Top Ten GBA Games

Since I'm winding down my completions a bit, I'm going to try to keep my writing fresh with a few different topics other than the usual What I'm Playing. Since I did an homage to my favorite home console, the SNES, I decided I'd also do a list for my favorite handheld, the Game Boy Advance (note, I still refer to my 3DS as my Game Boy, sometimes-I'm like your mom). I adore lists, and love getting upset that my favorites aren't included, or are too low, so feel free to take umbrage with my selections! My rules were that the game must have originated on the GBA to qualify for the list, which rules out any number of super ports on the system, and that I wouldn't exclude multiple games from the same series, unless there was a game from another series that was pretty close, and would have been excluded due to the presence of two from the same series. This was WAY harder than doing the SNES for some reason, which means that every single one of these games is a must-buy. I've linked any full reviews I've done for these games for your reference.

Honorable Mentions:

Mega Man Zero & Mega Man Zero 2-really wonderful games on a very deep system
Mario Tennis: Power Tour-ditto
Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game-it's not good, and I really love it
The Final Fantasy Ports (Origins, IV, V, and VI)
The Mario Ports (Super Mario Bros. 3 & Super Mario World)
The Link to the Past Port
Pokemon FireRed
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones-just quite as good as it's predecessor, and a hair worse than Advance Wars 

Anyway, on with the true list!

 10/9. Advance Wars & Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising

I feel so stupid putting these at number 10 and number 9, but then I look at the games above them and realize that 1) this is no insult and 2) this is exactly where they belong, with the second game being slightly better than the first due to the new Neotanks and more playable commanders.

8. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow

 

When I reviewed this game, I gave it a 9.5 and yet I still feel the need to put it at number 8. It's fantastic, and only has a few tiny flaws that drop it down this far.

7. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga

I have to confess that I can't think of anything wrong with this delightful gem. It's extremely well polished and hilarious, with a wonderful concept for a game mixing puzzling, action elements, and RPG elements, and yet it didn't quite blow my mind or stick with me in quite the same way other games ahead of it in this list did.

6/5. Golden Sun: The Lost Age & Golden Sun

These two are more or less interchangeable to me, but if I had to pick one, I think I'd pick the first. Having fewer characters, and more likeable characters, made this one slightly better, but they're both titanic technical and gameplay achievements, despite some of the rambly dialogue.

4. Mario Golf: Advance Tour

It's just a flat out incredible golf game on a handheld. I'm probably biased by my love of golf games and sports RPGs here, but this is my list, and this is one of my all-time favorites. Don't knock it unless you've tried it!

3. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

This is where making this list got really, really, really hard. This is a flat out unbelievable game, and is probably in my top 3 Final Fantasy games list. It's a perfect 10, along with the other two, but I feel slightly less need to revisit this game than I do with the other two.

2. Fire Emblem

The permadeath feature in this game made very dive into every mission stressful, and made the payoff from victory all the sweeter. Throw in the fact that it has my favorite Fire Emblem story, and my two favorite Fire Emblem characters (Lyn #1, Hector #2), and combine it with the flawless mechanics of Fire Emblem, and you have a perfect handheld experience.

1. Pokemon Emerald

As I've gotten older, I've come to accept that the greatest RPG franchise of all-time is not Final Fantasy. It's Pokemon. And this is my favorite Pokemon game, and also probably the game I've beaten the most times, out of any game. I used to run through the game from beginning to end, wipe it, and start anew with a new gimmick, or try to beat it as fast as possible. The existence of Emerald makes it unnecessary to play Ruby or Sapphire again, so despite those games being every bit as good as Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, they appear here quasi-spiritually.

Anyway, that's my top ten list of my favorite GBA games! I'll probably do my top ten NES games next, or maybe I'll do the DS next. Tough choices! In actuality, I'm close to wrapping up the game I'm currently playing on handheld, and also have another fun new idea to do, so one of those will probably be next before a top ten.

-TRO