Nintendo GBA BUYING GUIDE & Recommended Games

[Metal Jesus]

Metal Jesus & Reggie tell you what model of Nintendo Game Boy Advance you should buy, what accessories to look out for and what GBA games you should pick up Day 1. The GBA is a great handheld and this buying guide will get you started right!

 

Games Shown:

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 & 3

Castlevania Harmony of Dissonance

Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga

Golden Sun 1 & 2

Zelda Minish Cap

Gunstar Super Heroes

Double Dragon Advance

Kirby & the Amazing Mirror

Advance Wars 1 & 2

Metal Slug Advance

Metroid Zero Mission & Fusion

Anybody else on AtariAge collect for the GBA? What other games would you recommend new GBA collectors get Day 1?

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Awesome video! I had been hoping you guys would do a GBA or DS buyers guide for a while, and you did a seriously great job with it!

 

As far as my recommended day 1 pickups go, there's...

 

 

Doom & Doom II

 

To me one of the coolest things about the Game Boy Advance has always been that it was the first portable system that could play first-person shooters really well, and the GBA ports of Doom and Doom II are both excellent. They did change around a few of the levels to accommodate the hardware limitations of the GBA, and the blood was made green to snag a Teen rating, but they're still outstanding ports and one of the best ways to play these classics on the go. If you like these two then Duke Nukem Advance and Wolfenstein 3D are well worth checking out as well.

 

 

Iridion II

 

Every system has a one or two standout spaceship shooters, and Iridion II is the premier shmup on the GBA. It's a vertical scrolling shooter with some really gorgeous graphics, tight gameplay, a large variety of weapons to choose from, and a pretty approachable difficulty curve. Definitely pick this one up if you're a fan of the genre.

 

 

Mazes of Fate

 

Anyone who likes first-person Western style dungeon crawling RPGs like Eye of the Beholder can't go wrong with Mazes of Fate. The game looks great, the real time first-person combat is tense and fast paced, and it's got an engaging story with numerous sidequests to tie it all together. And it's pretty cheap to collect to boot!

 

 

Need For Speed: Underground 2

 

While Mario Kart: Super Circuit might be the most obvious choice for a GBA racing game, NFS: Underground 2 is not to be missed for fans of the genre. It's got a huge variety of cars and customization options to choose from, several different gameplay modes (Circuit, drag, drift, etc.), plus a whole bunch of different minigames to unlock new tracks and upgrades for your cars. And did I mention that it is possibly the best looking game on the GBA graphically speaking? The polygonal graphics in this game will absolutely blow you away and make you wonder how they ever got it to run on the GBA, with zero slowdown no less! I really can't say enough good things about this game.

 

 

Sonic Advance 1, 2, & 3

 

If you're like me and grew up with Sonic on the Sega Genesis, then it's probably been a while since you played a Sonic game that really felt like the Genesis originals in terms of gameplay and overall quality. For me, the Sonic Advance series were the sequals I was always waiting for ever since the days of the Genesis. They look, sound, and play so similarly to the original Sonic series on the Genesis that I honestly felt like these were the first "real" Sonic games to come along in a good decade or so when they came out. In short, they're darn good and well worth picking up for any fan of the Sonic games on the Genesis; or if you just like solid well made platformers in general.

 

 

Street Fighter Alpha 3

 

And one for the fighting game fans! When I played Street Fighter Alpha 3 back when it originally came out, it was first time that I ever played a fighting game on a handheld that didn't feel like a watered down port of a home console version. Alpha 3 on the GBA looks and plays every bit as well as it's home console brethren, and it (along with Super Street Fighter 'II Turbo Revival) is definitely one of the top fighting games on the GBA. Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance isn't too shabby either for the MK fans.

Edited March 11, 2016 by Jin

[Metal Jesus]

As far as my recommended day 1 pickups go, there's...

Doom & Doom II

Iridion II

Mazes of Fate

Need For Speed: Underground 2

 

Some great suggestions right there! I like how you picked some of the more technically impressive GBA games. I haven't played NFS Underground 2 yet...but I'll probably pick it up based on your suggestion. Thanks!

[Metal Jesus]

I'm going to add my Nintendo GBA (Game Boy Advance) HIDDEN GEMS to this thread. Reggie shows us some of his favorite Game Boy Advance games that not everybody knows about but everybody should be playing! What games would you like to see in Part 2? Let us know below!

 

[zetastrike]

I really liked the Mega Man Zero games. Very challenging even in comparison to the other MM games, but I enjoyed them. If you enjoyed playing as Zero in X4-X6, you'll love them. I'm glad someone else liked a GBA NFS, I have Porsche Unleashed and I love it for some reason. It's just cool to see 3D driving games on a 2001 handheld. V-Rally 3 does it even better. There are a lot of games for the GBA where the devs went nuts with programming and it's fun to see. I'm not sure if Nintendo ever intended for 3D graphics when they were designing it.

 

I also prefer Castlevania Circle of the Moon to SotN simply because it's a lot more challenging and balanced. It has nice music too. The DKC games, to me, are better as portable games than console. The GBA ports are fun to run through. The Crash Bandicoot platformers are fun and cheap. Moto Racer Advance is a fun motorbike racer.

 

The GBA is really fun to buy for. The games are largely cheap and fun to discover.

[BydoEmpire]

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance & Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition.

 

Definitely not Mortal Kombat Advance, which got a 0.0 from EGM.

[high voltage]

Lady Sia, one excellent platformer

[high voltage]

Pokémon............ we pissed off? Best thing Nintendo ever did.

 

 

One thing though, I know it's a Japanese console, but I reckon you should review more great US/European games, too much Japanese ....

Edited April 14, 2016 by high voltage

[isolated_gamerz]

The GBA is a beast of a device.

 

There some really unique games on there. One of which i can highly recommend is KURU KURU KURURIN.
Its one unique game, and its perfect for commutes. BUT be warned its easy to play but hard to complete!!

There are some other gems i can recommend

- Wade hixton counter punch

- Ninja Cop - Five o

- Klonoa

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgcJuJEOmNo

Edited April 21, 2016 by isolated_gamerz

[Metal Jesus]

We are BACK with another list of awesome Nintendo Gameboy Advance / GBA games that are Hidden Gems! These are lesser known games that are super fun to play and should be in every game collector's library.

 

 

The list of games we show is in the video description.

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Another awesome hidden gems video! I swear that whenever you make one of these videos I always feel the need to run out to my favorite local game store and scour the bargain bin for new treasures immediately after watching it.

 

It was also nice that you took a few minutes to talk about the whole price issue and the way that the videos of popular retro gaming YouTubers such as yourself might affect the prices of games. It really is a double edged sword, because it's always great to help others discover good games to play and collect that they might have never found out about if it wasn't for videos like yours; but on the other hand when a popular YouTuber helps their audience discover good games the demand for those games always goes up, which inevitably raises the prices they sell for. It's a total catch 22, since you're definitely doing a good thing by introducing people to mostly unknown games that are worth playing, but doing so invariably makes those games become more expensive and difficult to collect. And in truth, the only people who don't care about prices are the people who make so much money that they don't have to care. For poor folks like me and many others though price is a huge deal, and often makes the difference between whether or not a game or system is worth collecting.

 

So, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. If you don't talk about the undiscovered good games out there then they might end up just getting lost to the ages of time and never get played by nearly as many people as they deserve to be, but if you do talk about them then there's a decent chance that the newly created demand for them will push their price out of the realm of affordability for people who would like to play them. It's something that simultaneously helps and hurts the hobby, but I wouldn't tell you to stop making hidden gems videos over it. Personally I just keep my fingers crossed that none of the hidden gems that I want and have yet to acquire end up becoming the next Shantae.

[Metal Jesus]

Part 3 of my ongoing Nintendo GBA Games series with Radical Reggie!

 

 

Games Shown:

Tactics Ogre: The Night of Lodis

Shining Soul II

Zone of the Enders: The Fist of Mars

Pinobee Wings of Adventure

Sega Arcade Gallery

Lunar Legend

Riviera: The Promised Land

R-Type III: The Third Lightning

Cima: The Enemy

Yggdra Union: We’ll Never Fight Alone

[high voltage]

Yeah I liked the last two episodes. Good stuff.