Thread 11799394

What are the best GBA games that are still fun or hold up today?

What an obnoxious question.

>>11799394 (OP)
Great question OP, I would also like to know this.

>>11799394 (OP)
Metroid Zero Mission and Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow are good if you like metroidvania games.

>>11799394 (OP)
>Wario Land 4
>The Warioware games
That's it.

>>11799394 (OP)
Pokemon Emerald
Castlevania AoS
Fire Emblem 6/7/SS
SRW J (OG 1 and 2 have a better ps2 version)
Summon Night
Oriental Blue
Metroid Fusion
Mario Pinball land
Shin Megami Tensei (Debatable but it's the version with the most story content.)

Golden Sun games, but you need patience of a saint

>>11799394 (OP)
Final Fantasy VI

>>11799431
Mmmmh..

metroid fusion
minish cap
wario twisted. if you can even get the cart
and that's it.

>>11799394 (OP)
Crisis Core

>>11799453
lol
I have a PSP 1000 and a physical copy of that.

>>11799394 (OP)
Avoid any licensed game, the rest you have a pretty good chance of the game being above average or even great. GBA is such an awesome handheld.

>>11799416
> Shin Megami Tensei
What would be a good starting point for someone completely new to this?

>>11799465
Strange Journey

>>11799394 (OP)
>Crash Bandicoot: XS
I like the sequel, but the OG controls better and is more fun in my eyes, both are fun though.

>Lilo & Stitch
It's Metal Slug and OddWorld, but with Stitch and Lilo, respectively. Looks and plays great for me.

>Sonic Advance
I'd say the whole trilogy is great, but the 1st one's my favorite as a classic Sonic fan, it feelts like a proper Sonic 4.

>Spider-Man: Mysterio's Menace
You like the PS1 Spider-Man duology? I bet you didn't know it's actually a trilogy! This 3rd installment was a nice discovery.

>SpongeBob: SuperSponge
I liked it on PS1, but this just felt more polished to me, also no 100% or anything to make it frustrating like on PS1.

>Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
It's a superb isometric title that plays better than most of the 8-Bit and 16-Bit Terminator titles from before.

>The Lion King 1/2
A suprisingly good title that was fun to play, even if the main gimmicks got old a bit too fast for me.

>Yu-Gi-Oh: The Sacred Cards
Yu-Gi-Oh! had a ton of good titles on GBA, but this one feels best to me overall, feels like Pokemon.

>>11799394 (OP)
Yoshi Island is a must have desu

Fire Emblems
Golden Sun
Metroid Fusion
Pokemon Platinum & HG/SS
Pokemon Conquest

Pokemon Conquest is *THE* hidden gem here. Nobody knows about it. Hardly any copies sold. Super obscure spin-off, but it's excellent. Nobunaga's Ambition meets Pokemon. Using the trainers that you recruit, field teams of up to six Pokemon per battle as you wage war across a Pokemon filled continent. There is a lot to this game. It's not perfect. There were some missed opportunities and if anything it just becomes a little too easy once you get the hang of it, but it's still super fun. The first campaign is the tutorial, so don't spend too much time there or you'll ruin the subsequent missions by becoming too powerful (this is what I did). Each trainer has a type and link potential with certain pokemon. Each trainer has at least one pokemon they can make a perfect link with. You don't need a perfect link, but the perfect link makes it so that trainer continues to scale and gets really strong. The way the battles work, I prefer it to traditional turn-based Pokemon. The pokemon themselves are really fun and cute in such a tactical context. The music really pops, too. That's my endorsement. Love this game.

Sonic Advance, unlike the 2nd and 3rd it's a standard sanic without any gimmicks. Could have done with a few more levels though.

>>11799906
Shit, sorry guys. I got carried away with the Pokemon picks. I realize they are not GBA games.

>>11799460
>Avoid any licensed game,
Nah, there are some fun titles if you do your research. Obviously Astro Boy, but you also have Turok Evolution, the WayForward stuff like Scorpion King, the Lord of the Rings Diablo clones and wanna-be Fire Emblem, some Capcom Disney ports, Lilo & Stitch 1 and 2, Eragon and the 3rd Harry Potter as turn based rpgs, Jap properties like One Piece and Dragon Ball and various other stuff.

>>11799907
All three are good.

>>11799403
Is it obnoxious because you can't think of a singular game that the console has worth playing? Most people can not, this thread is proof of that.

>>11799909
We are like... months away from DS being retro on here. It has been retro on the rest of the internet for 8 years now.

>>11799394 (OP)
V-Rally 3
It's not just technically impressive, it's also surprisingly fun to play

>>11799906
Strategy wargame/board game type vgs tend to always be some of the most obscure, unfortunately

>>11799394 (OP)
>boktai 1/2/3 (yes you can emulate it)
>warioware twisted (works great with a phone or gyro controller)
>warioware MM
>warioland 4
>zelda minish cap
>metroid fusion
>metroid ZM
>aria of sorrow
>pokemon emerald (kaizo)
>drill dozer
>MM zero 2
>FFTA
>sonic advance 2

its actually nutty how many great games are on this handheld that only had 3 year shelf life. too bad all of the SNES ports are obsolete now, but back in the day they were amazing to have as well.

>>11800096
why does MC have her eyes blacked out? i dont get it

>>11799394 (OP)
Medal of Honor Infiltrator, since nobody mentioned it yet.
>>11799917
>Eragon
Interesting combat for a standard RPG, but the game's a real slog especially if you're not familiar with the series.

>>11799906
Holy shit
Pokémon had a tactics game?
WTF

>>11799475
This or Soul Hackers

>>11800338
KOEI will Nobununga anything you let them

>>11800347
Sounds based I will try it out

>>11799921
>my 23 year old self's childhood console being "retro"
Excuse me nigger?

>>11799394 (OP)
>>11799919
>entire Mario advance series
>advance wars
>CotM and aria of sorrow
>metroid fusion, zero mission
>fire emblem
>golden sun
>tony hawk
>entire GB + GBC libraries
That’s just off the top of my head while taking a shit here. It’s such a dumb meme that GBA has “no library.”

Any "bite-sized" games? I don't have the time or attention span to play stuff like RPGs that have a 40 hour play time

I'd make this top 10
1. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
2. Metroid Fusion
3. Advance Wars
4. WarioWare
5. Rhythm Tengoku
6. Wario Land 4
7. Mother 3
8. Mario & Luigi
9. Kirby & The Amazing Mirror
10. Mega Man Zero 3
Not on the list:
Pokemons—you play them if you want to, there are remakes too, I don't keep up with it

Astro Boy Omega Factor is a 10/10

>>11800934
>long RPGs
>on GBA
M8, most GBA games were "bite-sized". They always accounted for the fact that it's on handheld and you're gonna play it on lunch breaks.
Anyway, WarioWare and its sequel, also Guru Logi Champ. If you just mean 10-15 minute intervals of gameplay, then it's like half the GBA library except for most egregious jarpigs

>>11799394 (OP)
Mega Man Battle Network series

Metal Slug Advance

>>11800974
So I avoid the RPGs and find only bite-sized games?

Any bite-sized RPGs? These are pretty common on PC (Roadwarden, Space Wreck, etc.)

>>11799394 (OP)
Picrelated. Also, to counter what >>11800312 said, I'd actually recommend at least trying the SNES ports too just because I'm retarded and prefer the simpler control schemes these games got on the GBA. Everyone shits on Donkey Kong Country on the GBA but I thought it was fine, and I prefer Super Mario World's controls on the GBA over the SNES (though I recommend using a romhack to fix the colors unless you want everything to look washed out).

>>11800104
This looks fun, but I imagine it looks like smeared shit if you play it on the OG horizontal GBA like the one in the OP.

>>11799921
My personal definition for what is retro is anything 10+ years old because I remember the N64 being unquestionably retro in 2010. But over the past few years this definition has become faulty; because of how stagnant the industry has become, GTAV, which is definitely not a retro-feeling game since it's still being updated all the time, counts as retro with this logic.

>>11801107
SNES ports on GBA are shit. Much smaller screen space and often washed out color palette. Just do yourself a favor and play the originals.

>>11801107
how can I emulate WarioWare Twisted? can I use the steam deck gyro?

>>11801175
I think some emulators on mobile support it

>>11799420
I recently blitzed through GS1 with all side content completed in under 30 hours, it's not that bad

>>11799465
It's kind of boring. Only play it if you become a die hard fan from playing the other games first.

>>11799394 (OP)
Boktai series (only emulating with the UV hack)
basically all of Squenix's output
Breath of Fire remake
Shining Force remake
Pokemon (including the spinoff games like Mystery Dungeon)
Kirby games
DB Advance Adventure
Sigma Star Saga
Konami Krazy Racers

>>11801048
don't listen to him, most of the RPGs on the system are SNES ports with additional content rather than removed content. FF6 is a 50+ hour game on the system, same as the original. even the system-specific RPGs are at least 20h. Devs simply made it easier to save on a moment's notice for it because as he said it was designed so you could play it on the bus ride to school of during lunch breaks.

>>11799394 (OP)
Steel Empire is really freaking cool if you’re into shoot-em-ups. I don’t know how it compares to the Genesis version however

>>11799394 (OP)
Metroids
FE
Advance Wars
Golden Suns
Mario & Luigi SS
Minish nocap

>>11799403
FPBP
>>11799919
You are a fucking retard

Rayman anniversary edition
Ice Age
Monsters, Inc.

Super Robot Wars OG 1&2

>>11799906
The thing that ruins Conquest is the shitty gen 5 pokemon being everywhere, especially the shitty monkeys