Mario Party Advance

"Everybody likes to party alone! Right?"

Yes! Brilliant. A single player Mario Party. Who hasn't dreamed of not having to deal with other players in this simulation board game? People should make more one player board games without even NPCs to compete against. This is practically untouched territory--a whole new market.

Story: 5/10

Why give a game with practically no story (although it has sort of has the pretenses of one) a five out of ten? Well, were you actually expecting a story? Come on. I can't drop a game's score that much because it fails to deliver on something it's not really supposed to have.
Besides, some of the interludes are actually mildly amusing the first time you run through them.
Nothing special here, but nothing detrimental. Basically, nothing. Hours and hours of it.

Gameplay: ... ... ... 3/10? 4/10? ...

So, you run around this board, doing missions for characters chilling in houses and stores, and every so often, Mini Bowser shows up to mess with you. Most of the time, this means he has you play a mini-game. The mini-games are generally alright. A few are really fun, simple though they may be. Some of them do suck, but, look, if Nintendo had just released a cartridge of the mini-games, it would be a good buy.

But they didn't. If you want to go and play the mini-games without running around the board by yourself inbetween, you need to unlock them by running around the board and completing missions. Only, most of the missions end up getting you 'gadgets' instead of games. Let me break this down for you. The hardest gadget to attain in the whole thing is a star. Just a star. You get to look at it. It doesn't even do anything. And this is supposedly your greatest reward. Most of the gadgets you collect are equally spectacular.

Among those other gadgets there are a few things resembling games, though. Multiplayer games! Yes! Some are even four player. You just need to get three other people to hold on to different ends of your GBA and have them get ready to mash the buttons nearest them in order to unlock the magic.

The solo board game and the missions to attain gadgets you don't really want drag down what otherwise might have been a cool set of mini-games. I don't know how to score this. All I can do is tell you the games aren't really worth the rest of it unless you're a hardcore Mario Party fan and actually took this review's opening paragraph seriously.

Graphics: 7/10

The game isn't lacking for graphics. It's all 2d sprites, of course, and they look pretty good on that tiny little screen. The look fits the series just fine. Nothing here to make it stand out, though. Except from the other facets of the game. In comparison to its other aspects, the graphics reach new heights. They might even score a 9 on that twisted scale.

Music: Obnoxious.

Trust me and just roll the volume all the way down before popping the cartridge in. Everything will be better if you simply turn on the radio, walk outside (yeah, I know, what is that?) and enjoy the ambient near silence, or just pay some kid to beat a dog while you play to distract you from the tedium--if you explain it clearly, even the dog will be sympathetic to your plight.

Sound: ~

No problems here. No highlights. You shouldn't have it on anyway, so don't worry about it.

Replay value: 8/10 if you actually want to play it, about the same for some of the mini-games

You can unlock everything in one go-round, and then just kick it in Playland with the mini-games, but if you don't, or if you enjoy boredom, you will have the pleasure of replaying the awesomeness that is the solo board game.

Don't ask about the gadgets. You don't really play with most of them. And you'll probably end up wishing you hadn't wasted the time they take to inspect if you even check each one out once.

Overall: 4/10

Lacks the 'party game' feel of earlier installments. Some good stuff in here, but it's buried underneath the board-thing questionably called a game, the undesirable music, and the stupid, stupid gadgets--if you want to collect trinkets that badly, go steal office supplies from your mommy's work, it'll feel more like an adventure and you won't have to deal with obnoxious koopas the game doesn't let you trounce. If you have a buddy who gone to the trouble of unlocking everything, just borrow the cart from him. Otherwise, it ain't worth the trouble.

Brush your teeth. Stay in school. Avoid playing this game. Don't be like Bastard Knight. It's for your own good.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/05