So, Mario Party has gone portable, eh? Is this is a good thing? When it came out, I hoped it wasn't just a 2D Mario Party, and the multiplayer looked lagging, which I didn't seem to like. But now it has come out and I've finished the game, and here are my thoughts on it. Once again, nothing else to say. Oh, did I forget to mention 0 stars or 4 stars?
Graphics: *1/2
The graphics of the board are not very nice, but mini-games and characters especially look pretty good. The solitary board in this game looks really bad, and the GBA could do better. I think. All I see is colors for different areas, characters, the spaces, and the areas you stop at. The mini-games and everything else, however, are nice looking. They look a lot like Superstar Saga. And that's all.
Sound/Music: **1/2
Some of the music here you'll recognize, mostly from Mario Party 4. However, some of the themes don't sound so good on the GBA, although some, like the underground theme or the coin game theme (the Game Guy music from Mario Party 3), are great. The playable characters don't have voices; however, sounds from everything else are good. Overall, with its little quirks, I would say the music and sound are above average.
Difficulty: *
I would say three fourths of all the mini-games are easy; the other quarter are quite tough, especially Go-Go Pogo, which is so hard that I've finished the course only once. I've also only got it in Shroom City one time (first mini-game, too!). The missions that don't involve mini-games don't really require much skill; maybe some thinking, but that's it. Say, how hard is it to carry an object to another place on the board? Your only problem would be if you ran out of Mushrooms; however eventually most of the mini-games seem so simple that you'll never get a Game Over again. Anyway, for the most part, this game is simple. However, the hard mini-games are hard, and that is where that star comes from.
Controls: ***
In mini-games and on the board, the controls do, as always, what they need to do. However, some Gaddgets have controls that don't make sense. They won't do what they are supposed to. I don't know how some Gaddgets even work, although the rest of the game has excellent controls.
Characters: **1/2
I'll say that the playable character
selection is very poor; that is probably the only big problem. You can
only play as Mario, Luigi, Peach, or Yoshi. Where did Wario, Waluigi, DK,
and Daisy go to? Also, I don't like this thing of calling these "Baby Bowsers"
"Koopa Kids". Why?!
Seeing as how the score is over two
stars, there's got to be something good, and that is this: in Shroom City,
and in mini-games too, I guess, there are many, many Mario minions to be
found. Some Yoshi's Island characters have even come back! It's great to
see that. That's the good thing about the characters.
Gameplay: **
The gameplay is different from what you'd expect from the regular Mario Parties. Multiplayer doesn't have a big enough part in this game. Sure, there is Party Land, but that's not exactly what I mean. What I mean is, the only multiplayer mini-games are Duel games, which is sad. Why can't we have 4-players, 1 vs. 3s, and 2 vs. 2s? Why can't we have a Party Mode where four players play? Surely the GBA can handle 4-player play, we've seen it before many times (especially early on). However, there is that Bonus Board mode, which is like playing on a real board outside from the game but using Gaddgets to compete. I've never played it, and probably never will be able to. Still, I think the multipalyer is lacking somewhere. The 1-player mode is good though, which is why it is two stars.
Boards: *
Only one board. Or is it just several little boards in one? Either way, I don't like it. Shroom City is the only board, and although it has different kinds of terrain in it, why couldn't they just make them all separate boards, with more missions? Oh well. Not much else to say. What's with the Mushroom-like cars?
Shroom City: **1/2
For a 1-player Mario Party mode, this is pretty good, for itself. It's like a mission mode in Mario Party form. You roll dice, but have a limited number of dice blocks to roll, shown as Mushrooms. Winning mini-games earns you more Mushrooms. You can stop at "buildings" on the map, and solve missions. Winning missions gives you Gaddgets and allows you access to Bowser areas after a certain number of missions. That is all about Shroom City, nearly. It's all right, but instead of basing a whole game around this, I wish it was a mode in one of the main Mario Parties. I bet this could be a Solo Mode in the next Mario Party. And finally, Shroom City gets boring occasionally.
Mini-Games: ***
For the kinds of mini-games they have, I think they did a pretty good job. I don't have too many problems with the actual mini-games. Most of them are different from the regular Mario Party mini-games, and in a good way, too. My favorites are Switch Way? and Outta My Way, which are both classic platformers. In fact, Switch Way? is very similar to 7-6 in SMB3. The Duel games are nice, especially Hammergeddon, a Hammer Brother-like battle between the two players. The Koopa Kid mini-games, in which you usually have to kill a random number of Koopa Kids, are actually fun, especially when there are 99 of them. The coin mini-games are all casino-like, and a couple of them are actually fair. Overall, all the mini-games are good. The only problem is that I wish they had the 4-player and other regular kinds of mini-games, as that would look cool on the GBA.
Gaddgets: 1/2
I don't get these. They are like little doo-dads created by E. Gadd, and most of them you will only mess with for a couple of seconds. A lot of them have no point. Faux Flame is especially useless. In fact, some Gaddgets don't even have controls. Maybe a few have a little competition to them (like Desktop Golf and Mini-Soccer), and some can change your background, which is why the rating is 1/2 instead of no stars. Anyway, these Gaddgets add almost no depth or fun to the game, and are very boring.
Challenge Land: ***1/2
I actually like this mode. Real well. You use your mini-game skills to earn yourself coins, and you use coins to buy Gaddgets. However, these Gaddgets change your title screen background, so they are worth it. I like the different challenge games. Mini-Game Attack is a really good challenge, as many times as you hate to mess up in them. Bowser Land is pretty fun, even though by the time you get to it you have nearly finished the whole game. Anyway, I like this mode more than any other in the whole game. It is, like they say, challenging.
Replayability: *1/2
The replayability here is defined by one thing: playing mini-games over and over for high scores. That is the essence of the replayability here. It may not be enough, but it is something.
Fun Factor!: **
Sometimes the game is fun, playing the mini-games, and sometimes it is a little boring. It's half-and-half. Shroom City is boring, but the mini-games are fun and Challenge Land is good too. Also, the Gaddgets are boring to play with, even the ones that have a little competition to them. Overall, the fun is just average.
Overall: *1/2
Overall, Mario Party Advance is really mediocre. The multiplayer is, as I had thought, lacking, and the 1-player is boring some of the time. The game is also short. I would not say to buy it; it's worth a rent, though. It is a lot different from the other Mario Parties, and not in the best way. If it had more mini-game modes, and also more mini-games (it only has 50), the game would be a little better. But it just falls behind compared to the other Mario Parties. Once again, I'll say to rent it. There's nothing much else to say, the game is just mediocre!
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