I think I finally played through every FPS on GBA I wanted to play.

But first let's start with the 2 that I didn't beat.

>Medal of Honor - Underground
What a piece of shit. This isn't even alpha material. Literally the worst FPS I've played, but at least I finally found something that de-throned Congo on Saturn. There isn't a single thing right, the engine is a slideshow of pixelated mess even when there is nothing going on, at times there are entire lines or blobs or glitched pixels popping out or architecture flickering; all objects (enemies, pick ups) are barely recognizable messes and even when you get close you realize they have glitchy pixels of the wrong colours. Not even the weapon sounds are correct. This looks like a "you have two weeks and then we ship, I don't give a fuck" situation.

>Wolfenstein 3D
It's a good port but ever since I discovered versions of the game with projectile based weapons added in, I don't feel like playing a version without them anymore. Maybe one day.

And now, by release order

>Doom
>October, 2001

Very fitting of Doom to open the ball. This is a port of "console Doom" with some simplified architecture, changed texturing, an entire level (E3M1) completely different, the Spider Mastermind and Cyberdemon missing and a normally secret level in lieu of a boss. People tend to like GBA Doom II more but I enjoyed the first one a lot more because the differences made it fresh. It's still Doom and it has a good engine, good controls and good framerate.
There is no UV difficutly and it goes straight to Nightmare, however it's not the original Nightmare, enemies don't respawn and it's more of a blend between UV, Nightmare and Fast Monsters. Enemies deal a shit ton of damage, Cacodemons are FAST to the point I feared them liked I never feared them before. I don't know if this version of Nightmare exists in the other "console Doom" versions but I enjoyed it a lot, I did pistol starts in the first 2 EPs but then I gave up on that in EP3 because the new E3M1 is obviously not meant for it (you keep your stuff from the previous EP).

>Ecks vs Sever
>November, 2001

2 playable characters and 12 missions. For most missions there are differences depending on the character chosen, for instance some areas may only be available to one character and vice versa, or Sever may start on one side of the level while Ecks would start on the other side.
The game can be very hard especially the last few missions. The arsenal is fine but enemies lacked variety.
Most levels are linear with only a few optional side rooms here and there.
Overall a good game, the level design works for the most part, you need to be tactical and the game does a good job at coming up with fresh situations again and again. Fun shooting.

>Dark Arena

Unlike most other GBA FPS games which tend to use FPS tropes of the late 90's / early 00's, this one is a pure Doom clone in every way. The level design varies in quality but I generally enjoyed it. Like the two Ecks vs Sever games there is forced pistol start on every level but in Dark Arena in can be a real issue as weapons tend to be unbalanced (some are obviously much more powerful than others) and supplies can be lacking in a few levels. Auto-aiming struggles to hit things on the vertical axis (and you can't look up or down), also the framerate can struggle especially when there are a lot of enemies. One area in particular in one of the last levels is a real slideshow. Though overall the game performed really well.

The graphics and especially the colours can be simple and jarring at times.

This was good and refreshing to play a pure Doom-like but the game has a few small issues hindering the big picture.

>>11865650
Dark Arena was january 2002

>Duke Nukem Advance
>August 2002

Obviously inspired by Duke Nukem 3D and re-uses a lot enemies/weapons from it, although there is one new enemy which can revive other enemies and a new weapon (a double shotgun). Level design is pretty good for the most part and varied, going from Area 51, city, egypt, more city and alien spaceship.
The main issue with the game however is that all the weapons feel off to use, mostly due to the rate of fire but not only, there is no gibbing enemies for instance and some enemies are super spongey which seems to have been done to justify the existance of the double shotgun. All the weapons feel a lot worse than they should be and it really brings the game down. Still a top tier GBA FPS because the level design is good and it's Duke.

>Ecks vs Sever - Ballistic
>September 2002

Sequel to Ecks vs Sever, this time each character gets his/her own set of missions so the game is longer and more varied. Weapons and enemies were more fun and varied too and overall the game is better balanced. However there are 2 or 3 really shitty mission like timed events or having to following a bad guy through the entire level without killing him or losing him (only to have to kill him 2 missions later). The best thing about the game is the aiming system à la Goldeneye/Medal of Honor, press Select and manually aim which allows for high damage headshots. Really fun.

>Doom II
>October, 2002

This is a lot more faithful than GBA Doom was, all the levels and enemies are there, fully intact. However I didn't enjoy it as much because it has its share of issues. It took me a while to get used to the controls, despite there being a sensitivity slider sensitivity 1 was too slow and 2 was too fast. Some enemies have unfaithful behaviours like not being able to see the player from a far, the Mancubus not being able to shoot straight, Lost Souls being able to hit the player from a greater distance, etc etc The framerate can also get really really bad. So while GBA Doom 1 felt like a fresh experience, at this point GBA Doom 2 just feels like lesser Doom 2.

>007 - Nightfire
>March, 2003

Although looking very pixelated, it has the most impressive 3D out of all GBA FPS with a lot of cool architecture or room over room. It's a port of the NGC version and while some areas look completely new, others are definitely recognizable. All the gadgets are there, you can jump, crouch, aim up and down, which makes the control a bit shitty because there are two things to do with so few buttons (jumping and strafing at the same time switches weapons for instance). There are mission objectives, weapons are fun to use as well.
However, there is a catch. The difficulty. The game becomes INSANELY hard starting from the mid game, I was only able to win by learning the enemy placement by heart and using all kinds of exploits. Also each mission is divided into 2 or 3 sub missions and if you die you restart it all over. Supplies can be tight, a single encounter gone wrong can easily put you near death, and the game loves to spawn enemies in your back. The game also tends to skip frames when there are more than 3 enemies and aiming becomes more difficult, also there is no auto-aiming whatsoever here you have to be super precise. Also it is very common to just see enemies spawn out of thin air.
A technically impressive and actually really fun game but bogged down by performance issues and an insane difficulty.

>Serious Sam Advance
>April, 2004

I was not a fan of Serious Sam to begin with and this game did not win me over. The game alternates between being a slideshow and a slower slideshow. Aiming is incredibly inprecise, in fact I would almost always strafe to fine tune my aiming rather than using the d-pad. If you hold down B you get more precise aiming, however that also makes you walk very slowly and also holding B and pressing L/R makes you switch weapons so you can't strafe while holding B, which makes the whole button basically un-useable except in a few circumstances. On top of this rapidly tapping B also switches to the next weapon, which means that if you try to hold B and press L to go to the previous weapon, if you don't wait a second before letting go of B or pressing L or R, you'll be switching weapons again. I was constantly miss - switching weapons in the midst of action, it's a real mess.

Even if the engine and controls issues were fixed, the game is still very average at best. Most of the game is just a succession of rectangle rooms with a few enemies spawns one after the other. In the second half of the game they very often hand out backpacks which refills all the ammo of all weapons so you barely even need to watch your ammo. Also if you use a level password you'll start the level with full ammo and also all weapons previously available, even if you had missed said weapon yourself (this actually saved me in the end because I hadn't found the nuke which is mandatory to use for the shit the end game pulls).
There are a couple of level design segments that are actually good and that's about it.

>Ice Nine
>February, 2005

Technically speaking one of the most impressive FPS on GBA, levels are highly detailed, with a lot of shadows, decorative sprites and textures that can be shot, lights that can be turned off in some circumstances, you can look up and down etc all while maintening a good framerate and while not looking too pixelated. The games tries to be modern (for the time): it's story-driven and different objectives have to be met in some missions. If you play on Easy the last 2 missions won't be available, however I played on Hard and the game was too easy, I only died once and was only in trouble once or twice more. Auto-aiming is way too generous on the horizontal axis so you barely need to aim. Weapons are fine, the sniper rifle was more fun to use than in the two Ecks vs Sever games. Some missions have repeated level design so it can get a bit repetitive, and some other missions are surprisingly short too (though the overall length is similar to other GBA FPS games).
Good, but too easy especially because of how generous auto-aiming is.

>>11865637 (OP)

Thanks for doing this OP.

Been meaning to try some of these out, and it's showed me which ones to prioritise.

awesome thread, I've been on a GBA kick and this is great.

>>11865643
This one has the interesting choice of disabling lighting (basically perma light goggles) in exchange for better frame rate.
Also if I recall the DM levels are original.

>>11865650
>this one is a pure Doom clone in every way
I believe this game actually uses a .wad file holding its contents, and that some of the devs are long time regulars in the Doom mapping community. I've seen its MIDIs (and it uses actual MIDIs), used in .wads for Doom.

I really like the way you put your screenshot collages in a 3x3 pattern with the titlescreen/logo in the center.

>>11865637 (OP)
doom clones on systems other than pc are kind of like a lost genre to me. they're a pretty neat novelty working within the limitations of early 3d systems and pre dual analog stick controllers but it just didn't amount to much. mostly just ports that are now completely redundant or released on systems that weren't really up to the task like these gba games. the only one that's really worth remembering is powerslave.

>>11865637 (OP)
>you have two weeks and then we ship, I don't give a fuck
More like 2 days, that game is an abonimation. Thanks for the writeups OP, I'm probably going to try Dark Arena and Ice Nine soon.

>>11865637 (OP)
Did Ecks vs Sever feature an antagonist that was an ex-NSA official than FBI or CIA?

>>11866159
The story was about a power play between FBI and CIA iirc but I didn't really follow or care since I'm unfamiliar with the source material

>>11866185
Strangely the games were released before the movie. Still need to watch the movie. Judging on the soundtrack alone it must be fucking amazing.

>>11866214
I've heard the movie is supposed to be pretty bad and forgettable.

>>11866229
If it was so hated by (((critics))) it can't be forgettable. It looks like the ultimate 2002 time capsule.

>>11866236
Lord knows critics aren't the final authority of anything (and can have bad tastes), but sometimes something simply gets popularly regarded the way it is for good reason.