Farewell Nintendo 64
In November 2001, it was goodbye to cardboard boxes, three-pronged controllers and games you could estimate the quality of by weighing the cartridges. Mario Party 3 marked the end of a rather glorious era, having had the honor of being the final N64 title released in Europe. A continent wept.
Mario Party-e
The Game Boy’s import-only e-Reader peripheral forms part of an interesting and unusual card game. Collect coin cards to buy items cards and - best of all - special challenge cards encoded with microdot patterns that contain minigames. Swipe the card through the e-Reader, complete the challenge on the GBA and win more cards from the other players.
Advance
Taking its cue from Party-e, Mario Party Advance includes a real board (well, a fold-out paper one) that can be used in place of the in-game one. It might have been more fun if it instructed players to act out the minigames, but those were all still played on the GBA.
