So in celebration of the GBA's tenth anniversary and with the 3DS further cementing the death of the Game Boy name, I decided to look back at some of my personal favorite games from the system.
Now keep in mind that these are MY favorite games and not a top ten list or the definitive games of the system. These are just games that I personally enjoyed and spent a lot of time on. So if you disagree with my list, I don't care.
What I do care is what are YOUR favorite games of the system. So after seeing what I like, why not skip down to the comments and let us know what your favorites are? I am more than interested to see what other people's favorite games are.
I decided to split this into two so that way it wasn't one gigantic post. Look for part two in the near future.
So, without further ado and in no particular order, the my (partial) list (after the jump)!
Advance Wars
Until I played this game, I had never really played any strategy games at all and to be honest, had I known that is what it was I wouldn't have even bothered. My family and I were up North visiting relatives one year and I had a GBA SP at the time. My aunt and uncle had bought this game for their son who didn't really like it. So I booted it up, started a new game, and ended up coming home with their son's game.
It plays similarly to Final Fantasy Tactics or Disgaea but not in a fantasy setting of course. You command military units like soldiers, helicopters, and battleships in each mission in order to secure victory. Each unit has it's strengths and weaknesses which can also be affected by terrain, supplies the units have left (like gas and munitions), and even the commanding officers powers.
Yes, that's right, the commanding officers have abilities that affect gameplay like repairing/healing all your units to increasing range and damage from artillery and even causing a blizzard to impede movement!
And that final battle, woo is it a doozy. You actually have three commanding officers that you control against one guy and it is barely fair....for you! It took me weeks to beat the final campaign, and when I did i only had one of the three armies under my control left!
If you like strategy games, or games with a lot of depth and replay value, definitely seek this game out. It spawned a sequel on the GBA and two more on the DS.
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| The game didn't look this badass, but it sure felt like it sometimes. |
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
This game was such a success that Konami actually did a sequel to it. Konami almost never does sequels when it comes to Castlevania games.
The story is what hooked me into this one. Many years prior to the setting in the game, Dracula had been killed and his powers sealed within a solar eclipse. Skip ahead a few years to Soma Cruz, a transfer student who gets sucked into Dracula's castle during a solar eclipse. You find out that a reincarnation of Dracula is to inherit Dracula's old powers which were sealed away in the eclipse many years prior. Soma finds he has the ability to absorb demon's powers and wield their powers and so decides to use his newfound abilities to track down the reincarnation of Dracula and hopefully prevent them from absorbing Dracula's powers.
Demons? Dracula? Reincarnation? Gigantic, creepy castle? Count me in!
This was a game that focused on exploration and combat. I spent my time searching every inch of Dracula's castle for any demon I might have missed so I could see what cool ability I could gain from it. There are over 100 souls to collect each with different abilities and uses so you can imagine what it takes to 100% complete the game and finding the ones that work for you the best.
The bosses were pretty memorable too. Some of my favorites were the final ones, like Legion, Death, and even a member of the Belmont clan!
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| You know it's serious when Death shows up to deal with you personally. |
Between the collecting, exploration, and captivating story, Aria of Sorrow is not a game to be missed.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel
Wait a sec....does this belong here? Why, yes it does. Remember, this is MY list of favorite GBA games and there are few games that I spent more time with than this game.
I used to play the Yu-Gi-Oh card game and watch the show, except all of the games that came out never actually played like the card game actually played and never really tied into the story of the show. That was until Yu-Gi-Oh! Worldwide Edition: Stairway to the Destined Duel (henceforth know as SDD) came out.
It played exactly like the card game without cutting corners on the rules and actually took place during the events of the show. So not only could I feel like I was part of what was going on in the show, I could practice the card game whenever I wanted without having to pull out my deck and play an actual person.
Yes, I used this game as practice. See, Yu-Gi-Oh cards have numbers on them which you could punch into the game and be able to unlock that card for use in the game. So I took all the cards in my deck, punched them into the game, and viola! I could test my deck against multiple opponents and tweek it accordingly without actually having to set up a full game.
This game helped my deck win a few tournaments and place in the top three during a tournament season.
And for those curious, my deck was built around Hayabusa Knight, Fairy Meteor Crush, Mage Power, and United We Stand.
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| Yes, he does look like a pigeon. |
So these are the first three, I got four more left. Anyone want to take a shot at what they might be?
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