Mario Party Advance

"Mario Party Advance, a good party game for GBA."

It's another Mario Party with more mini-games, another story and a lot of fun. Don't expect it to be like the Gamecube ones, but for GBA the game is good.

Story: 8/10
All Mario Party's have different stories and this one is no exception. Bowser as invaded the Party World and he stole a lot of mini-games and Gaddgets, mini-games created by Prof. Elvin Gadd. Bowser knocks away some of the mini-games into Shroom City, the city below Party World. The objective of Mario and his friends is to go to Shroom City and collect all mini-games and Gaddget's. Since Bowser has some of the Gaddget's, Mario and friends also need to battle him.

Graphics: 6.5/10
Since this game was made for GBA, the graphics aren't as good as the Gamecube ones. Anyway, the graphics could have been better and they should have been made them in a Mario Party style, because some of the graphics of this game, especially on the board map, don't look like they are from a Mario Party.

Sound: 8.5/10
Some of the music of this game was taken from Mario Party 3 and 4. There are a lot of new musics as well. The music is perfect for almost all mini-games and it doesn't get annoying too quickly. The other sounds of this game are good as well. Some of the new musics should have been better, but the other musics taken from the other Mario Party's are great.

Gameplay: 8.5/10
The gameplay of Mario Party Advance is more focused on the single player than the multi player. You travel through Shroom City by using your personal Mushroom Car. This game is different from other Mario Party's because you're objective is to get all Gaddget's and not to collect stars. You have a certain amount of mushroom's when you start the game. Every time you use the dice block to move on, you lose one mushroom. You can get mushrooms by playing mini-games that will appear every three turns you take. You have to do the quests that the villagers ask you to get a Gaddget. Sometimes you just have to answer a question, other times you have to travel through many places. When you complete a quest you get a Gaddget and a star appears over the location that you have cleared. I can play as Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi. Whoever you choose determines where you will start in the board map. For example, Peach start's at the Jungle Area and Luigi at the Beach Area. The mini-games are fun and original. There are some unlockables and you will have fun playing the Gaddget's.

Play Time/ Replayability: 6.5/10
You will take some time to complete the game and unlock all its secrets. You can spend a lot of time playing the mini-games and breaking records. It's even funnier when you play it with your friends. After you have done everything in Shroom City you won't have any reason to go back there, unless you are curious about something or just want to go around the board, so almost all the time you will be playing mini-games and after a while it can be annoying to just have mini-games to play and nothing more to do.

Overall 7.6/10
The game is good because of the mini-games and the music. The story is also good. The graphics could be better. If you don't know if you should buy or rent it, I sugest you to rent it first and if you like the game, then buy it. The game is great if you play it with your friends. This game can be very addicting if you try to beat records on all the mini-games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/05