The story (if you need one) behind Mario Party 3 is that the precious Millennium Star has fallen into Princess Peach's courtyard and Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Wario, and Donkey Kong (his friends call him DK) all want to claim it for their own. Hence the wild and furious competition.

The layout is like that of a traditional board game, with players rolling dice to advance. Unlike your traditional game board, though, this one is filled with all sorts of strange hazards, like giant rolling snowballs and runaway mine carts. The idea of the game is to collect the most coins, which are earned in a variety of team and individual minigames. The minigames range from a pizza-eating contest to Dorrie Dip, which lets you ride on the back of the giant lake monster from Super Mario 64.

But even having the most coins won't ensure your victory. Boo's thievery, X's game of chance, and Bowser's nasty tricks all have their ways of redistributing the game's momentum. To win in this game, it's not enough to be good--you've also got to be lucky. But that, of course, is what makes this series so much fun.