Mario Party Advance follows a different format than the main games, since only a single person can play without connecting to another GBA. In this game, the player moves around the game board, visiting characters, running quests, and playing minigames. Many of the non-player characters are from classic Nintendo 64 games like Super Mario 64, Mario Party, and Paper Mario.

In order to beat the game as fast as possible, Nacho manipulates luck to achieve favorable rolls. Careful Mushroom management also allows him to intentionally lose some minigames when it would be faster than beating them.