I thought I would find a topic like this here. Goes well with what I recently thought was an underrated Mario game: Mario Party 3! (Ha Ha Ha! ...weh)
When you see the lists asking people what their favourite Mario Party game, the number one choice would usually be Mario Party 2, especially if they have to choose between Nintendo 64 ones. This is likely because it's the first Mario Party to hit all the right notes, presumably from lessons learned from making the first Mario Party: no more rotating control stick minigames, minigames only increasing coins except for Battle minigames and boards having more strategy when players can use an item at any time. However, I believe that Mario Party 3 is the most definitive version as opposed to Mario Party 2.
The first thing is, Mario Party 3 has more originality in that, all the minigames introduced in this game are all brand-new, as opposed to how Mario Party 2 has several minigames taken from the first game, so it's not all original. Granted, they are some of the best minigames, but Mario Party 3's higher originality factor makes it better given that it has more minigames than the second game. Its paper aesthetic, while likely inspired from Paper Mario, gives the game a stronger thematic identity since it encompasses the hub area, boards and minigames, making the whole game coherent in style. The story is also full of fun moments, incorporating the millennium aspect into the game (this game was released at around the year 2000, after all). Let's not forget that we have two extra playable characters in this game that would go on to be part of the "Main 7" of Mario Party, never missing a Mario Party except for Advance.
The boards have a deeper strategy compared to Mario Party 2, for not only introducing more items that can be used, but also allows people to have up to three items. You would know how much of a game changer it is to have the ability to hold three items as opposed to Mario Party 2's one item limit, mainly since players are afforded more options than ever. One such item is a Boo Repellant, so now a Boo Bell doesn't guarantee a steal. Not only that, but there are those Action Times that, while players can time their actions correctly, can also purposefully fail them to put players at a good spot. The Duel Boards are also somewhat strategic and fast-paced, since each board has a theme that dictates how the board plays: one board has pipes that brings people to a different area each time, while another has a fan that swaps partners after crossing it.
The game is overall more accessible as well. You have the option to change the number of turns instead of picking the standard 20, 35 or 50 turns, so a quick game of 10 turns is not out of the question. There is even a Handicap system so that less experience players have a Star advantage. There's even an option to avoid the "hard" minigames. But that's not all: during boards, you can change the speed of the game to be Fast, so that every character moves quickly and AI dialogue moves faster. You can even skip all the AI minigames because not everyone wants to watch AI plays games on their own. Perhaps an advantage with this game as opposed to Mario Party 2 is the ability to replay the minigames as soon as you play them (unplayed minigames are denoted as "???" so you know which ones require unlocking), whereas in the prequel you have to buy the games with coins earned per board, and some of these minigames can only be unlocked after playing the Minigame Coaster (which you have to pay for all the played minigames to unlock: a time-consuming process). At least Minigame Coaster's cool, and it's something I wish Mario Party 3 has.
I suppose it's probably just me experiencing Mario Party 3 first over 2, but even then I feel that Mario Party 3 is genuinely great. The only problem I found is that this game is not as readily available. In fact, Mario Party 2 is the only Mario Party that has been re-released (besides Advance and DS on Wii U Virtual Console), so more people got to experience that game. It's also bad timing on Mario Party 3's part, since it was released so late on the Nintendo 64 that it was not experienced by more people. I have a feeling that Japanese people liked Mario Party 3 better based on two Mario remixes that incorporated Mario Party 3's music as Mario Party representation (Super Mario Ceremony 2011 used Let's Get a Move On and Mario Disco 2015 used Nice and Easy).
Thank you for reading.
