There's a party in my GBA, and you're not invited When most people hear the word "party," they usually connect it with the thought of "multiple people." Well, those people are chumps. When it comes to Mario Party Advance, you most likely won't want anybody else around. Admittedly, I'm only guessing about that, because I don't have any friends (wait for it...) with a GBA and link cable. But who needs them, anyway? The solo mode for Mario Party Advance is plenty of entertainment.
In this handheld version of the impossible-to-ignore Mario Party series, you can play as one of four of the classic Mario characters: the two brothers, Peach, or Yoshi. Once you pick your poison, you get transported into a world which, surprisingly enough, somehow resembles a board game! The place is populated by denizens who, because of some incidental act committed by Bowser at the beginning, all need your help.
That doesn't sound like Mario Party at all, you liar! Obviously the GBA version is already quite different from the GameCube editions in that Nintendo decided to try and throw a storyline into the board game idea. So instead of trying to earn more stars than some opponent, your responsibility is to traverse the board-slash-world (the "boarld," if you will) (that is not a Nintendo-sanctioned word) looking for citizens in need. And if you help them out successfully, they'll award you with a mini-game or a Gaddget.
Yeah, Gaddgets. They'll drive your spellchecker crazy. They're kind of like mini-games, except you don't play them while you're on the board. Oh, and most of the time they're completely worthless. You'll come across the occasional entertaining one, like a version of darts or bowling, but some of them are as pointless as a fake "candle" that can supposedly help you in dark places. I am not kidding. The candle just sits there and flickers. But by including sixty of these Gaddgets and adding that number to actual mini-games, Nintendo could say that the game has over a hundred mini-games, so I suppose they accomplish that purpose as well.
The "real" mini-games come into play at the end of every few turns. You use a mushroom on each turn, and winning mini-games earns you more mushrooms so that you can continue your quest across the boarld (I'm working on getting that into the gaming lexicon). If you do run out of mushrooms, though, don't worry; your good deeds will not be forgotten, having been saved onto the game pack, and you can start again with another character. Repeat until you've helped everyone you see, challenge Bowser for the final mini-games, and you'll have brought peace unto our land once more.
But life isn't always easy. No, not even life by Nintendo.
Provided you can mentally transport yourself into this world where for some reason you can only move a certain number of spaces at a time and you're controlled by a speaking dice block with mushrooms, the solo game board mode is quite fun. You'll be sent on fifty quests; some are as easy as showing up at someone's door, and others will force you to travel the board in search of the right answer. There's a huge variation in difficulty among the quests. Most of the quests stay on the simpler side of the spectrum, but there are certainly some you won't accomplish on your first try. There are even a couple of mind games that do require a bit of thought.
The mini-games also run the scale of easy to holy-crap-are-you-kidding-me. Like the quests, most of them (thankfully for my ego) are on the easy side, but once in a while a game will require some real skill. It won't be any easier when the little introduction screen leaves out some of the directions so you have to figure it out yourself. For instance, in one game getting hit by a Chain Chomp will kill you, whereas in another, it won't. Why? I don't know, and the game ain't tellin' either.
To be honest, the huge disparity in difficulty doesn't work very well, at least when you're on the more skilled side of the spectrum (she said modestly). I do appreciate that Nintendo is trying to keep their audience as wide as possible, but I think Nintendo should've just chosen a side and stuck with it. They could have at least included an option to have only "hard" mini-games appear, like in some of the GameCube Mario Parties (that looks ... extremely odd).
This review may not be funny, but the game is. The best part of the game is the dialogue, as strange as that might sound in a Mario Party game. But seriously. Nintendo has integrated all the old favorites into this world, from Bowser (okay, he may be a little hackneyed, but he's still a classic) to all the Koopa Troopas and Goombas you could ask for. Some of these folks are falling in love with each other, others are obsessed with a television series, and some just want to fight you. Whatever it is they do, they do it with flavor. That is, the dialogue between your character and the inhabitants of Shroom City has that special, semi-sarcastic Nintendo zest that adds meaning to my life. Or at least puts the occasional smile on my face.
"But I'm cooler than you, and I do have friends with GBAs and link cables." Well, la di da. Guess what, Mr. or Ms. Big Shot, that might not do you any good. If you were looking for same type of four-player experience as you'd get in a GameCube Mario Party, it's likely not going to happen. I've only read about this, but what I've read doesn't exactly sound like a party to me.
First of all, there is no way to play the board game with multiple people. Instead, Nintendo included a paper board with cut-out characters, and you can provide your own dice to move around and let your GameBoy serve up mini-games. Yes, it sounds ridiculous to me too, and of course I lost my paper board as soon as I opened the box. I bought a video game for a reason, Nintendo, and it was that I don't like this "paper" stuff I keep hearing about.
There are a few mini-games that involve two players going head to head, and those look like they'd be a lot of fun to play over a link cable. But most of the mini-games are single-player, so if you do want to compete with your friends, everybody simply takes a turn and compares high scores. Why, that sounds like something you can pretty much do with one GameBoy, and no link cables! Yes. Yes, it is.
Bad multiplayer + good single player = 7.7. It's just basic math, folks. There's no doubt that Nintendo screwed up just a little at trying to include any sort of multiplayer aspect into this game. And, given the game's title, some gamers will undoubtedly be disappointed by that. But to be honest, Mario Party Advance is not really a Mario Party game in the form we have been used to. It's really best as a single-player mini-game extravaganza with a storyline and some hilarious dialogue. So if you can get over those Mario Party stereotypes (don't worry, we all fight them), you'll probably find it pretty fun.
...
Ellix
Summary: A storyline in a single-player board game? Doesn't sound like Mario Party to me, and it's not, in the classic sense at least. But dialogue and those Nintendo mini-games you've come to love make it worth playing anyway.
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Systems: Game Boy Advance
Genre: Role-playing board game.
Setting: Shroom City. They sell less drugs than it might sound. Why do all my reviews reference drugs ...?
Mood: Fun and funny.
Story: Er, medium. If you think about it, it makes absolutely no sense, but you don't really have to think about it.
Graphics: Fine for the GBA.
Music/Sound: Nondescript.
Voice Acting: N/A.
Script/Dialog: Hilarious. Rockin'. Two thumbs up.
Similar Games: I know you expect me to say Mario Party, but ... not Mario Party. Not anything, really.
Gameplay: Mario Party Advance
Strengths: Witty dialogue; entertaining in both short bursts and longer spurts; some awesome mini-games.
Weaknesses: Some really pathetic mini-games; variation in difficulty can be annoying; multi-player.
Depth: Pretty good for a light-hearted GBA game.
Length: About 8 hours to get all the mini-games.
Pace: Could be better; some of the quests really drag on.
Difficulty: Ranges from very easy to pretty hard.
Control: Doesn't require anything complex, so it's fine.
Learning Curve: Overall, about ten seconds. But some of the specific mini-games, I still can't beat.
Replayability: Low for the overall game; high for the mini-games.
Will keep you up until (a.k.a Fun
Factor): the end of the bus ride.
Notable Features: A unique single-player board game.
Fav. Character: Tumble
Instant Classic: No
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Hudson
Release Date: 2005-03-28
Players: 1
Multiplayer: Technically yes, but in reality, eh.
ESRB: Everyone
Target Audience: Mario Party fans (but I don't think they'll be pleased), mini-gamers
Recommended For: People who love mini-games; fans of Nintendo's characters and dialogue style.
Not Recommended for: The impatient; classic Mario Party lovers.
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| PlayerPlaza Games
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