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Ever since the release of the DS in 2004, Nintendo has pretty much abandoned software support for the GBA. Not that it was a bad choice since Nintendo still went on to sell a total of 80.02 million GBAs within 6 years. It’s gone through a number of holidays, always a top seller for video games and just toys in general. The future of the GBA didn’t look bright when Miyamoto and company were asked about it at E3.
“This year in our marketing you really won’t see much push against Game Boy itself, so it will kind of seek its own level…”
-George Harrison
Before the GBA is put down for good, I’ve compiled a list of titles you should try to pick up before they’re gone. All of them are $19.99 and under and are a good pick-up during these short software droughts:
– The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
– Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
– Pokemon Sapphire/Ruby Version
– Mario Kart Super Circuit
– Metroid Fusion
– Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
– Golden Sun
– Final Fantasy VI Advance
– Fire Emblem
– Anything from the Classic NES Series
Which other GBA games should be on the list?
*cough* GEORGE Harrison *cough*
Drill Dozer is one fine and fun game, with good replay value. I grab a copy of it a few weeks ago for 15 Washingtons.
Sword of Mana
Metroid Zero Mission
I second the Drill Dozer nomination. That’s a mighty fine game. Also worth checking out if you’re an RPG fan is Riviera.
The URBZ!
/runs and hides
Mario vs Donkey Kong
Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, Golden Sun the Lost Chapters, Metroid Zero Mission, & Pokemon Leaf green/fire red.
I also recommend Drill Dozer and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance =]
I recomend Mother 1+2, and Mother 3. The only problem is, If you want to play them, you’ll have to import it and learn japanesse.
At least someone is translating the Mother 3 Rom right now. (http://mother3.fobby.net/)
Now if only someone could translate Mother 1+2…
Also, Why Ruby/Saphire? Isn’t Emerald better?
Final Fantasy Tactics was an amazing game… I’m not sure there was any other GBA title I plugged 100 hours into, and it was worth the price for the GBA/Gamecube addon itself just to play it at home and listen to the music out of something other than the GBA speaker. I’d probably plug it into my DS if I could find it! Hope a DS version comes out in the future!
Also I thought the Castlevania games were possibly the best action games on the system. Just good ol’ Castlevania goodness.
RIP GBA
I do disagree on the year Nintendo unplugged support for the GBA: they pretty much had good games for it until THIS year!
While Jack’s list covers the obvious top games, I would like to add the following only because they haven’t had anything like it for the DS yet:
Chu-Chu Rocket (actually better than the Dreamcast version!)
Racing Gears Advance (BEST isometric-perspective racing game on ANY platform!)
Drill Dozer
Riviera
Summon Knight (BOTH parts! Although part 2 greatly improved graphics and gameplay, and you don’t have to have played part 1, since they are completely unrelated except for gameplay style)
Rebelstar, Tactical Command (sort of like a turn-based “Halo”!)
All other games mentioned in this post are indeed very good, but equivalent or improved versions of them have been released, or will be released soon for DS.
@InvisibleMan – that’s Jake, not Jack!
Why is Metroid Fusion on the list, but not Zero Mission? ZM was a far better game.
Pokémon FireRed/LeafGreen and Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.
Kururin Paradise.
Bit Generations (Dotstream and Orbital are probably the best).
No Castlevania games on the list?
Not ‘Anything from the Classic NES series’ Just Metroid.
I also would’ve added Final Fantasy Tactics(Maybe even the remakes of 1/2, 4, 5, and 6 too)
Swapped out Sapphire/Ruby for FR/LG
WarioWare Twisted
Minish Cap
There are more…
You listed several Japanese RPGs. Mother 3 was definitely the most interesting game of that type released for the GBA.
Drill Dozer is something special.
Aria of Sorrow easily beats the other two Castlevanias and it’s one of the best games of its type for the system.
Mario Advance 4 (SMB3) is indispensable.
Both WarioWares are great.
Other games, like Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest, The Mega Man Z and Battle Network series, and The Tower SP aren’t great, but they’re good enough that you probably wouldn’t regret sinking a couple hours into them.
If you have to narrow it down to one essential selection, I would recommend Trollz: Hair Affair.
What? No WarioWare???
Castlevania: CoTM
ASTROBOY!!!!!!111
Warioware Twisted
hahaha- heck yeah on astroboy
heard ninja 5-0 was good too.
thanks for the list!
“David says…
– that’s Jake, not Jack!”
OOOPS!!
My apologies, Jake!!
And yes, AeroZeppelin, Astroboy and Gunstar Heroes, both from Treasure, I believe, were two of the most gorgeous-looking games on the GBA!
Gunstar Future Heroes
&
Astro Boy: Omega Factor
Both Treasure games, both excellent without pedigree, nuff said.
Definitely Metroid Zero Mission. It’s infinitely better than Fusion.
I’d recommend Golden Sun. IMO it easily rivaled Final Fantasy in terms of story and characters. I never did finish the second one, though.
Shining soul ftw…most amazing gba game ever
They’ll never make a 3rd Golden Sun, will they?
Chu Chu Rocket!
Very cool, long lasting, and very original. Don’t let the kapu-kapus get you!
Aria of Sorrow and one of the WarioWare games would be good additions to the list. And Rhythm Tengoku FTW!
Advance Wars 2 (and DS) suck. I don’t know what they thought they were doing to the graphics, but they really screwed them up.
NES classics? $20 for a port of a 20 year old game? Some people complain that VC titles are expensive, sheesh.
Super Gunstar Heros
As others have mentioned, Ninja Five-O, Drill Dozer, and Gunstar Super Heroes. Ninja Five-O is rare now, but I found the other two at Best Buy for $10 each. For imports, I’d like to add Rhythm Tengoku and Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!, the latter being an arcade style boxing game made by Treasure.
Advance Wars
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Golden Sun
Golden Sun: Lost Age
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Gunstar Super-Heroes
Dodgeball
Astroboy
Lunar Legend
Shining soul 2 – Really good hack and slash
Pokemon Mystery dungeon – Pokemon-based rogue-like with a great dynamic of challenges from easy to insane, and very rewarding
Tales of Phantasia – Despite criticism and poor voice acting, a very solid port of this game.
River city Ransom EX – improvements over the origional, including very in-depth customization (made further in-depth with a cheat device)
The entire megaman battle network series – card (ok “chip”) based RPG with good animation
The entire Megaman Zero series – Great sound-track, great story, Run through levels hacking everything up with a sword
Lufia: Ruins of Lore – Lufia game with pokemon-like monster catching system (works with 99.9% of all game monsters).
Metroid: Zero Mission
[…] Infendo | Nintendo news, podcast, Wii, DS, and GBA blog » Blog Archive » The Top 10 Must-Buy Games… […]
[…] The Top 10 Must-Buy Games for GBA – INF [Posted by Marxi Julien on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 11:44 PM.] Click here to read more | Source […]
The Castlevania games are also fun.
Shining Force. Port of a great genesis classic.
King of fighters 2 – the best handheld fighter ive EVER played.
[…] Top Ten Must Buy Games For The Game Boy Advance Before the GBA is put down for good, Infendo compiled a list of titles you should try to pick up before they’re gone. All of them are $19.99 and under and are a good pick-up during these short software droughts: (tags: digg GamingIndustryNews Gaming) […]
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
Lunar Legend
Warioware Twisted – the ONLY must have game for the GBA!
[…] Men and Women, 10 guys who belong in the NFL hall of fame, Top 5 white hat hackers of all time, Top ten must buy games for the Game Boy Advance, And not to mention the infamous Top 10 or 5 lists…doing a quick search for "top […]
Nice list there. Shame I hardly play on my GBA anymore.
Steve
I see your point. But I mean this list was crap. If this is the games you like fine. Though I hear Golden Sun 2 is better. I do enjoy Golden Sun one. But there is more then just 10 games.
- WarioWare Twisted
– FF Tactics
– Castlevania Aria of Sorrow
– Super Mario World
My first GBA game was Super Mario Advance 4 Super Mario Bros. 3
After I beat that, I started playing Super Mario World on the SNES which still works. It brought back such good memories that I had to buy it for GBA. Both games are great.
[…] à des jeux plus “basiques” (quoi que pas moins fascinants ou difficiles) avec ce comparatif des 10 meilleurs jeux sur la Game Boy Advance. Les jeux que j’ai adoré y figurent, du coup, je pense que je vais regarder de près les […]
Nice list.
Thnxs for the diggs Infendo nation!!! The list isn’t perfect, but it gives you some of the best first party titles. I know it’s not ever going to agree with everyones wishlists, but hey…It’s my list
thnxs again!!
I second Racing Gears Advance. That game is like a souped up port of RC Pro AM crossed with Top Gear 3000. If you can find it, it’s well worth the money.
lol Metroid Zero Mission FTW!!
I agree that The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap is one ofthe best games I’ve played on GBA, it’s just so beautiful. but where’s Mario Golf??
[…] read more | digg story […]
How about any of the amazing Castlevania games, duh.
Mother 3, Kuru Kururin Paradise and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
Drill Dozer and the Summon Night series are excellent games. Also, I enjoyed the Megaman Battle Network series.
ogre tactics!
golden sun!
mario kart + the side scrollers
inal fantasy [all of em]
hey try em all via emulator instead of beltin out cash then if you want em portable you can just buy them
[low system req’s too]
http://www.emuparadise.org is a good site
Wario Ware
Wario Ware Twisted
[…] read more | digg story […]
What About kirby games???
aku nak beli cd harvest moon tapi kat mana eh?????????
When I clicked this link, I just was hoping that Golden Sun was on it. Awesome game, as was Golden Sun: The Lost Age (subtitles again =P). On a side note, I played and beat both, and I recently started getting very indulged in GS:TLA, and I’ve been looking up a lot of stuff about it. Apparently Issac makes an appearance in Brawl, and I’m hoping that gives it some publicity. The reason: Camelot needs to make a part 3. Especially after that fake announcement they leaked out to the public (Golden Sun: The Golden Soothsayer or something like that).
Golden Sun is one of the best RPG’s of all time. I loved that game, and I was so pissed when I beat it, because I thought there was still 3/4 of the game left.
Final Fantasy VI Advance is by far my favorite game for the GBA. Hands down, it is an awesome portable strategy game.
gotta give some more love to astroboy and treasure.
@ Anna Peterson:
That is, IF YOU CAN FIND A COPY!!
For some reason, FF VI Advance got discontinued soon after it was published… You could even still find brand new FF Vs and FF IVs for GBA in store shelves long after FF VI Advance had dissappeared!
3rah65v5lg0q84z5
???
donkey kong ! and TMNT and pokemon emerald
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