Best of GBA as told by Blakhelm
A WIP list of best GBA games. There are some great games that didn't make this list SIMPLY because I haven't played them yet.
List items
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Circle of the Moon catapulted my love for the series and the Metroidvania genre. While I've played bits of the classic Castlevanias and some of Castlevania 64, it was this game I had the most time with and grew to love. CotM challenged me, entertained me, and inspired me.
Animations were stiff compared to future titles, but this was a launch game. The dark colors didn't serve the unlit screen of the original GBA well, but I was more than happy to put up with it to immerse myself in the world. For some, gameplay felt stiff, but I grew accustomed to it, especially after you gained the ability to run. It felt more grounded and like a next step evolution of the previous games, compared to newer ones where could dash like made. I loved the DSS card system that gave you two rows of cards you could mix and match for different spells and weapons - I thought it was great and was sad to see it never make a return or be seen in similar fashion in other games.
I remember talking to my high school friend about this game, in which he told me about Symphony of the Night, in which I was somewhat aware of, but I had no idea how great it was.
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Contra III on go, need I say more?
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A newer edition of the NES Super Dodgeball, SDBA is a fun evolution of Dodgeball with, zany super powered ball attacks you can use to take out the enemy team.
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What I did know that this was a great game. What I didn't know is that it wasn't the same as the Playstation original.
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The CarPG. Yeah, no joke, this was RPG revolved around driving a vehicle that could also used in combat. Imagine Mario Kart, Twisted Metal and Pokemon sort of wrapped up into one game
Unfortunately, this is another game I only could play via emulation and if I remember correctly at the time, my PC could barely play it well, so it was stuttery.
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Astro Boy AKA knock off Megaman. Yeah, looking at the guy, I no interest in the show or the game, until I remember reading reviews of the game actually being good. I even remember playing it and being pleasantly surprised, but over time I forgotten why I like it or thought it was good.
I had to pull up a video to refresh my memory, and Astro Boy is some strange hybrid of sidescrolling shooter, beat em up and platformer. I'm a sucker for Genre Hybrids, so I liked it. I need to go back to it sometime.
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My memory is pretty foggy with the Guardian Heroes games.
I don't remember if at the time, I was aware that Advance Guardian Heroes was a sequel of the original Sega Saturn game, since Even when this game came out, I have yet to see a Sega Saturn in real life (it was only recently in the past few years that I have) yet I probably heard about it somewhere. I probably made the assumption based on the "Advance " in the title as well.
It's a wild beat 'em up with big combos, projectile/special attacks, and aerial combat along with RPG upgrade mechanics, which made for a pretty awesome mix, and a bit surprising I don't see much more of today in beat 'em ups.
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A tactics RPG with a unique look and a focus on combat between units that had counts of unit types in each pack. If I remember correctly each unit's Health also determined its attack power and you'd have to strategize your attack based around that when you lost units.
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Not a game I have a huge reverence for, but it was something I remember seeing alot for either good reviews and/or winning awards or something and this was after the fact that I played a few other tactics RPG. It took me a long time, but I finally bought this rare game. I don't remember much about it to give it much description, but as far as I remember it was a solid tactic RPG.
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Truthfully, I didn't play much of this game. Well, I played a few hours worth, but I didn't finish it for some reason. It's a typical tactics RPG set in the Onimusha world, and it was pretty great. Fans of Onimusha probably didn't have much interest in this, but I was bad at Onimusha, so it was a way for me to get involved. I only played this via emulation, and I'm sure that game save is now lost to time. Guess I need to find a way to play it again.
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You can't spell Metroidvania without Metroid. My experience with the Metroid series limited - I only played bits of the original back in the day and it was super hard. I didn't have a Super Nintendo and nobody I knew that had one had Super Metroid, so I wasn't luck enough to experience it, but I instead got to experience it through Fusion, and boy, what a blast it was to explore a world with gated off areas like Castlevania, but it was a futuristic shooter with a bad-ass protagonist. It is such as shame Metroid has little reverence in Japan, causing Nintendo to not show this franchise the right amount of love and care (see: Metroid: Other M and Federation Fighters, or whatever the name of that mobile FPS game they made)
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A prime example to modernize the original Metroid to a potentially wider audience......why hasn't this been remastered and reported Nintendo?
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Take the gameplay of Super Mario Kart and the theme of Mario Kart 64 and you have the mix for a entry in the legendary series.
Super Circuit may never be considered incredible, especially since so few people would have the means to play it multiplayer, but it is still a solid entry into the series.
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I hate that Wario games don't get as much reverence and nostalgia from the Nintendo fan community as much as other games. To be fair, Wario isn't the most lovable mascot, but the games are so great.
One of my favorite memories of Wario Land 4 is when you get all the collectibles and the game puts up a timer to rush you back to the starting point/end while playing a great, frantic "escape the level" theme. What shocks me even more is the lack of remixes for the "Hurry Up" theme - I could only find about 2.
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My beloved Golden Sun. Man, I had such reverence for Golden Sun. I played it alot and some bastard stole it from my backpack in school. In retrospect, it wasn't smart to leave it sitting in my Mesh backpack, but I was a naive school child, and It only made me more bad about their mandatory requirement for everybody to have see through backpacks. Thanks you school admin, now we are all theft targets.
Anyways, Golden Sun was a bright spot on the JRPG genre. Imagine the world and story telling of a Final Fantasy mixed with the monster collecting of Pokemon, which was huge at the time. Finding and equipping the different Djinn gave your characters powerful, cinematic sprite based spells which were a sight to behold on the small GBA screen, especially as somebody who hasn't played a ton of the Final Fantasy games at the time. I loved exploring the world, solving small puzzles, hunting djinni and strategizing combat. I disliked the largely pointless "Yes" and "No" choice system in dialogue, which gave the player a very false sense of choice since your choice didn't change any outcome.
I didn't finish the game when I was young, but I eventually did so via emulation on my phone during downtime at work.
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Look, my love for Sonic as I grew older, but back when Sonic was going into 3D, you still had a solid, 2D scrolling Sonic worth playing.
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I was never a huge Megaman fan. While I liked them in theory, in practice, I sucked at them and really I never had the games or friends with the games when I was young, so I didn't really have access to the series until I played them via emulation. However, it was a license I was familiar with and with MMBN being a quasi-JRPG when I was a teen getting into RPGs, it was great way to experience the Megaman world. In retrospect, it does feel like a Pokemon rip-off with it's kiddy anime look and collection of chips, the near tactics style active RPG gameplay was very unique and fun to engage in.
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After playing the Castlevania games, Ninja Five-O seems simple in comparison, but yet it is surprisingly good. Story and Gameplay is pretty basic. You're a cop that is a ninja, rescuing hostages and eliminating thugs. You only had a basic two hit sword swipe, a projectile that upgraded up to 2 times with pickups, and an aerial "spiral sword" slash which was super satisfying to use. However, the game took some inspiration from Bionic Commando and gave the player a grappling hook for limited platforming. It wasn't he most intuitive hook to use, but it added some variety to an otherwise simple game.
Ninja Five-O is a game alot of GBA owners have reverence for, and if you never played or heard of it, it is worth a play.
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A solid improvement on the series that learned much from the previous games. Now you played as a reincarnation of Dracula that had a random chance to absorb the souls of enemies that would give you attacks, weapons, or buffs. AoS was less brutal than CoTM, but certainly more challenging than HoD. It utilized a nice, brightened colored palette that wasn't as jarring as HoD, but still retained some of the Gothic edge of classic games. The soundtrack didn't take a sacrifice like the last game, and sounded great as well.
While CoTM remains my personal fav of the GBA games, AoS is often considered the best of the GBA 'vanias and that is hard to argue otherwise.
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This was the one I didn't buy for unknown reasons - I didn't have a job at the time, so I didn't have alot of disposable income and I remember the ratings being less than great.
Thankfully, the GBA era is where I picked up emulation and eventually I was able to play it. The soundtrack was kind of terrible and I didn't like the assault of bright colors it made to compensate for the GBA's unlit screen. The game wasn't bad at all though, and had a neat furniture collecting system. I was amazed how easy the game is - HoD is a push over in the Igavania world.
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This was my first game for the system. SMA is a port/improvement of the original Super Mario Bros 2 from the NES, in which I played sometimes at my uncle's house.
I wasn't always the biggest fan of SMB2, but being forced to play it as my only game gave me a bigger appreciation to it and unlike most earlier SMB games, I actually completed it. I'm a bit surprised this game is such an anomaly in the Mario gameverse, outside of this game, Nintendo hasn't taken steps to remake, sequel, or reference SMB2 outside of selling it over and over again on various digital stores.
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Ok, so by this point, I was well out of the Pokemon phase. Ironically, I remember a girl from church camps that just always happened to see me playing the old games, but the last time I was helping a friend get further in it.
Honestly, I didn't play this much. I only illegally pirated and played it abit on emulators back when I was huge into GBA game emulation and I've always passed it over because "eh, Pokemon is that kiddy game that I grew over and I've had my fill of it and boy am I tired of seeing this game everywhere whenever i go to a GBA or emulation related website". I eventuallly gave it a try and it was just fine, but I didn't stick with it. I remember not caring for the seeds system and the breeding of Pokemon, but I may have changed on that now if I try to replay it.
I'm sure its good. I mean, it's a mainline Pokemon game, it has to be good, right? Well I dunno, but it's going on this list.
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