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Well, let me start by saying that you won't fully appreciate this game unless you've played the first two. The original Mario Party was insanely difficult and didn't offer you a whole lot of choices other than roll and hope you don't get screwed, since it seemed like Bowser was everywhere. In Mario Party 2, items were introduced and alternate game modes. You only got to carry one item and they were insanely expensive. Then came Mario Party 3. Well, let me say, I've never seen a game evolve so much from one sequel to the next.

You will enjoy this game if you've ever played a real-life board game with friends or family. Most living, breathing beings who enjoy a little friendly competition with an interactive backdrop will enjoy this game. Even if you lose, which you will from time to time, it's still a lot of fun. I've only explored the battle royal mode, which is just a fancy name for the regular multiplayer mode, and haven't had a chance to explore the other modes. This mode alone makes the game worthwhile. Even if you don't have anyone to play against, its still fun as a one-player game. How so? Well, for starters, it takes four players to play battle royal mode. If you're short, you can substitute a computer player, so essentially, this is a 1-4 player game. Two new characters have been added, Daisy and Waluigi (both from Mario Golf), for a total of eight characters to choose from.

The single defining quality of this game is that now you can save your game file.... The creators had foresight enough to leave three spaces for saving games under a file name. If you're in the middle of a game, you can go to the options menu and choose "Don't Save", "Save After This Turn", or "Save After Every Turn". That alone is beautiful, no longer do you have to sit and finish a 50-turn game, which could take over two hours to finish. In addition, you can set the speed of the messages and actual gameplay. That helps if you're in a hurry and want to get a quick game in.

Now here is probably one of the most useful features of the game, that isn't explicitly stated in the instruction manual. Say four of you are playing and somebody has to leave. Simply pause the game, and there is a menu option that lets you switch players back and forth between human and computer. Say that person is only gone for a few turns, then pause and switch them back to human when they return....

Also, we've gone from no items, to one item, to being able to carry up to three items at the same time. In addition, the prices have dropped sharply, unlike the real world. That's because there were only a handful of items in MP2. Now there are about double if not more and a lot more opportunities to acquire them. The items are what really make the game unpredictable. That coupled with Chance Time and Hidden Blocks makes it truly anybody's game. Don't worry if one player is dominant at most of the minigames. There is still the possibility of outsmarting them for the win. Some of the new items are truly evil in nature and others very practical and well-thought out. For example, the Boo Repellent is essential for keeping the kleptomaniac apparition at bay. The Cellular Shopper lets you buy an item at any place on the board, on your turn. In addition, there's item that lets you call Bowser and sick 'em on somebody of your choosing, a lamp that moves the star at random, a mushroom that makes someone you choose move backward for one turn, etc. The list goes on and on. The unpredictability of MP3 as opposed to MP2 makes the game incredibly more fun.

Simply put, if you like board games then you'll love this. It is truly a party. Worth every bit of the ... I paid. Nintendo certainly knows how to improve upon its predecessor titles. Go get it!

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After playing this game for a weekend, I'm still getting used to it. I love the Party mode of all the Mario Party Games. In this third installment there are some good and bad points.

The good points... brand new mini games, it's refreshing to have different games to compete against your friends in. I like that there are different item games, and I love that duels are head to head competitions rather than who can press buttons the fastest. There are great new items from the item shop such as cellular shopper and reverse mushroom that are fun. Also the inclusion of two new players (Waluigi and Daisy) are nice.

The bad points...the game seems to last a little longer than the other Mario Party installments. Individual turns last longer because of so many different spots to land on (it's great if it's you, but terrible if you're waiting for your turn). I hate the shy guy gambling game. The computer characters seem almost superhuman in the mini games sometimes, making it nearly impossible to win, and some of the mini games are stupid. Especially M.P.I.Q.(a jeopardy type game testing Mario Party knowledge).

Overall I do recommend this game. It's still fun in a group like the others and it's different enough from MP1 and 2 to make it interesting.

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I have this game in Japanese, and it's really fun. Everyone should buy this game. I have 1 and 2, and this is much better than both. 2 was like the same as 1, but dumber. 3, however, has two main modes: Battle Royale (normal) and Duel modes. The Duel mode is where you control one of the eight characters (the old 6 plus Princess Daisy and Waluigi) and you have an 'friend' (called 'kyara' or characters) such as Boo, Koopa, or Goomba and the object is to defeat your enemy by having your 'character' defeat the opponent. Also, you can have up to three datas. This is useful if you have many people who play. The American version, however, will probably have less because the translators are so stupid (In the Japanese version of Zelda: Majora's Mask, you could have three datas, in the American only two. I have both so don't argue).

When you start to play, there are two choices: Party mode and Story Mode. Party mode is what all MP players are accustomed to, whereas Story Mode is a new one-player mode that takes you through all boards, and you must win one to move to the next one.

The new mini-games are awesome. My favorite is Goro Goro Yukidama, which is this one that's like a snowball fight. As far as I'm concerned, there are no old mini-games. None are repeated, and if they are, they are with such large twists that they are no longer recognizable. There are more memory mini-games, rather than ones where you just push A or B over and over.

By the way, don't trust '12-year-old gamer' from NY, because he clearly has no clue what he's talking about. He also hasn't played the game. He claims that by April 4th the game was 70% done. I had the game WEEKS before April 4th.

Feel free to e-mail me at PunkvilleUSA@home.com

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This game is fun, like the other Mario Party games. It has all the stuff from the other games (Well, not the mini-games, which is why I gave it four stars). You hit the dice block, you get the coins and the stars and win the mini-games.

Mario Party 3 has a deeper story than the others. It's not just some argument that just happened to come up. It's not part of a play or production. In this game, a rare Millenium Star forms and falls on Mario's lawn chair. So all his friends come by and try to claim it, because it's a cool thing to have or something.

The star says he will only be owned by the most worthy guy or girl, so Lakitu comes and drops a board game down called Mario Party. The group is about to play, then the Millenium Star shrinks everyone and sends them into the game.

A new thing in this game, besides the new mini-games and new boards, is the dual board, where you play against one person and try to deplete his heart container. You can also play as Daisy or Waluigi, but not in story mode.

Anyway, I am recommending this game to everyone.

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I admit that I bought this on the first day it came out. I loved MP2 and knew that this would be better. I was not disappointed. The mini-games are more fun, more challenging, and more frustrating, but they aren't incredibly difficult. They are also original enough that you don't mind playing them many times (which you do) in the process of beating the one player story mode.

The graphics are rather simple, but still vibrant enough to be enjoyable. The different boards in battle royal are great. I enjoy the pitfalls and obstacles, especially when you friends get hit with them. I really enjoy that you can play different "games", such as the battle royal maps where you play the typical MP game, or the battle rounds where you actually go around a board and beat up your opponent with partners who are enemies from earlier Mario games such as Koopa and Boo.

If I had kids, I would definitely suggest this as a kid-safe game. The violence that it does suggest, which isn't much, is cartoon style and somewhat hidden. The main example is Waluigi beating up Bowser. The "whupping" is behind a big cloud of dust, so you don't actually see anything. There is no sexual content and no bad language. However, your child will need to be able to read, or play with an older child that can in order to really understand the game.

The main drawback that I see is that the text is hard to read. It isn't very clear on the screen and you have squint to read it. I would prefer that they made it a little larger and use a different font as sometimes it is hard to decipher. Overall, it is a very good game, even to a young adult, like myself.