2/5 ★ – Empyrean's review of Mario Party 3.

I wasn’t expecting Mario Party to go off the rails so quickly, especially with an entry that’s generally considered one of the best. I appreciate a lot of the new additions here, like the new items and cutting down on the single player pace killers, but these positives pale in comparison to the negatives. All new boards, but huge downgrades from 2 (which I wasn’t crazy about to begin with). More mini games than ever, also all new, but very few stand out as being above average. And the big one: duel mode. This one addition absolutely nuked my enjoyment of the game. If it was optional I may have put 3 slightly behind 2, but it’s not so it’s currently bottom of the barrel. Can we just get to Booksquirm already?