The third installment in the Mario Party series, it was first released in Japan on December 7, 2000, in North America on May 7, 2001, in Australia on September 3, 2001, and in Europe on November 16, 2001.

The game features duel maps, where two players try to lower each other's stamina to zero using non-player characters such as Chain Chomps.

Mario Party 3 was the final first-party Nintendo 64 game released in North America.

The game received its first official re-release on the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack on October 27, 2023.

The skill level of the computer-controlled characters can be individually adjusted between "Easy", "Medium", or "Hard".

[8] Items can be purchased from shops on the board or won from special single-player mini-games initiated by landing on green spaces marked with Toad's head.

Players that have landed on a green space will be randomly assigned either red or blue as their color before the mini-game is selected.

[6] During the final five turns of a game, a one-on-one Duel mini-game is initiated when a player lands on the same space as another.

If two or more characters have acquired the same amount of coins and Stars, the winner will be determined with a roll of the dice block.

[7] Mario Party 3 includes a Duel mode, in which two players use a selection of up to two partners to attack their opponent and deplete their health.

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 five times.

Simply beating the Story Mode and not earning a high title will cause the character's face to be sculpted into the mountain.

It is the first Mario Party game to have multiple save slots and the first to have Princess Daisy and Waluigi as playable characters.

[14] While GamePro calling it "one of the last and best games you can play on the system with up to three buddies",[20] other reviewers were critical of Mario Party 3 for largely using the same gameplay as the previous installments, with only minimal changes.

"[26] Other common points, both positive and negative, included the mini-games, new features, and how the title compared to previous entries.

Gavin Frankle of AllGame called Mario Party 3 the most enjoyable in the series, reasoning that it "provides enough to entice new fans and satisfy existing ones".

However, Shea and Dr. Moo was critical of the series' usual incorporation of random luck, as well as having to wait for computer-controlled opponents.

[21][23] One negative comment among the Nintendo Power staff review was that "it seems like many of the challenges are based on overcoming unresponsive controls.

"[22] Fran Mirabella III of IGN stated that the game "uses the same bright colors, low-resolution textures, and choppy animation that the rest have.

[22] Mirabella considered the music "just as outdated as the graphics," but also called it "very cute" and wrote that it "does the job of keeping your ears occupied in the cheesiest of ways.

[30] The game sold over 1,000,000 units worldwide;[31] however, largely due to being released late in the Nintendo 64's lifespan, it did not sell well in western regions.