This was the final Mario Party game released in the N64's final days, and the last one created by via a team-up between Nintendo and Hudson. Most gamers, including me, consider it inferior to the first two installments.
The story is a little deeper this time. An ancient star called the Millennium Star descends upon the Mushroom Kingdom. He then teleports Mario and his friends into another dimension contained inside a giant toy box and proclaims that whoever wins and becomes a superstar in yet another board game styled competition may claim ownership over him.
The game introduced two new characters to the roster: Daisy and Waluigi while Tumble replaced Toad as the host of the game. The item system was improved over Mario Party 2 and allowed you to carry several at once. New items like the Barter Box and Koopa Card and Wacky Watch were available in shops. An interesting duel mode with RPG elements was also added, during which two players would build up parties to attack an opponent and reduce their life force to zero.
While not a terrible game by any stretch, it's still marred by a few flaws. First of all, the games development was clearly rushed to be released before the N64 was discontinued, so the graphics looked no better than Mario Party 2 from the previous year. The character models and boards looked rough and unpolished.
Aside from the new characters and items, the games main highlight were the 70 brand new mini games with none recycled from the last two games, although not all of them were very fun. Some, like Aces High were awesome, but others, like Fowl Play, were frustrating and the controls were difficult. But most of them just felt too easy or more based on luck then actual skill. And, finally, the stage designs felt simple and uninspired with much more straightforward board layouts than previous installments.
Overall, gamers who liked classic Mario games would have found more enjoyment playing Mario Party 1 and 2 than this one.
