Plus, if you didn’t know already, this Comparison is based on a scale from zero to four stars (and I thank Ludwig 222 for using my scale on his Yoshi’s Safari Review).
Graphics: 1: ** 2: ** 3: **1/2
Well, the graphics never were anything to make
commotion over, because the rest of the game is where
it really matters. Who cares if Mario didn’t
have fingers or if Mario Party 3 had a paper theme at times? The gameplay
itself is the best part. Winner? #3.
Sound: 1: ***1/2 2: **1/2 3: ***
Eternal Star, Wario’s Battle Canyon, Mario’s Rainbow
Castle, and Dodging Danger (the Dark Land music!!!)
were enough to win awards by themselves. But
all three Mario Parties lost points for some horrible voice
casting (Wario in 1 & 2, Peach in all three,
Daisy in 3), which made the main characters sound horrible,
although I always love to hear that “Oor-oor!”
from Whomp and the “Oor!” from Thwomp. Mario Party 2 had a
pretty nice tune for Space Land, but not much
besides it. Mario Party 3 had that great Game Guy winning
music, the Music Room’s music, and, of course,
the Creepy Cavern music, which I didn’t believe Lemmy that
it was good until I heard it- and got it stuck
in my head for about a month. Winner? #1.
Difficulty: 1: **** 2: **1/2 3: ***
Ah, the good ol’ cheating A.I.! If you love cheating computers, losing your Stars at random times, getting a 1 when you’re 2 away from the Star on the last turn or have an imbecile on your tail, losing all those Game Guy games, having no chance at Pedal Power or Toppling Towers (or something like that, but that name scares me!), then the Mario Party series is for you, no matter what! It’s hard on easy. But I like a challenge, and it’s fun to yell at the screen at 2 in the morning. If you want an easy game, then turn on handicaps or use a Game Shark. It ain’t over till it’s over, and those final three Stars make me want to puke when my one-Star lead becomes a last-place finish thanks to those dumb Stars at the end and a few tiebreakers. Which reminds me, once in the Duel Mode, I had a complete tie (Heart Pieces and Coins), and I won on a dice-hitting tiebreaker (get the highest number of you and your opponent and you win). Anyway, that Eternal Star board? Please. Don’t get me started about Baby Bowser’s bet-a-Star game. Winner? #1.
Characters: 1: *** 2: ***1/2 3: ****
The Koopalings didn’t make it, everyone, again.
I’ll explain again why they would have been perfect (if you
didn’t know where they could have fit right in).
Mario was in the game, and his “Hoo-hoo”s were annoying as
always. #2 beat #1 because of better use of characters,
and #3 had partners and Daisy (she and Yoshi are the best!). Waluigi? Well,
if you don’t use him, you don’t need to worry about him. Like Thwomps and
Whomps? Even if you don’t, you’ll have to. By the way, in Mario Party 1,
for a slight advantage over your opponents (although the game is supposed
to be impartial to every character), pick DK. In the Coin Block hitting
game, where you hit overhead ? Blocks for coins, DK’s size makes him bigger,
and thus quicker to hit the blocks. That may win you ten extra coins, but
it’s better than just picking a random character. Winner? #3.
Gameplay: 1: *** 2: ***1/2 3: ****
Good, better, best. The whole idea of a board
game with collecting coins and buying Stars and having
Mini-Games was perfect. However, Mario Party
the 1st didn’t have items, and Mario Party the 2nd only let
you hold one item. If Mario Party the 3rd let
you use as many items as you wanted on one turn, then it would
have been absolutely perfect. Anyway, no complaints
here. Winner? #3.
Controls: 1: **** 2: **** 3: ****
Perfect, perfect, perfect. You couldn’t have asked
for any easier and better controls. In fact, I don’t think
any Mario game lacks four stars in this category.
Winner? All three.
Boards: 1: *** 2: ***1/2 3: **1/2
Mario Party 2 gave the biggest and best boards.
The others were a notch below. I really liked how there
were certain themes to Mario Party 2’s and Mario
Party 1’s boards. In Mario Party 3, it seemed like the
programmers were in a hurry to get in whatever
board they thought of. So they had five mismatched boards. I love everything
about those boards EXCEPT the ! Spaces and the Game Guy Spaces.
The ! Spaces appeared less in Mario Party 2 than #1, giving it a better
score there. The Game Guy Spaces were horrible to land on in Mario Party
3, giving it the lowest score of all three. Winner? #2.
Mini-Games: 1: *** 2: ***1/2 3: ****
The Mini-Games were good in Mario Party #1, better
in Mario Party #2, and best in Mario Party #3. 70?! Wow!
Any Mario Party offers 4, 3 vs. 1, and 2 vs.
2 mini-games. Mario Party #1 offered 1-player mini-games (the best being
Whack-a-Plant), which were quickly replaced in Mario Parties 2 and 3 by
Item Mini-Games, which offered more excitement and incentive to the one-player
games. The Nice Battle Mini-Games (#2 and #3)
offered a big jackpot to the winner, and the
Nice Duel Mini-Games (#2 and #3) offered more big jackpots for big bets.
I liked the way the Mini-Games were presented in Mario Party 3, as completely
brand new games. By the way, the best Mini-Games were Shell Shocked (#2),
and Snowball Summit (#3). Winner? #3.
Items: 1: no stars 2: **1/2 3: ***1/2
The items, as mentioned before, offered a lot
more excitement to this game, including some game-changing
ones. Mario Party #1 didn’t have any, so the
no-star-rating is obvious. Mario Party #2 offered a few items, only one
item being able to be held at a time, although multiple items could be
used at once (Plunder Chest stealing). Mario Party #3 let you have three
items, and offered tons of them, but you could only use one per turn (which
hurts on the last turn). That’s the only fault with the item system in
Mario Party 3, which gets the nod here, again. Winner? #3.
Incentive/Replayability: 1: **** 2: **1/2 3: 1/2
By incentive, I mean what you’re playing for.
In Mario Party The First, there are tons to play for (Coins for
Mini-Games, for special Items, for Magma Mountain,
Stars for Eternal Star). In Mario Party The Second,
you want to unlock Bowser Land and easily-bought
Mini-Games, but that’s about it. In Mario Party The
Third, the incentive, if you can call it that,
was to unlock the Game Guy Room, so you can lose a thousand
times. That’s it. Winner? #1.
Mini-Game Island/Coaster: 1: ***1/2 2: **** 3: no stars
This was a great concept. Play all the Mini-Games
and win them all. Of course, in Mario Party 3, they were
rushing to finish the game, and somehow left
out this great concept, which may have pushed it over the top.
The Island got better in Mario Party 2 with The
Coaster, where you have to beat Mini-Games sometimes three times, and at
harder levels each time. Ready to get beat down? By the cheating A.I.?
Of course! Actually, you should go pretty far on the Coaster, at least
at first, and be ready for a surprise at the
end. Winner? #2.
Mini-Game Stadium: 1: *** 2: **1/2 3: no stars
Another case of the rushing to get Mario Party
3 in. The stadium was basically a competition of Mini-Games.
The winner would be the best at the Mini-Games
chosen. In #1, you had to go around a Star, which is what I
thought it was, while in #2, it was a smaller
board, while #3 shunned the whole idea altogether. In all three, they offered
a little battle thing where you competed in pre-chosen games, but this
was really not much more than just playing the games again. They didn’t
count for much of anything, while in #3 they were hidden in that one door.
Why hide it back there? Anyway, the Mario Party 1 concept was the best.
Winner? #1.
Koopalings: 1: no stars 2: no stars 3: no stars (obviously)
The first game had a huge chance to put the Koopalings
in. How about that Eternal Star board? Seven Baby
Bowsers, seven Koopalings. Although Paper Mario
was the nail in the coffin for the Koopalings, Mario Party
Number One was the one that started the whole
N64 “let’s laugh in the Koopalings’ fans’ faces by making
obvious places for them and not putting them
in” thing. Will they ever appear in a game? Don’t count on it... Winner?
None.
Fun Factor!: 1: ***1/2 2: **** 3: ****
The fun is what this game’s all about. Great fun, I must say, although that coin-losing from Mini-Games deal made Number One lose half a star. That’s all. Winner? #2 and #3.
OVERALL: 1: *** 2: *** 3: ***
Don’t believe me? From a game-player’s standpoint,
#3 wins. From a game-maker’s standpoint, #1 wins. From a game-buyer’s standpoint,
#2 wins. From a game-reviewer’s standpoint, in the end, they all even up,
and get that “Good” rating that I gave Paper Mario. Buy all three. Or else.
By the way, Mario Kart: Super Circuit got three and a half stars, and you
may be shocked that it’s better than these three and Paper Mario, but it
was a Game Boy Advance game, not a N64 game.