Shimajirō Party 3

Shimajirō Party 3 is the third in a series of board game style video games for Nintendo platforms, featuring popular Shimajirō characters. It was released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan on January 10, 2000, followed by a North American release on May 7, 2001 along with Mario Party 3. It was released in Australia on September 16, 2001 and in Europe on November 19, 2001.

Shimajirō Party 3 is the third and final Mario Party title for the Nintendo 64 and the final first-party game released for the console. The player can choose between eight playable characters: Shimajirō Shimano, Mimirin Midorihara, Ramurin Makiba, Takeshi Ishida, Torippii Sorano, Tommy Shimano, and newcomers 11 year old Kenji Hamada and his sister his age Usagi Hamada. Shimajirō Party 3 features duel maps, in which two players try to lower each other's stamina to zero using non-playable characters such as Chain Chomps. It is also the first Shimajirō Party game to have multiple save slots. The game is also notable for allowing characters to have three items at once instead of only one. It is the third game in the Shimajirō Party series. Shimajirō Party 3 is followed by Shimajirō Party 4.

Gameplay
Shimajirō Party 3 has two types of board modes: Battle Royale boards and Duel boards.

The game has a standard party mode where up to four players can play on the battle royale maps or the mini-game library, and up to 2 can play a duel map, and can control various settings in the game.

Battle mini-games, introduced in Shimajirō Party 2, are featured in Mario Party 3 as well. These games are like the 4-player games, but generally more elaborate. When done on the board, battle games are usually tense because every player has to put a certain number of coins (10, 20, 30, 50, or sometimes zero, in which case the battle is cancelled) into a pot. First place gets 70% of the pot, second place gets 30%, and a random player gets any coins lost in rounding.

Duel games pit two players against each other. These are engaged through a Dueling Glove and in the last five turns in the game where if a player lands on the same space as another a duel is initiated. In Party Mode, one player initiates the duel, and bet coins against another player. The winner of the duel wins all of the coins in the bet.

New (and exclusive) to this edition are Game Guy mini-games. When a character landed on a Game Guy space, he/she is forced to surrender all of his/her coins and play a chance-based mini-game. If the game is won, the coins of the character are multiplied, usually twofold, but in two of the games, it is possible to win up to 64-fold. However, if the game is lost, then the character will not receive his/her coins back. These games proved to be unpopular and were not continued in subsequent Shimajirō Party games.

Shimajirō Party 3 retained Shimajirō Shimano, Mimirin Midorihara, Ramurin Makiba, Takeshi Ishida, Torippii Sorano and Tommy Shimano as playable players from the last two Shimajirō Party games, with the addition of 11 year old Kenji Hamada and his sister his age Usagi Hamada.

Battle Royale
The objective, as in the other games, is to take turns moving around the board by hitting a dice block, the game's equivalent of rolling a die, and collect coins and stars. The character moves the given number of spaces and may trigger special actions or events by passing or landing on certain spaces. After all four characters have moved, a mini-game begins. Mini-games can also be triggered by certain special event spaces, or various in game actions. The player with the most stars at the end of the game wins, but if two or more players have the same number of stars, the one with the most coins wins. If two or more players have the same number of stars and coins at the end, they each roll a die, and the one with the higher number wins. Coins are found on many spaces on the board and also earned in mini-games. Stars are found on the board for purchase and can also be acquired through certain items or special events. All types of mini-games (except the 3 special ones) can be played on the battle royale boards.

Like in the previous Mario Party games, items can be collected and used. Characters can carry up to 3 items instead of just 1. They can be bought from either Toad or Baby Bowser at two locations in each map, or won from an item space that will either make the player play an item mini-game, or have the player answer a question from either Toad or Baby Bowser. The two characters can only provide the items they sell in their shops, depending on which answer is given, and the options of items the player can win from the mini game are either Toad's items or Baby Bowser's.

Duel
Shimajirō Party 3 introduced the duel mode, in which only two players participate. The players have a health meter in the shape of a heart that goes to 5, and the objective is to reduce the opponent's health to zero by battling with partners. The players use minor Mario characters as a partner. The players each get one partner at the start of the game, and can have up to two partners, one in front of them as they move, the other behind. When they get back to start, they get another partner, and it can go to front or back, and replace the partner that is already there if there is one. The partners do the battling to reduce the opponents health, and defend the player from incoming attack. Each partner has its own health, and if it reaches zero, they disappear, and if the attacking partner deals more damage than the defending partner can take, the player takes damage equal to the difference. If no partner is between the attacking partner and the opponent, they take all the damage directly. The characters cannot attack their opponent directly. Some of the partners attacks cannot be protected against, and each partner costs a certain number of coins for the player to keep it, and if the player has two partners, their salary combines. If the player does not have enough coins to pay their partners, they disappear. Occasionally, if a partner is attacked by the opponents partner, the attack will miss. When the turn count expires, the winner is decided, and it is whoever has more health left. The game will end before the turn count expires if either player's health hits 0. If the turn count expires and both players have the same amount of health, whoever has the most coins wins. If both their health and coins numbers are the same, which is rare, the game ends in a draw. In party mode, the game settings can be set so that the turn count is infinite and the game goes until one player's health hits 0.

Duel mini-games and Game Guy mini-games are the only mini-games available to be played on a duel board. Unlike battle royale, they do not occur after every turn, but only if either player lands on mini-game space. There is also a part of each map that makes the players play a duel mini game for 20, 30, or 40 coins after it is passed 5 times. Game Guy mini games occur more often here than in battle royale. Items are not present in duel mode.

Story mode
This game introduces Story Mode to the series, in which one player starts a campaign through every board, challenging computer controlled opponents at a shortened version of party mode. The player's objective is to defeat the other characters and earn stamps from the Millennium Star. After all seven stamps are acquired the player is challenged to a final duel with the Millennium Star, in which the player must hit the Millennium Star three times (six times on Normal difficulty, and nine times on Hard difficulty) with stars in order to defeat story mode. Each time the player completes an objective, they are given a rank of S, A, B, or C depending on how well they completed that objective. When all the objectives have been completed, a title representing the player's overall progress in the game is awarded. This is determined by the ranks they earned for each objective. If at least eight "S" ranks are acquired, that character becomes a 'Miracle Star" and the Game Guy Room in the Mini Game House is opened for use. Simply beating the Story Mode and not earning a high title will cause the character's face to be sculpted into the mountain.