Minigames (ミニゲーム, Minigeimu^?, Minigame) appear in Mario Party 3. They occur on boards, Mini-game Mode, Story Mode and Party Mode.

On boards

Every type of minigame except rare minigames are present on boards. After all players finished their turn on the board, the type of minigame is sorted depending on the space they landed. If it is neither the Red Space or Blue Space, the color on the player's tag. Tumble then appears and transforms into a banner, not affecting gameplay. The Minigame Roulette appears while the player can press to stop the roulette. It then transfers the screen into black with a white outline of Tumble, then transfers to the minigame or the minigame rules; this does not affect gameplay. After the minigame, the player receives the respective amount of coins.

In Item minigames, if the player receives an item, the player claims it in the gameplay. A Paragoomba hosts battle minigame telling the player to spin the roulette. The host will take the number of coins from other players, and they compete in a battle minigame.

Types of minigames

4-player minigame

A 4-player minigame includes four characters competing each other in one minigame. On boards, the winner receives additional coins while the other players receive no coins. The winning and losing animations indicate if the player won or lost, but it does not affect the gameplay. After one player manages to survive or has the most points, the winner does his/her victory animation with other characters are absent on-screen. If the first player reaches the goal, the winner performs his/her victory animation while other players perform their losing animation on-screen or off-screen. If all players manage to win, all of the players does their victory animation.

1 vs. 3 minigame

A 1 vs. 3 minigame consists of four players playing the minigame. One player competes against three players vice versa to win the minigame. There are minigames which the solo player aims to defeat their opponents while the three players aim to continue surviving in the minigame. There are other minigames that the three players trying to defeat the solo player, who tries to survive in the gameplay. Other minigames also have players racing to their goal before either of them reaches it.

2 vs. 2 minigame

A 2 vs. 2 minigame consists of four characters split into two teams of two players. The two teams compete with each other to win the minigame. There are most minigames where the teams compete individually such as Hyper Hydrants. On boards, the winning team receives coins individually. The winning and losing animations indicate if the team won or lost, but it does not affect the gameplay. If the winning team manages to reach the goal before the other team or have the most points, the two players on the winning team perform their victory animation while the other two players perform their loss.

Battle minigame

A battle minigame is a type of minigame which all four players compete each other. The gameplay is similar to the 4-player minigame, except it is determined by the order of the score or place. On boards, players earn coins depending on the place they are on.

Duel minigame

A duel minigame is a type of minigame where two players compete each other to win. There are minigames have the players can come in contact. There are minigames have rules that the players must race each other to the end. There are minigames have rules where two players have to survive the minigame. One player can win the minigame, otherwise resulting a tie. Duel minigames occur on regular boards and Duel Boards.

Item minigame

An item minigame is a type of minigame that necessarily occurs on boards. Only one player plays this minigame, aiming to grab any item apart from missing it. Koopa Kid is present in every item minigame. Item minigames may consist on timing or searching the desired item. With Koopa Kid present in some mingames, the player is rewarded nothing if they miss an item (like Bobbing Bow-loons), or grabbing Koopa Kid or receiving wrong item (like Winner's Wheel). While playing on boards, if the player gets an item, the item is present on the board and belongs to the player.

Rare minigames

A Rare minigame is a type of minigame played by one player. It does not appear on Party Mode boards. The solo player plays this minigame that have longer duration. This is considered to have the least minigames on this genre.

Game Guy's minigame

Game Guy's minigame is a type of minigame which one player can play it. Game Guy's minigames are hosted by Game Guy, hence the name. Every minigame starts with "Game Guy's". The player has the amount of coins spent before playing the minigame. If the player wins, the player has an option to double their amount or finish. If the player loses, the player loses all of his/her coins. On boards, if the player lands on the Game Guy Space, Game Guy will appear automatically taking all the players' coins. The player receives coins in the same manner in betting. The minigames can be played in Game Guy's Room.

List of minigames

Main article: List of minigames in Mario Party 3

There is a total of 71 minigames in Mario Party 3. There are twenty 4-player minigames, ten 1 vs. 3 minigames, ten 2 vs. 2 minigames, eight battle minigames, ten duel minigames, six item minigames, three rare minigames and four minigames.