Mario Party Advance

"YEAH! Another fun Mario party game... what the crap!"

I am a fan of the Mario party games (not a big fan mind you, but a fan) I really enjoy playing the games on multi-play and single-play, however, the multi-play in this one sucks, that's why I said "What the crap!" It is still a wonderful game, let me explain:

Graphics- First things first, the graphics, graphics don't make a game let me tell you, but still these are nice colorful graphics that are easy and pleasing to the eyes, they are not the most detail, but they have that Mario Party style, which I like very much. The graphics in the mini-games are fantastic looking and nicely detailed, the graphics on the board, while not as great, are still pretty good looking, overall not disappointed here. RANK: B+

Sound- Next the sound. The sound in this game is a mix bag of Mario party tunes and old Mario tunes, which is a fantastic mix for me, and maybe you too. The Mario party tunes are recognizable and great sounding, especially for a GBA game, and the old Mario tunes are easy to hear to, as for the sound effects they too are Mario party sounds and old Mario sounds, another great mix. overall very pleasing. RANK: A+

Characters- I figured the characters should be mentioned, the playable ones that is, unfortunately in this one there is only 4: Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Yoshi, however all four of them are fun to play as, this is one of the reasons multi-play is limited, the non-playable characters, are great as well, and some are funny. Overall great. RANK: A-

Boards- Another factor of the Mario party series, here there is only two boards, the single player board, which is Shr-oom City, and a bonus board that comes in the form of a fold out map like substance, which sucks, plus the paper board is boring to play on as well (This is my opinion though) all you do is go around in a circle hoping to land on one of the spots to warp you to one of the finish goals. You also use the virtual dice on the GBA game, and the game does the mini-games for you that you land on, very disappointing, should have just took the time to add a bonus map that you play in the game for multi-play. The single-play map is big though. RANK: C-

Story- Story mode wasn't introduced until Mario party 3, but even then there wasn't a real story mode, but in this one there is, bowser shows up as normal and stomps making all of the gadgets and mini-games fly away to Shr-oom City, now it is up to you as one of the 4 playable characters to get all of the mini-games and gadgets back to party-land. RANK: B-

Game-play- And now the game-play, luckily this game is fun to play on single player. Why? Because multi-player plain out sucks, the mini-games are fun for you and your friends to play for an hour or so, but no board. Luckily the single player board is big and fun to explore, you ride in a mushroom car in this one, and you have mushroom that apparently run your car (Like in the form of gas for your car) and when you run out it's game over. So you have to travel around Shr-oom City collecting mini-games and gadgets by beating little fun quests there is a total of 50 quests to complete, and when you complete a quest you get either a mini-game or a gadget, of course Bowser is holding 10 of the gadgets, so you must complete two mini-games with him each time in order to get one of the 10 gadgets from him, every 3 turns you will be faced with a mini-game, and if you complete it, you get 3 more mushroom to power your car, to explore and complete more quest, as well as find gadgets and unlock mini-games, there is also a multi-player mode, where you play on the bonus paper board, or compete in mini-games against each other, you also have some more single player modes, a challenge mode, where you get coins, from beating the mini-games. And also some other modes you'll just have to check out yourself. This is a great game for party fans and Mario party fans a like, new comers should at least give it a try for good luck, you might like it. RANK: A-

Re-play- I can't rate this at all, it depends on the player, but there are lots of secretes,gadgets, and mini-games to unlock, so I guess good game-play, the single player will only last you so long though, and than that's it. B-

Overall I give this game a 9/10, 4/5 stars, 90/100 points, what ever rating you like to go by. Happy partying.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/05