Play Mario Party Advance Online

Mario Party Advance came out for the Game Boy Advance, developed by Hudson Soft and published by Nintendo. It was part of a wave of games that tried to bring the social, board game style of the console Mario Party titles onto a handheld you could take anywhere. This was before the DS made local wireless multiplayer common, so it felt like a different kind of experiment for the series.

You choose a character like Mario or Luigi and explore Shroom City, moving screen by screen to find challenges and collectibles. The main goal is to complete a large checklist of minigames and missions to earn Gaddgets, which are little toys and items that change how you interact with the world. You spend a lot of time talking to characters for tasks, playing the short minigames alone, and trying to collect all the pieces for the six main game boards. The pace is slower than a console Mario Party because you are not competing against other players on a virtual board in the same way; it is more of a solitary, collection focused experience. It feels like a quirky, portable toy box where you are always working toward unlocking the next oddity.