GBA game recommendations? (1 Viewer)

[Dave Falasco]

My ever-suffering wife got up at oh-dark-thirty this morning to face the rest of the loony bargain hunters, and surprised me by picking us up a Gameboy Advance (for $44, too)! So now, faced with a gaming system that I never thought I'd own and thus I know very little about, I'm hoping you guys could point out some must-have titles. I cruised around and put together a list of games that sound intriguing, but I'm sure I've missed a ton.
I'm more interested in classic SNES-type games, and I'm not really in the market for any cross-platform games like Tony Hawk, as I can play most of them on my Xbox. Here's the mini-list I put together, can you guys help me flesh it out a bit?
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (upcoming)
Tactics Ogre (I'm a huge Final Fantasy Tactics fan )
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (yay!)
Metroid Fusion (of course)
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance (want to see what the Castlevania fuss is about)
Yoshi's Island: Super Mario 3
Super Monkey Ball Jr. (maybe)
So, what other must-have's have I missed?
Also, a question--how do you save games on the GBA? Are there memory cards one can buy?
Thanks, fellas.

 

[BrianB]

If you're a fan of "Tactics" style games like FFT & Tactics Ogre, you owe it to yourself to buy "Advance Wars". It's a brilliant combination of chess & military units, all tied together with a plot & cool characters. It's got an incredible amount of game in its tiny little cartridge, and to me, is the stand out game on the GBA.

As for saving, most decent games have backup memory inside the cartridge - you'll have a couple of save slots at most, but it works really well. A few games are "cheap" though & don't offer this, instead giving you a generated password that you need to write down & reenter when you want to resume play. I can't stand this option - the GBA is all about gaming on the go, who wants to write down stuff??

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past is being called The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords for GBA. It has some multiplayer games in it, plus LttP.

Try Golden Sun.

 

[Dave Falasco]

Thanks, Brian. That sounds right up my alley! I appreciate the heads-up; I probably wouldn't have stumbled onto that one on my own.
Morgan, the game is actually called A Link to the Past and it includes the game called the Four Swords, but it's semantics anyway. I just did a little digging on Golden Sun, and that sounds like another winner.
This is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping for...thanks a lot, guys!

 

[Tim Markley]

I picked up a GBA on a whim a while back for a little gaming on the go. I don't play it much but when I do it's usually Advance Wars. That game's a lot of fun! Definitely recommended. I also have Golden Sun but haven't played it a bunch. It looks good though and it received excellent reviews.

 

[Chris Flynn]

Golden Sun
Advance Wars
Mario Kart

Those were the best ones I owned (IMO), when I had my GBA.

 

[Eric C. Mylonas]

Here's my suggestions:
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
A much, much harder game than the second GBA Castlevania title (and no, not just because it's dark), but at least as good and maybe even a little better.
The Pinball of the Dead
If you ever played Devil's Crush back in the day, this is its spiritual descendant. A killer pinball game high on the addiction quotient.
Turok
No groaning--this isn't a fps. Instead, you get a pretty damn cool side-scrolling, Contra-style run n' gun with great weapons and very solid, very colorful graphics.
Gradius Galaxies
Old school, side-scrolling shoot 'em up with very nice graphics and very clear, easy-to-see bullets and enemies.
Final Fight One
OK, so it's a port of a decade-plus old arcade game (actually, it's a port of the SNES rev). So what?! It's still super-fun even after all these years and deserves a purchase by any beat 'em up fan.
Other games (that have already been mentioned):
Advance Wars (SO good)
Various Mario titles
Metroid Fusion (duh)
It'd be nice if we could actually get some more original titles from someone besides Nintendo (drop the licensing fees again, N').

 

[Chris Bardon]

I'd also recommend an afterburner from triton labs so you can actually see the screen in something other than absolute direct light.

Also, the two gameboy color Zelda games (Oracle of ages and seasons) are both fantastic.

 

[Dave Falasco]

Appreciate all the suggestions, guys, I knew I could count on you. My list is swelling rapidly!
I actually snuck out of here at lunchtime and booted up one of the games my wife bought with the system--that Namco museum package that's been released on every platform ever made (including I think some of the advanced kitchen appliances they have nowadays). I was impressed with the graphical prowess of that little machine, even with those venerable titles. But comments about how dark the screen is were definitely not exaggerated. Sounds like that afterburner might be one of the next purchases, although I'll never understand how shining a light on an LCD screen will make it easier to see. On my camcorder and digital camera, direct light makes the picture completely washed out. Must be more of that Nintendo magic.
And boy, the more I read about Advance Wars, the more I have to have it!

 

[Josh Lowe]

I got a pair of GBAs on wed so my friend and I have stuff to do while he's getting transfusions. The GBA is amazing, I can't believe what a job Nintendo has done with it. My single gripe is the lack of a backlight, same as everyone else.

We've been playing tiger woods, tekken, super mario world, nfl blitz, metroid fusion.. all awesome games. It's like a time machime back to the days of the SNES!

High, high marks.

I would recommend all of the games listed above plus advance wars, mario kart super circuit, etc.

 

[Graeme Clark]

Final Fight One....(actually, it's a port of the SNES rev).

Does this mean no MP or Guy still? Or did Capcom actually fix it up?

 

[Calvin Watts III]

Go & buy Metroid Fusion.
Right now!
Also, the 1st Castlevania GBA game can be had for really cheap @ TRU.

 

[DaveGTP]

If you like classic RPG's, I humbly reccomend one of the Game Boy color Dragon Warrior games, either DW I&II, or DWIII. You should be able to find them fairly cheap since they are GBC games.

 

[Tony-B]

Go get the two earlier Super Mario Advance games. Especially Super Mario Advance 2: Super Mario World.

 

[Travis Kolesar]

Also for RPGs, the Phantasy Star Collection was just recently release and has 1, 2, and 3 of that series. Just picked it up and am enjoying it immensely so far. Golden Sun was fantastic too.

 

[Eric C. Mylonas]

No, Guy is in there and so is the multi-player, but certain graphical touches (the swinging straps in the subway don't swing, etc.) and the detail/color level are from the SNES rev.

 

[Andre F]

Metroid Fusion!

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Oh, also get The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening for GBC if you can find it. It's another great game.

 

[Kenneth Cummings]

Don't forget the two Zelda games for the GBA that work together for form a big quest. Rod of Season and Rod of Time (forget the acual name).

 

[Brian E]

Don't forget the two Zelda games for the GBA that work together for form a big quest.

Those are actually GBC games aren't they?


This thread came up at the perfect time since I've got the Black GBA/Super Mario Advance bundle coming from TRU/Amazon.

Can a US GBA play import games without modding?