Mario Party 3 - BAB
Image: Nintendo Life

We are back with another edition of Box Art Brawl! Are you ready to rank some cover art?

Last time, we took a look at 1080° Avalanche for the GameCube, and the results were an absolute blowout. The European / North American design took a staggering win, claiming 80% of the vote and leaving the Japanese variant with the remaining 20%. Oof, an avalanche indeed.

Today, we're turning back the clock a few years as we match up three covers for Mario Party 3. This third entry in the prized plumber's board game series arrived on the Nintendo 64 in 2000 and introduced franchise staples like a single-player campaign, freely available minigames and — the most important addition of all — Waluigi.

There are three different designs to choose from this week, so grab those dice and let's get ready to roll.

Be sure to cast your votes in the poll below; but first, let's check out the box art designs themselves.

North America

Mario Party 3 - NA
Image: Nintendo / Launch Box

The North American box art follows a similar design trend to the first two games in the series: a big old picture of Mario, arms outstretched. It does a pretty good job of showcasing the hot new features, mind you. The "70 ALL-NEW mini games" slogan does what it says on the tin, and look at ol' Waluigi almost appearing front and centre.

Europe

Mario Party 3 - EU
Image: Nintendo / Launch Box

The European design is identical to its North American counterpart, though the latter region's red strip has been replaced by the signature European black border. This change is enough to showcase a little more of the key art, giving us a better look at Shy Guy, Chain Chomp and the game's all-new host, Millennium Star. It's a subtle change, but a nice look at some extra details.

Japan

Mario Party 3 - JP
Image: Nintendo / Launch Box

As ever, the Japanese cover art makes the most of the region's portrait formatting to give the key art a vertical makeover. There's so much more to see in this variant, with the newly-added Daisy and classic villains appearing up top (including a particularly uncanny Bowser Jr. model), while the full art of Mario and co. sits below. This is also our first chance to see that all the characters are standing on a board game box — the closest indication to what the game's all about that we've seen so far.

Set all that against a starry pink and yellow background and it's a really rather pleasing image.


Which region got the best Mario Party 3 box art?

Thanks for voting! We'll see you next time for another round of Box Art Brawl.