As evident from my reviews of the first two Mario Party games, I’m not the best person to talk about this series, as I don’t like the main core roll & move mechanic used in the boards. The boards feel the same to me, but those who love the series can detail how they all feel different if you pay attention. The bank mechanic I hated is back, but thankfully not just at the very start of every board, and something I hated from the first has also returned with a vengeance – the singleplayer games, which happened on the first four rounds of the first game I played (thankfully, there’s an option to skip it when a CPU plays it). This time, it’s to provide a random item. The cool costumes from Mario Party 2 are sadly gone, but there’s also a singleplayer story mode of winning every board.

The minigames are all-round a lot of fun, and feel even more refined, with far fewer reskinned versions from previous games. They seem to be less focused on mashing a single button, and instead tapping specifically displayed buttons – for example the 2×2 log chopping button where each log displays A, B, or Z. A couple of standouts for me are Aces High, a dogfighting minigame, and Mario’s Puzzle Party, which is a mini columns-style puzzle game of matching two matching blocks, with a mechanic of using a Thwomp to squish bricks. A singleplayer version can also be unlocked – it might be my favourite Mario Party minigame.

After critics loved the first two Mario Party games, Mario Party 3 ended up being criticised for being more of the same and not offering much new. I do think this is a bit harsh, as the minigames themselves feel a lot more skill-based with more thought needed to complete, rather than more mindless mashing or spinning.

Fun

Our final gripe with Mario Party 3 has to do with the fact that there’s nothing in here that hasn’t already been done before. Twice. It’s essentially the same game, with the same button-bashing, analogue-twizzling style of minigames and the same boring board navigation sections. All Hudson has really done here is change the visual themes of each board an minigames and, well… That’s it. It would almost have been forgivable if it was just an eye-watering graphical treat – but to be blunt, MP3 has a hard job competing with Mario Party 2 in this respect.

Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #60. Review Score: 72%

Remake or remaster?

It’s had a few boards recreated on the Switch, but a complete package of the N64 games with lots of customisation would be ideal.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no way to buy a new copy of Mario Party 3, the only official way to play is to rent it via the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pak.