Hey... I've had a GBA for years and years now. I'm not quite ready to move onto the newer generation of Game Boys yet. Anyway, my GBA has basically only been used with one game: Yoshi's Island... for years and years, it got me through trips to Florida, Georgia, and more recently, Europe.
However, I am interested in getting a SECOND game to share the burden, that Yoshi may get some R & R.
What is a really good game on GBA that I could get? I'm accepting all recommendations, but I am looking for something thats probably a port of an older game; maybe a great, classic RPG, or a platformer game... maybe a Mario or a Zelda or a FF or something...
Forty hours in four days spent on Final Fantasy VI Advance should be recommendation plenty.
You can also get LTTP easily, and practically every Mario game is available on the machine now.
Any of the Metroids (Fusion, Classic Gaming Series, Remake) are good.
I think you'd like Fire Emblem, it's a pretty good series, and there are two phenomenal installments on the GBA. Sacred Stones is the better of the two, IMO, but the first FE is good in it's own right as well.
Also, Wario Ware. Any of them.
Don't bother with the "Gaming series" Metroid, as the original is included with Zero.
There's also a bunch of Castlevania games, and there's all those other Final Fantasies if you are interested. ONE GBA game? Man can't live by bread alone!
Aside from LTTP, there's Minish Cap.
Frankly, I wish Nintendo would translate Mother 3 and the first GBA Fire Emblem and send them our way already. What better "fond farewell" to the GBA lineup then those two games? If I haven't played it, it's new to me!
Quote:What better "fond farewell" to the GBA lineup then those two games?
The correct answer to this question is "Chrono Trigger".
"Recommend some good GBA games"? I hate questions like that, there are so MANY good GBA games... all but two of the games I own were well worth getting, and there are many more...
Ryan Wrote:The correct answer to this question is "Chrono Trigger".
I think that should go on DS at this point. Tose didn't exactly do a stellar job with the FF6 port in some key respects and CT was a more demanding game than that was. Also, Super Mario RPG.
I wonder if they could get those FMVs from the PS version compressed and shoved into the CT cart...
Oh, by the way, FF1 and FF2 are coming to the PSP intact in a 20th anniversary edition, or whatever. It'll basically be the PS1 and GBA versions combined. That said, I may regret getting ALL the GBA versions in the coming year or so if my hunch is accurate... They might even bring FF3 to the PSP with even better visuals. The thing is, as good as FF3 is, they screwed up with the touch screen support. It's token gesture at best and useless at worst. Technically, the menus can be browsed with the touch screen, but practically, they are still direction based menus. At no point did I find it easier to use the touch screen than to just use the direction pad. Really, full support would involve PC style menus where you drag and drop items ONTO your character's inventory slots and can interact with anything with a click. For example, in a battle, click on an enemy and then a radial menu appears with actions that character can perform to it, or click on an ally and select those actions. As it is, controller is still superior.
That said, a PSP version could go without the touch screen support and not be any worse off for it.
Oh, yeah back on topic. I love Chrono Trigger, a lot, and the PS version of that (as well as FF6 to a lesser extent, one of the good points of the GBA version) is those horrid load times. However, when given a choice between new game or old game ported to a system, I go with new game, so yeah, I'd still rather they bring Mother 3 and that unreleased GBA Fire Emblem to America.
I found nothing wrong with the FF6 port except some decrease in sound quality. I do not include the phantom slowdown issues, because what little I've seen isn't even worth noting.
Honestly, I wouldn't care if it were DS or GBA, Chrono Trigger that is, but I would not want it 3D'd or fundamentally altered in any major way. Give it a new shine, fix the text issues that exist, but leave it mostly intact.
Get rid of what little censoring it had (Soda? Riiight, though that was funny) and it'll be good. 3D it up? Well, as I always say, I don't care how much they change it so long as the unaltered original is on the cart, ala Zero Mission (and nothing else, ever, WHY?!). I say this because I've seen videos of the cancelled 3D CT project, and that looked amazing. I imagine it just isn't doable on the DS, but something close could be...
Well at any rate I'd be fine with the original and some extras, but I want it at LEAST as good as the original without any cutbacks in quality.
By the way, the sound issues are a little... odd. It's a little weird for a door slam sound to just be a "boop" now, that's all. As for phantom slowdown, it's really battle and when flying around. It's the graphical and audio issues that I was mainly pointing out.
On a totally unrelated note, why is screaming unintelligably considered "singing" in come circles?
Fine, I'll list some... (kind of in a sort of quality order, I guess, though these are all great games)
Fire Emblem
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Riviera: The Promised Land
Summon Night: Swordcraft Story
Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising
Yggdra Union
Gradius Galaxies
Golden Sun
Metroid Zero Mission / Metroid Fusion
Lady Sia
Gunstar Super Heroes
The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood (if you're a KOF fan)
I appreciate your recommendations, and some of these, like Mario and Zelda need no introductions, but for others like... Fire Emblem and the other lesser-known titles... could you summarize their genre and maybe a little bit about the most recommendable of them?
You want some recommandation on Fire Emblem?
*stretch...deep breath*
Fire Emblem is a turn based strategy/RPG. You command a group of fighters, with 20+ different classes (each with their own distinct stats, characteristics, and weapon sets) through turn-based, tactical battles. You choose a set amount of characters to bring into battle, and you must defeat the enemies, including, usually, a boss. Every time your character attacks (or, indeed, does almost anything besides move), they get experience points, when they get 100, the level up and their stats increase. Most units can alse be upgraded to a higher unit (a cavalier can become a paladin/mage can become a sage) which increases their stats and what wepaons they can use. Wepaons consist of axes, lances, and swords, and one bests, and is bested by the two others (swords>axes, axes>lances, lances>swords), same with magic (anima, dark, and light). It's simple, but adds a surprising amount of depth to battles, especially when you factor in weapons like a Lancereaver, a sword that is <i>strong</i> against lances but <i>weak</i> against axes, effectively reversing the so-called "weapon triangle".
When a character dies, they are gone forever, adding a sense of finality to battles, and making you consider whether a risk is worth losing one of your favorite units (though the mission in question can usually be restarted to try again, but this isn't always convenient).
The cherry on the top of the FE cake is it's character development and narrative. The action is good, but the storyline and dialogue make the game great. Not only that, but most characters can also interact with one another right on the battlefield, building support relationships between each other which strengthen them both if they fight together.
I could go on and on, but the fact of the matter is that Fire Emblem is a great series, and definitely one you should at least try out. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
*exhale*
Yes, the units in Fire Emblem are ALL characters with backstories. No "grunt unit number 37" here.
Yes, that's Fire Emblem (except for where you call it a "strategy/RPG". It's a strategy game, not "strategy-RPG". No, I won't give up on my position that that genre doesn't exist! :) They're just strategy games with RPG features, not a whole separate genre...), and those are my two favorite games on the GBA.
As for Riviera, see my review here. It's long because of how much I loved the game. :)
Summon Night (and its sequel) are action-RPGs with random, sidescrolling-combat battles (think Tales of Phantasia, but a lot faster and more fun -- you have one character who fights and a helping 'Guardian Beast' (you get one of four, chosen at the beginning of the game) which lets you cast spells and stuff.). The story (and the game) is kind of simple, but fun, and the script is simply fantastic... it's one of the funniest GBA games I've ever played... :D It's not hugely deep, long, or challenging, but it's a lot of fun and worth playing. The sequel is easier to find... I like the first one more, because of its more unique setting and story (it is set in a industrial-style city in the middle of the ocean, and the main dungeon is a 100 floor dungeon under the city -- yes, this means that it repeats a lot graphically, but I didn't care at all... it gives it a focus that most RPGs lack. The plot is about your character (male or female, the game is pretty much the same either way. Guardian Beast choice makes a much greater effect on the plot.), the child of a Craftlord (city leader, essentially), trying to become a Craftlord in a tournament. It's broken up into days and the NPCs in town change what they say each day, and your ending is determined by which of the major NPC characters you talk to at the end of the day the most (well, it's actually determined by who you talk to at the end of one specific day near the end, but close enough) but Summon Night Swordcraft Story 2 is good as well (it's in a rural town... better production values and more flashy graphics, as you'd expect, but it feels more 'traditional RPG setting' and didn't interest me quite as much... plus, I like the main characters in the first game better. And Sugar is hilarious, none of the second game's Guardian Beasts are that great...).
Advance Wars... don't you know those games? Strategy games bordering on wargames... great stuff of course.
Yggdra Union is another strategy game, this time by the makers of Riviera. It's hard, complex, and sometimes frusterating, but has great visual style and is a lot of fun. Anyone who wants more GBA strategy games (closer to Fire Emblem than anything, but utterly unique) should get it... while challenging, it's worth the effort. The story is only decent, but it's the gameplay that counts, and its gameplay is great... it'll just take a little while to get used to it. The most unique thing about the game is that you only get one attack per turn -- but it is a formation attack, so you can have up to five units attacking a formation of enemy units. Lots of strategic complexity. Also, it doesn't heal damage at the end of battles -- between battles you can use items (which you could also equipfor temporary stat boosts) that give you certain amount of morale (health essentially) back. It also uses cards; the card you pick on each turn determines the number of squares your troops can move this turn and affects how much damage you do (they replenish between phases of the battle or at the end of the battle). As I said, complex... but awesome... and with great graphics and artwork and good music, too.
Gradius Galaxies is... well... Gradius, but a new one, and for GBA... which means it's a great shmup. Very nice difficulty curve; on Easy it's very easy, but play a few loops or up the difficulty and it gets very hard... music isn't as good as some other games in the series, but it's still a fantastic game, and one of the best (and only) GBA-exclusive shmups.
Golden Sun is a traditional RPG, of course. That one's well known. And I don't think I have to describe Metroid...
Lady Sia's a sidescrolling action/platformer. Surprisingly good coming from a noname developer... I enjoyed it. It's not really long and difficult or anything, but fun while it lasts. Trying to unlock the hidden stages is a pain though, not worth it... the main game, though, was good.
Gunstar Super Heroes is an awesome sidescrolling action-shooter. Sequel (semi-remake, but sequel) to the Genesis game. Run. Shoot stuff. Repeat. Notice how awesome it is. :)
As for KOF EX2, it's a fighting game... for GBA fighting games, it's either that, Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival (SFII. Again.), Street Fighter Alpha 3 Max (decent version of a good fighting game), or Guilty Gear Advance (the worst of the four; it's not as good of a port as it could have been, I've heard), and I like KOF, so I got that one. (oh yes, KOF EX: Neo Blood Origin, the first KOF GBA game, is pretty bad... the second one is MUCH improved.)
A Black Falcon Wrote:except for where you call it a "strategy/RPG". It's a strategy game, not "strategy-RPG". No, I won't give up on my position that that genre doesn't exist! :) They're just strategy games with RPG features, not a whole separate genre...)
If there is a bunch of one kind of game, one that incorporates RPG features into a strategy game, then I think that can qualify as it's own genre, simply for the fact that it does not fit neatly into the category of ANOTHER genre. It fits in strategy, it fits in RPG. Why not call it thus? I mean...
*becomes aware of what is happening*
Brain: No! Bad! Pain sensation to your typing fingers!
Me: Ow. OW! Hey!
Brain: Don't you see what you're doing?
Me: What? I'm making a point.
Brain: To whom?
Me: ABF.
Brain: What has been your experience with such a debate?
Me: It...never ends.
Brain: Precisely. So quit while you're ahead.
Me: But I've already typed it.
Brain: Then don't press Submit.
Me: Okay...NO I'M DOING IT.
Brain: No! Sto--
Quote:If there is a bunch of one kind of game, one that incorporates RPG features into a strategy game, then I think that can qualify as it's own genre, simply for the fact that it does not fit neatly into the category of ANOTHER genre. It fits in strategy, it fits in RPG. Why not call it thus? I mean...
Uh, but that's the thing. They DO fit neatly into the strategy game genre.
Re: X-Com
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is really good. I spent around 90 hours on it.
Zelda Minish Cap
Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga
Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland (I think that's what it's called)
All really good.
A Black Falcon Wrote:Uh, but that's the thing. They DO fit neatly into the strategy game genre.
Okay. There's also an experience system, leveling up, increasing stats for said leveling, a set party of characters, a turn based battle system, etc.
It fits rather snugly into the RPG genre too, if you ask me.
And yes, I would recommend FFTA and Superstar Saga highly, as well.
Starcraft is a real-time strategy game.
Risk is a turn-based strategy game.
Fire Emblem is a turn-based strategy RPG.