Less Than the Sum of Its Parts | Mario Party 3

[@zjzr08]

Wait what, Spiny Desert's Action Time ironically gives you handful options where to go based on the combinations of cacti you want to actually be hit or not - I will say the annoying thing here is the quicksand where it can feel dragging especially if someone keeps on hitting the happening space back-and-forth, I think the desert theming is done well here.

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

This video I'm mixed on. You do make some valid points and I'll even agree that Spiny Desert and Creepy Cavern aren't the best designed boards (I'm genuinely surprised you like Game Guy, I don't like that), but a lot of it didn't do much except making me bring up questions like "can you elaborate more?", "Why is 1/3 of the minigame selection shitty?" and etc. I should mention that I haven't played Mario Party 3 until a couple of years ago (cost me £75). At the time, I preferred 6 and 7. More recently however, this is the strongest entry in my eyes and I gained a stronger appreciation for it after watching ZoomZike's video. The boards are very intricate which adds so much replay value especially with the improved item system, minigames are less repetitive, more responsive and utilise the analog stick in more innovative ways (the game certainly could have done a better job teaching how some of them worked though like Bowser Toss) and being able to speed up the gameplay makes single player far less tedious than any of the other instalments. I like Mario Party 2 a lot as well, but 3 is more enjoyable. You're fine to not like it anymore (or do you still like it? That wasn't made very clear) and I respect that, but half of it is lacking in elaboration. I'll give the other ones a watch to see if they're any better. No hard feelings.

[@lightninja4795]

Yeah i dont get it he says there bad but does not give any deep reasons why hes just like there bad. I also disagree with him on the boards.

[@BigShowGunnoe]

Anyone ever notice Mario Party 3 has more of a darker, depressing feel when compared to the happier Mario Party 2?

[@chaithao1452]

Yes, we know that.

[@JasontheMason5]

I’ve never played most of the Mario Parties but I’m so invested in this series

[@luke6784]

One thing I appreciate about your mario party videos is that you define some frameworks to discuss recurring mechanics (such as coining terms for board types). I think your board analysis could use work, but I do appreciate that you at least create frameworks like this. For example, you can get to the other half of the board in deep bloober sea easily via reverse shroom, and you were completely off the mark on not being able to control where you go in spiny desert (through the action time cactus section).

[@real_Furryratchet]

Mario Party 3 is my favourite Mario Party of all time :) I even play it today. So good memories and it has probably the best item selection to create chaos and a crazy party! It's a shame we have only one HD board from this game.

[@lightninja4795]

Man I did not know that it was possible for a gimmick to ruin an ENTIRE BOARD lol.

[@ConquerorsHouse]

I think it’s so refreshing to see someone share a DIFFERENT opinion on 3 for once, it starts to get irritating seeing the same games from the series praised infinitely.

[@BigShowGunnoe]

Hi CowFoodYum! I'm really curious what goes into your criteria for an "awful minigame". Can you tell us how you evaluate bad minigames from the titles you play?

[@phanpyken986]

Personal board rankings 6. Creepy cavern(very bland and not interesting) 5. Woody Woods(A little bit better Luigi’s engine room 4. Deep bloober sea(standard board but the ? with the blooper can be annoying) 3. Waluigi’s Island(I like this board and hate this board at the same time. I like it because of the all space island however I don’t like the bomb mechanic or the trap to get to boo because the star can get stuck up there) 2. Chilly waters(basic board and it helps you get used to the game) 1. Spiny desert(one of the few unique gimmicks that I like) Also a pro you didn’t include is that you can speed up the game but turning off AI minigames and change the movement speed

[@NoNameTheFirst]

I’d switch Chilly Waters and Waluigi’s Island. I hate the halfsies of Deep Bloober Sea, but it is mitigated by the abundance of Happening’s in the middle, and the fact that you can use a Golden Mushroom to skip most of the two pathways. Spiny Desert Action Time is fantastic and gives you control of where you want to go on the board. The sinking sand is very stupid and frustrating, but that’s genuinely my only complaint. Creepy Cavern is garbage. The aesthetic and music are fantastic, but the board is split into quarters, and it is very difficult to traverse from upper quarter to lower quarter if King Whomp is in the way, and Thwomp is the only consistent way to travel from left half to right half of the board.

[@mack_r-s]

@@NoNameTheFirst For my board ranking, I would also swap Chilly Waters and Waluigi’s Island since I really don’t like Chilly Waters’ 50-50 ice slip. Other then that though, the rest of his choices I 100% agree with (though I do really like Deep Bloober Sea for it’s amazing music).

[@nintendoboy3605]

Most of the boards in Mario Party are Bostarian Star Hunting boards.

[@mack_r-s]

Until the Gamecube era of course. More specifically, Mario Party 6, 7 and 8.

[@nintendoboy3605]

@@mack_r-s Dont forget ds

[@mack_r-s]

@@nintendoboy3605 Yeah, that too.

[@rodolfovargas7952]

I love that Boo can counter-attack the rival's partner to defend Yoshi; also, I like Spiny Desert and Arrowhead.

[@mack_r-s]

My main issue with Arrowhead is how theirs zero alternative pathways, so your just going in a straight line hoping to get a high enough roll to catch up to your opponent. I’d say adding in items like the reverse mushroom to the duel mode would fix pretty much all of its minor issues. As of now it’s still a pretty good side mode.

[@mack_r-s]

Wait… Sorry. I’m talking about Backtrack, not Arrowhead. I keep getting the names of those two mixed up.

[@wizardwor511]

Tis guys explanation voice is reminiscent of James Rolfe in his movie reviews. Very matter of fact sounding. I Iike it

[@Acacius1992]

I still love Mario Party 3. Even today its my favorite one x3

[@lightninja4795]

Ok guys do not listen to him its just his thoughts there is no way you can objective say the boards are bad and a lot of the mini games are bad theres a reason why its considered one of the best as most people do not see the boards as bad the only board which i can see as poorly constructed is waluigis island. Chilly waters-The ice breaks if 2 people step on it not just you and its a 50/50 to get off thats the only thing with the board and the 50/50 does not ruin the entire board. Woody woods-Better luigis engine room and can you can plan around the signs with double and triple dice blocks. Spiny desert-Again the mirage does not ruin the board and he is complaining that it could have been executed better but thats how a mirage works in real life you eyes are telling you something is there when theres not. Theres only 2 happening spaces on each side of the sandpits except for one side which has 3 but thats only going backwards. Creepy cavern-Omg you can have everything you want just get what item the guy wants and give it to him and if you land on the happening space before him its a guaranteed pass. Plus there are skeleton gates and the train to cross the different sides. Deep blooper sea-This is the only one i could see a problem. Waluigi island-When you go to the middle its not always rng and you can time it so theres only 1 truly rng passing and thats the trap.

[@sithlordmikeyp]

what do you mean by Bostonian? im not from boston

[@BoardGamesBricksHobbies]

Most of the streets in Boston are based off of old foot paths, so they seem to randomly sprawl everywhere!

[@ElykTsorb]

I dunno I liked Duel Mode

[@robertlauncher]

Just hated the story mode. Too long to unlock everything and losing a full Mario party game and having to start over sucks

[@zjzr08]

My issue mostly with MP3 story mode is that I felt 15 turns is too few and it kinda just depends on the Bonus Stars at the end - I'm not sure if it's a hot take but 35 turns (which is the "Standard" from 1-3) could've been used. That being said the story is surprisingly pretty good, giving Daisy and Waluigi great spotlight, and Bowser goofiness that's actually more complex, with him wanting the player to avenge him hehe.

[@lightninja4795]

I have never disagreed so hard until i watched this.

[@TarlukLegion]

Something you didn't mention is how the artstyle in MP3 is way, *way* worse than in MP1 and MP2. It's supposed to be this picture book-like artstyle, but it really, really doesn't work. Both MP1 and MP2 have actually aged pretty well graphically, but you could fix everything else in MP3 that you mentioned and I still wouldn't be as fond of it because it just looks so godawful. Even if the main mechanical flaws of the boards were fixed, they'd still suffer from the fact that they feel extremely generic. The boards of MP1 and especially MP2 have so much personality to them that all of them feel fairly appealing to play (though for MP1, there's an asterisk for "provided you know the game's mechanics and you know the cheatcode to make Bowser's Magma Mountain have always-star roulettes), but MP3's boards outside of Waluigi's Island have next to no personality. You have an ice board that's a worse version of Space Land, a blue board, a desert board with a can of purple paint spilled on the top right corner of it for no good reason, a green board, and a worse version of Horror Land. Oh, and Mario Party 3 was the game that introduced Boo Repellant. Fucking _Boo Repellant,_ the most unfun item in the history of the series. There were so many other cool items in Mario Party 3, but through some herculean leap in logic that we mere mortals could not possibly comprehend, the devs thought that Boo Repellant was the one that should be remade for both Mario Party 4 AND Mario Party 6.

[@zjzr08]

I don't see why Boo repels are bad, they add a layer in where you sacrifice an item slot for Boo protection, where some players feel pressured using their "Boo Bells" to remove it so someone else can a steal a Star.

[@johnnyroberts3761]

I think the first Mario Party has not aged well, but 2 & 3 have in my opinion. 3 gets too much hate, it’s still a very fun game.

[@tb3411]

There's more luck in 3 than the usual Mario Party and it really gets in the way. Especially with that fucking Game Guy. 3 is no doubt the weakest entry. It's a shame because I loved the idea of Duel Mode here.

[@mack_r-s]

I've always went back and fourth on MP3. I want to say that it's better then 2 for the improved item system and pretty good duel mode, but there's always something keeping me from saying it. So for now, I'll just say that I like 2 and 3 equally.

[@antant6217]

that battle tier list feels pretty off to me. there's no way that toad and koopa are better than goomba and boo. i liked this video but i generally agreed a lot with your pros and cons. luigi's taunt is better in 3, questionaires are too powerful for me, action time is a bit too easy so sometimes ? spaces don't do anything. i actually really hate dueling for stars in later games. i also found 2 to have about as many minigame duds as 23, if not a bit more (i think 1vs3s in general are duds in a majority of the series) also i love game guy too

[@NoNameTheFirst]

The Duel Tier list was just not there. Boo is top tier. And while I can see the argument that Waluigi is specifically not good because that means you get Piranha Plant early who costs 5, Piranha Plant as a partner is obviously top tier as the only partner able to consistently 2 shot the opposing player. Goomba is just below Boo. Whomp is probably in the same tier as Goomba as he can take two hits from every partner not named Piranha Plant (and Baby Bowser). Snifit is also there as he costs more than Goomba, but gives you coins (effectively reducing his cost) and has extra defense. Bob-omb is terrible. 3 coin per turn for 1 damage on the opposing player one time. No sir. Koopa is mid tier, but offense is better than defense. Toad is not good. In early game, if you’re walking around with Toad, coins shouldn’t be an issue anyway. Just use Koopa or Goomba. In late game, coins shouldn’t be an issue either, and you’ll want higher atk/def partners. My tiers for partners would be S-Tier: Boo, Piranha Plant A-Tier: Goomba, Whomp, Snifit B-Tier: Koopa C-Tier: Toad D-Tier: Bob-omb

[@antant6217]

@@NoNameTheFirst My big problem with duel mode is that your default partner is tied to your character. I don't like having character tiers in Mario Party. Bad partners like Bob-omb would at least have value later in the game if you want to pick off the captain's last bits of hp without the expense of chain chomp, but for the early game it's just kinda awful. I think Snifit is pretty good early on as long as you win an early minigame or two. Either way I think it's a mode that can be easily expanded and improved on, but unfortunately I think it's just totally dead. Imagine a 2vs2 mode or something.

[@zjzr08]

@@NoNameTheFirst Yeah, I also rarely wanted Toad unless it's double Toad - you want to be offensive I feel and frail defenses won't cut it; I say Koopa and Goomba are better, and I agree Boo is top tier due to its beefy attack, manageable cost and counter-attack.

[@NoNameTheFirst]

@@zjzr08 And if you want double Toad, just get double Koopa for the same price and extra defense or double Goomba for 2 extra coins, but a whopping 3 Atk.

[@lx9612]

Mario party 3 is good but its just overrated

[@ultrairrelevantnobody1862]

Overrated is a word I came to dislike. It doesn't tell me anything other than 'you don't entirely agree'. I watched some of his videos and there's not much elaboration on his points and there's not a lot of substance. Leaving me with one lasting impression. I feel nothing.

[@BigShowGunnoe]

5:32 Duel mode is "queer," where are all the people getting offended by this?!?

[@yourgoodolunclejoe2894]

Nope, just you queer

[@thehussiteking]

Why would you get offended by it? He didn't called anyone queer as an insult.

[@scantyer]

I'd fix the game guy by making him steal HALF of your coins in the initial encounter, and if u win and want to gamble more then he would get all of your coins. I hate the concept of losing all of your coins by sheer fucking luck

[@solidfire2923]

or how about the way it is done in Mario Party 7? Toadsworth offers you to play and you select the amount of coins to gamble into a lick based game. Much better than you jus losing all your coins due luck, now is a choice

[@zjzr08]

@@solidfire2923 I think adjusting it to at least half your coins should be gambled is a thing - I'm probably one of the few that liked Game Guy's all or nothing approach (mostly because the Chomp cake and Toad box games are "easy" ways to double coins) but I think a half or more approach won't be bad.

[@mack_r-s]

@@zjzr08 Yeah, start it with half and then double it from there. I still love game guy to no end though, and it sucks that he's not coming back in Superstars. "Going back to it's roots," my you-know-what.