin whether it's by where you land with the roll of your dice or what items you get or whether you get a mini-game that you just suck at. Mario Party is capable of ruining your life forever. Just kidding!

Difficulty: 8
Honestly, Mario Party 3 probably isn't a 8/10 on difficulty here because it really isn't difficult. What really makes this game difficult is playing against other people. That's where the difficulty comes from. The game itself is easy and it offers hard computer A.I. but even hard A.I. are easy to beat because they're programmed to have faults. If you go up against someone else and play with skill then you will have quite the challenge ahead of you!

Overall: 10
Mario Party 3 is great when playing alone but it's even better playing with friends or family. I've always love this game and I can compare it to every game of the series. Mario Party 1 and 2 were also on the N64. Both of these games were also fun. Mario Party 1 was great because it gave birth to the series and it's adventure mode was pretty cool. Mario Party 2 did the same thing except they added items for playing parties. Mario Party 2 took Mario Party 1 to a whole new level. Mario Party 3 took Mario Party 2 to a whole new level. The only thing I would have liked to see was Mario Party 2's adventure single player style brought onto Mario Party 3.

The games after Mario Party 3 just declined in fun. Mario Party 4 ruined the items. Mario Party 5, 6 or 7 added items that effected spaces on the board which I thought was pretty cool but I'd love to see that in a Mario Party 3 duplicate. Mario Party 8 and 9 just flat out ruined Mario Party. I did like 8's boards, those were unique and pretty cool and there were a few cools "candy" that would be cool in Mario Party 3. It's just these newer Mario Party just don't stack up to the greatness in Mario Party 3 and I'm disappointed that this is how things have turned out. Overall, I love Mario Party 3. I recommend you play this version of the series because it's so much more fun than the other games. If net-play sessions work for this, I'm sure that Mario Party 3 can be a lot of fun here on Vizzed.

I love Mario Party 3. It shows new characters to play as, like Daisy and Waluigi, and it brings new games with it as well. MP1 and 2 just redid and rehashed a few minigames between each other, kind of kills some creativity in it. This game is probably my favorite.

Also, great review, Fireproof. You're putting the red jersey in the right place with reviews.

Fireproof : Wow, this is a very nicely, well written review you have done here and I have say that with all the reviews you're posting, you might as well win the whole red TdV jersey with all these reviews you're doing.

Nice job

Thanks guys. The encouragement always helps to keep ya going. It isn't my reviews that are keeping hold on the red Jersey it's my game guides where I'm doing 3000 to 9000 words. I'll probably have to start work on N64 game guides soon, those are gonna take longer lol.