GBA was in it's heyday a decade ago now, post your favorites

[Tanooki]

I've recently in part thanks to the retron 5 decided I wanted to get back into playing more with the GBA and have snapped up some fun stuff the last couple of weeks from legit releases, to homebrew and imports too. I think the system over all has aged incredibly well and probably in no part thanks to tablet/phone gaming and how a good bit of it is designed still feels like it fits in with the modern era quite nicely. Some of those titles have even been brought over from similar hardware like the Square SNES titles that made it to the GBA and then iOS and Android too.

It's fairly easy to point out franchise stuff from Nintendo and third parties like Konami with Castlevania and Capcom with the fighters and Mega Man spinoffs. Amazingly even in a few cases some fairly solid ports from even the PC made it over which was a surprised like the very faithful DOOM 2 and Wing Commander Prophecy with its 3D engine recreated pretty nicely.

I cant recommend the homebrew Qwak enough, a conversion by the original maker for the GBA as I've been having fun blowing time on it in a free moment. From overseas in both directions I got an english version of Kurukuru Kururin and also a Hudson Selection package with both NES Bomberman titles on it recreated faithfully. Car Battler Joe is a big Natsume game that falls well under the radar that few copies show up online for and it's like the fun mad max meets anime meets delivery service game that's just straight up unique and well designed.

[8-Bit Archeology]

I just clicked off my modded screen GBA playing Doom 2 before reading this. Ha.

I love the GBA it has tons of great games in its library. Hmmmm. Ones I would think others may enjoy would be.

Mr. Driller games
Bubble Bobble old and new
Blackthorne
Pocky & Rocky with Becky
Munch's Oddysee


Theres so many more. Plus in my twisted little opinion I think Zelda: Minish Cap and Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland, are both TOP of their franchises. I know OOT os great but im a top down fan.

Even Gauntlet has a great GBA game. Ooooh FIRE EMBLEM......

I will have to check the homebrews out never thought there was many.

[Tanooki]

There are maybe a half dozen or something near that with homebrew. Google up Good Deal Games, they have a few things like Motocross Challenge which was with publisher and dropped, now it's even an ios game. There's a few other titles too which are ports of Atari ST titles and one that's a compilation of 9 ST titles, plus there is a homebrew package of mini games from back in 2004 too.

For better or worse over at NA there's a member named DXS and he made real board english versions of Dragon Quest Monsters Caravan Heart which I have and it's a solid piece of craftsmanship, but that's pure bootleg like the retrousb, timewalk and other stuff.

[Doonzmore]

From the top of my head:

Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
Super Monkey Ball Advance
Spyro: The Eternal Night
Ty 2: Bush Rescue
Banjo Kazooie - Grunty's Revenge
Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo Revival
The Scorpion King

[Nesmaster]

I never got into the GBA heavily at all, despite having both original and SP models. Mostly just played my older games on it. Minish Cap is incredible, and having SMW on the go was good enough reason for me to get one.

Mother 3, I'm not far into my translated cart yet, but it's pretty solid so far.

[Gameguy]

Minish cap was great, but I hated the Kinstones in it. I actually never finished the game because I didn't want to progress further without finding all of the Kinstones first, I stopped short of advancing to the end part of the game as you can't go back to collecting the stones after passing that part. I probably already missed certain Kinstones which would have been time specific in the game, it's like you can only get them all if you use a walkthrough for the whole game from the beginning.

[InsaneDavid]

Activision Anthology - excellent collection of pretty much every Activision Atari 2600 game as well as some homebrews. Possibly the greatest timekiller to have in your GBA.

Drill Dozer - great action puzzle game that no one seems to really care about but uses the L / R shoulder buttons perfectly. Think Mr. Driller mixed with Klonoa.

Konami Krazy Racers - my favorite kart racer on any system.

Metroid Zero Mission - perfect example of how to do a remake correctly. Modern enhancements to make a classic game more enjoyable to play yet it doesn't try completely overhaul the experience of a game that was great to begin with. Also adds additional content.

River City Ransom EX - other than the screwy save system, this is right up there with Activision Anthology as a great timekiller.

[Jorpho]

Warioware and Warioware Twisted are quite awesome. Astro Boy (by Treasure) is quite awesome too.

I stopped short of advancing to the end part of the game as you can't go back to collecting the stones after passing that part. I probably already missed certain Kinstones which would have been time specific in the game, it's like you can only get them all if you use a walkthrough for the whole game from the beginning.

There is no point in the game past which you are unable to go back and finish collecting the stones.

[Gameguy]

There is no point in the game past which you are unable to go back and finish collecting the stones.

That's not what the strategy guide said.






I made it up to that point, then stopped and went back trying to find the rest of the stones(or maybe trying to fuse the rest I already had). After wandering around for awhile I stopped playing as I just couldn't find the rest and was just going over the same areas repeatedly. That's why I'm pretty sure some of the stones were time sensitive(or fusing them was time sensitive), I must have missed the chance to get those. I should probably just play the game to the end and forget about getting all of the stones. Or else I'll have to play the whole game again from the beginning.

[FrankSerpico]

Phantasy Star Collection is one of the best values in gaming history, and a great way for people without access to a SMS to play the first game. The Shining Force port/sort of remake from Atlus was a great get for my collection, too.

[bacteria]

There are a few really good games on the GBA for sure, my favourite has to be Mario Pinball Land. It's awesome.

[Tanooki]

Not a bad call but as far as US titles went I found Pinball of the Dead pretty refreshing.

My favorite though we got hosed out of yet it came out in the UK. Ubisoft handled it and they tanked the uS release, then screwed the UK version by going cheap on it and removing the battery. The game actually will save on an emulator or a flash cart with a battery which is cute.

Pinball Challenge Deluxe. It's a compilation of both the Amiga/DOS (4 game each) packages of Pinball Dreams and Pinball Fantasies.

[Emperor Megas]

I put more time into Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire than any handheld game, and probably more than any game of the corresponding console generation.

Phantasy Star Collection was awesome to have on a hand held cart if you grow up with the series and enjoyed it.

[Leo_A]

From the standpoint of time played, the nice Super Mario World conversion probably leads for me.

Minish cap was great, but I hated the Kinstones in it. I actually never finished the game because I didn't want to progress further without finding all of the Kinstones first, I stopped short of advancing to the end part of the game as you can't go back to collecting the stones after passing that part. I probably already missed certain Kinstones which would have been time specific in the game, it's like you can only get them all if you use a walkthrough for the whole game from the beginning.

There are no missable Kinstones and you can continue fusing them even after beating the game since you can't record that progress to your save. Every time you reload Minish Cap after reaching the end, the end boss is going to once again be alive and well as if you didn't kill him. And if you wait past a certain point on some fusions, the fusions simply change so even though most all of the townspeople evacuate, all fusions related to them can still be completed with someone else that is still available.

There is a side quest involving a fusion that has to be done prior to a certain point to be able to wrap up the related side quest, but the fusion itself can still be done afterwards as well even though you'll miss out on the side quest if you wait too long (Something involving a ghost, as I recall). That's about the only missable content in the North American version of The Minish Cap to the best of my knowledge.

There are no missable Kinstone fusions in the Japanese and North American copies of the Minish Cap (And just a single one in Europe due to a bug that was corrected for the later releases elsewhere). Heck, I didn't even seek them out until beating the game yet finished it despite probably 75% of my fusions happening after I first watched the end credits roll.

http://www.zeldawiki.org/Permanently...instone_Fusion

[Jorpho]

Of course, the downside to games like the Mario Advance port was the washed-out, brightened palette designed to compensate for the lack of backlighting in the original units.

Does anyone still care about the NES Classics series? I haven't heard anyone talk about those in a long time.

That's not what the strategy guide said.

It wouldn't be the first time one of those was wrong. I mean, just look at it! They've mixed up the captions for the two pictures! (And WTF is up with wishy-washy language like "may" ?)

[Tanooki]

I care about the NES Classic series, in part. Some of the games are just not all that classic in a way I'd like to play them again. Dr Mario is very played out. Never was much of a fan (once was enough) for Zelda 2. Xevious is kind of thin but ok. Bomberman I dislike unlike the sequel, and Metroid is all over the place already. Excitebike was ok as you could finally save the courses, PacMan was just weak, and Ice Climber you either are into or not.

I've got Super Mario Bros, Zelda and Castlevania, that's it.

Personally I loved what they did there, and back at retail times I had them all, but since the internet was big even then we all knew what Nintendo screwed us out of Japan got. I would have killed to have a copy of Twinbee, Kid Icarus, Ghosts n Goblins, Balloon Fight, Clu Clu Land, SMB2, Wrecking Crew, and Goemon.

I get some of them never were here at that point in time like Twinbee and Goemon, but the other stuff just bugged me. I think they're a really cool and fun series of games, maybe a bit more expensive than they should be, but cool.

On that note did any of you know in Japan there were other companies doing the same work? Hudson put out 6 packages of NES games on the GBA, some were themed in general for shooters (star force, star soldier, starship hector), lode runner, all 4 adventure islands, both bombermans, etc. And then the Kunio games were stuff into 2 collection carts as well. Oddly unlike Nintendo the other guys cheaped out so there's no battery save which is a shame.

[Gameguy]

There are no missable Kinstones and you can continue fusing them even after beating the game since you can't record that progress to your save. Every time you reload Minish Cap after reaching the end, the end boss is going to once again be alive and well as if you didn't kill him. And if you wait past a certain point on some fusions, the fusions simply change so even though most all of the townspeople evacuate, all fusions related to them can still be completed with someone else that is still available.

There is a side quest involving a fusion that has to be done prior to a certain point to be able to wrap up the related side quest, but the fusion itself can still be done afterwards as well even though you'll miss out on the side quest if you wait too long (Something involving a ghost, as I recall). That's about the only missable content in the North American version of The Minish Cap to the best of my knowledge.

There are no missable Kinstone fusions in the Japanese and North American copies of the Minish Cap (And just a single one in Europe due to a bug that was corrected for the later releases elsewhere). Heck, I didn't even seek them out until beating the game yet finished it despite probably 75% of my fusions happening after I first watched the end credits roll.

http://www.zeldawiki.org/Permanently...instone_Fusion

I thought it wasn't with beating the game, just after entering the final section of the game. Seems I was wrong about this. I was still wandering around trying to finish up those things and still not finding everyone who could fuse with what I had. Got annoying backtracking everywhere so many times.

It wouldn't be the first time one of those was wrong. I mean, just look at it! They've mixed up the captions for the two pictures! (And WTF is up with wishy-washy language like "may" ?)

Now I'm kind of pissed with the guide. I avoided finishing the game because of what it said and it's apparently incorrect.

[Tanooki]

You know Im getting a flashback about that guide too as the last time I played Minish Cap was the only time and I quit on it because I was looking for stones I thought Id hae to have before going deeper into the game and after running in circles for a few hours split over a few days I sold it being annoyed and Im starting to think youre talking about the same thing.

[Jorpho]

I thought it wasn't with beating the game, just after entering the final section of the game. Seems I was wrong about this. I was still wandering around trying to finish up those things and still not finding everyone who could fuse with what I had. Got annoying backtracking everywhere so many times.

There are one or two cases (should I say which?) where the best strategy may be to exit and re-enter a room repeatedly until the person inside feels like fusing. That is a bit shabby, I'll admit.

[Leo_A]

There's a lot more than just that. It has been a decade or so at this point since I played through it and obviously I wasn't keeping track, but it's more like several dozen in total for fickle kinstone fusions.

I'd say off hand that if a kinstone fusion wasn't related to the main quest line (And the vast majority weren't), more often than not it's fickle and isn't always available the very first time you talk to a person. So it's a good rule of thumb when you're hunting down the last few that have eluded you to do what you said and back in and out a few times before moving on just to make sure that person really doesn't have a fusion remaining.

At least one person has two fusions which is what fooled me for several hours before wrapping it up. Not going back a second time to a Minish that lived in a house beside a pier on a lake in a forest was what was holding me up. I knew I had already fused with the individual earlier in the game and didn't think to check if there was a 2nd fusion for several hours.