Mario Party Advance

Mario Party Advance is the first handheld iteration in the Mario Party franchise.

Overview

The title screen for Mario Party Advance. (Normal)

The game's title screen, with coins in the background.

Mario Party Advance is the eighth game in the Mario Party franchise (including Mario Party-e). It was released for the Game Boy Advance on January 13, 2005 in Japan, on March 28, 2005 in North America, and on June 10, 2005 in Europe. The game was developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. Due to the limited memory on a Game Boy Advance cartridge, the gameplay of Mario Party Advance differs from the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube iterations. The game takes place in Shroom City, where the goal is to collect all of the minigames and Gaddgets that were scattered by Bowser. Mario Party Advance was met with generally low reception, with the Metacritic average at 54%.

Gameplay

Due to the limitations of the Game Boy Advance, there are far fewer playable characters than there were in previous Mario Party games. The only playable characters are Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Princess Peach. This game marks the second appearance of the host, Tumble, who was also in Mario Party 3. Other non-playable characters include Shroomlock (a renowned detective), Mr. E (a mystery-lover), Mushbert (a fan of Toad Force V), and Mrs. Shroomlock (Shroomlock's wife).

Mario Party Advance plays similarly to other Mario Party games, but due to it being on a

handheld system, it does have differences. The game no longer has a four-player multiplayer mode that has been in almost all Mario Party games. However, players can download minigames or Gaddgets to other Game Boy Advances, as well as play Duel minigames with one another. The game was packaged with a "Bonus Board," which was a physical board game that allowed people to play against each other.

Gaddgets are a new feature in Mario Party Advance. They are developed by Professor E. Gadd. Gaddgets can be gathered by completing one of the game's many quests in the Shroom City mode, playing a Koopa Kid minigame, or purchasing one in the Challenge Land mode. Gaddgets are essentially short minigames.