Which Mario Party game first had boards fully rendered in 3D?

Mario Party 4 was the first game in the series with boards fully rendered in 3D.

Released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002, Mario Party 4 moved the board environments beyond the flatter presentation associated with the Nintendo 64 entries. Its six boards use fully 3D-rendered settings, characters, objects, and visual effects, making the upgrade one of the sequel’s most visible changes.

The wording matters because “fully rendered in 3D” is not the same as saying that Mario Party 4 was the first game in the series to use any 3D graphics. Earlier games already included 3D character models and three-dimensional minigame scenes. Mario Party 4’s distinction concerns the board environments themselves.

Another frequent mix-up involves navigation: the board spaces were still arranged in a largely 2D layout until Mario Party 5. Thus Mario Party 4 introduced fully 3D boards, while the later game advanced the underlying navigational presentation as well.