Favorite GBA Game(s)?

[mae_h]

emulating GBA games is what i grew up on - also how i discovered emulation as a whole by the way - so there's quite a few GBA games that i hold pretty close to my heart, Pokemon Ruby being one of em, although it's been mentioned already, my list would probably be something like...

• The entirety of the Mega Man Battle Network series - my favorite being 5: Team Colonel. -
• Ninja Five-O - got a re-release on Steam pretty recently! -
• Alien Hominid - also got a re-release and a sequel on Steam a couple years ago. -
• Summon Night: Swordcraft Story, really good RPG.
• Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation
• Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
• Metal Slug Advance
• One Piece - learned that this game was exclusive to North America! using sprites from a WonderSwan game. -
• Gunstar Future Heroes
• Advance Wars

i consider some of these to be essential to the GBA, also seconding the recs for Aria of Sorrow, Kurukuru Kuririn and Mother 3, amazing games all of em, could go on more but haven't played GBA stuff in a while.

[zj]

I LOVE Yoshi's Island! My brother and I got second hand Game Boy Advances for roadtrips in the later 2000s and I was obsessed with Yoshi <3 I also loved Dragonology!! Although that game will randomly turn off when I try to play it now always loved dragons.. I also had a lot of fun with Bratz Forever Diamondz!

[Melooon]

I recently paid FAR too much money (50 euro) for a boxed copy of Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town for GBA - I used to have it when I was little but its been missing for years.

I remember seeing an ad for it in a magazine when I was maybeee 9, with this picture of a cow with a little man on a ladder, and was fascinated!



There have been many harvest moon games, and remakes, and a bunch of copies since the "cozy games" craze started. The early ones still have a kind of magic that newer games just never captured for me; this one always felt like it has a lot of mystery and depth, while still being really simple!

You can get a flash cart (and I do have one), but I find its way more fun to just be away from home with one game and be forced to only play that one game. Harvest Moon is super for that 

[candycanearter07]

i absolutely love Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, its heavily nostalgic being one of the first games I've played on emulator. It also is such a charming little game despite it being noticeably shorter than the other games in the series and having a bit of "first-game jank"

[sphinx]

I never had a GBA but I knew a few people who did. I remember being interested in the bright vibrant colors and the fact that the screen lit up. (I now realize that those memories must've been a mandela effect though because google just told me that it never lit up, haha.)

My parents tried to keep me away from video games at all costs but my dad caved with the GBC, so all my handheld memories are tied to that. The games I liked most (besides Pokemon) were games I'm sure most would consider very bad. I loved Mary Kate & Ashley's Horseback Riding. I became so attached to all the horses and still remember some of their names; Dolly, Sparkle, & Sputnik. As a kid you inject so much backstory and personality into what started as a very bare-bones concept. I saw a video of a girl talking about she developed a childhood crush on one of the other dog owners in Nintendogs even though you never see what he looks like and barely interact with him.

Another game I loved playing was 102 Dalmatians. It was very basic but I think I just really liked seeing the dogs from the 101 sequel in actual cartoon form, which we never got. My stepsister borrowed it and took it to her mom's house, then said she lost it, then said she never borrowed it in the first place. Considering the story changes, I'm pretty sure she just straight-up stole it and I never trusted her with my stuff after that.

It wasn't till way later that I discovered all the Hamtaro GBA games and my gosh, they are so fun and cute! I would love more games to look like that now. I know they make retro consoles nowadays, but it's always retro in an intentionally ugly way I don't really care for.

[ADarkHero]

i absolutely love Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, its heavily nostalgic being one of the first games I've played on emulator. It also is such a charming little game despite it being noticeably shorter than the other games in the series and having a bit of "first-game jank"

Still in my top 10 games of all time list. I adore this one so much. It's so charming, the gameplay is super fun and it brings some fresh ideas to the rpg genre. I like that everything is a bean or laughing joke. I like that a nice beard gives you rabate at stores (and crit chance). Using bros moves outside the battle to get around is a neat idea. The second and third "Mario & Luigi" games were really nice too, but I couldn't get into the newer ones.

[candycanearter07]

Still in my top 10 games of all time list. I adore this one so much. It's so charming, the gameplay is super fun and it brings some fresh ideas to the rpg genre. I like that everything is a bean or laughing joke. I like that a nice beard gives you rabate at stores (and crit chance). Using bros moves outside the battle to get around is a neat idea. The second and third "Mario & Luigi" games were really nice too, but I couldn't get into the newer ones.

yeah, especially how the penultimate area is just "jokes end" its great. i still kinda think the second game (bowsers inside story) is the best one but ssaga is a top gba game

[ADarkHero]

Bowsers Inside Story was the third game. It's probably the most polished one and used the DS-capabilities in a really creative way.
The second one was "Partners in Time", which I also really adore.

[stephan_e_perez]

I remember seeing an ad for it in a magazine when I was maybeee 9, with this picture of a cow with a little man on a ladder, and was fascinated!



[...]

You can get a flash cart (and I do have one), but I find its way more fun to just be away from home with one game and be forced to only play that one game. Harvest Moon is super for that 

My partner quit smoking a few weeks ago as a birthday present to me. She needs other things to do to distract from the cravings so I've set her up to play "More Friends of Mineral Town" on the Analogue Pocket that a friend recently gifted me. (she'd wanted to play the Harvest Moon game on PSP, but we don't have right SD-card adapter/mini-USB needed to set that up right now)

[Melooon]

More Friends of Mineral Town" on the Analogue Pocket that a friend recently gifted me. (she'd wanted to play the Harvest Moon game on PSP

The PSP ones are famously not that great (though I'm very fond of Innocent Life), so I'd say you've picked the best one there

Also for anyone following who's interested in trying Harvest Moon but does not know the GBA versions:

• Harvest Moon - Friends of Mineral Town - you play as a boy and marry girls
• Harvest Moon - More Friends of Mineral Town - you play as a girl and marry boys
• Harvest Moon - Friends of Mineral Town (True Love Edition Rom Hack) - you can play as a girl marrying girls, or a boy marrying boys

The stories are a tiny bit different between them, but mostly the same ^^ Harvest Moon games can be very esoteric, so I recommend reading over one of the guides on GameFAQs

There is also a modern remake called "Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town" that you can get on steam and switch ^^ (but who would wanna play a gross thing like that )